Annelle Sheline

Egyptian author Saad Al Hifnawy writes a short story in which Mubarak unjustly imprisons a young man. While incarcerated, he dreams of a revolution that overthrows the regime. Upon his release, he finds that the president has indeed stepped down, yet he cannot believe that his dream has come true...

On April 22nd, a video dialogue took place between American students of Professor Ali Demerdas at the College of Charleston, and Egyptian students, primarily from the American University in Cairo. Discussion centered on the students' experiences of the Arab Spring, whether as a participant or a...

The past few weeks saw a barrage of previously ludicrous headlines:

"Constitutional Amendments Finalized in Egypt"

"Yemen's President Agrees to Term Limits"

"Algeria's 19 Year State of Emergency to End"

"Jon Stewart: I accept your apology Mr. Rumsfeld"

Rummie...

"What do you think of the mosque in New York?" my Arabic teacher asked me solemnly.

"The controversy is ridiculous," I answered. "The notion that building a community center serving Muslims could offend the memory of those who died on 9/11..." I trailed off, my Arabic insufficient to articulate...

Although the Spanish are still partying, the Dutch still mourning, and the South Africans still wondering what to do with the extra vuvuzelas, the World Cup has already begun to fade from the rest of global consciousness. America's collective attention had shifted to more...

South Africa's final World Cup match will take place on Tuesday in Bloemfontein, the capital of Free State. Declared a sovereign nation by the Boers during their war with the English at the end of the 19th century, the province's name remains apropos to its citizens' independence. The Voortrekkers --...

After becoming president in 1994, Nelson Mandela believed that the communal pain of apartheid could be assuaged if South Africans united around a single event. 16 years later, his dream seems to have come true with the opening of the FIFA World Cup in Johannesburg on June 11th. Yet when...

For Eid, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, many Cairo residents travel to the Sinai peninsula. This year they converged with beach-goers from Israel celebrating Rosh Hashanah, or Jewish New Year.

Lounging on a beach with your former enemy -- and that's not to imply that Egyptians and...

The shrunken sliver of the waning moon marks the few remaining days of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. In Cairo, excitement builds for the Eid holiday, when business (already slowed by fasting employees) will halt completely in favor of family, vacation and food.

For me, Ramadan in Cairo...

One day before Obama's highly-anticipated Cairo speech, the East Bay Express reported on Zaytuna College in Berkeley, which seeks to be the first fully accredited Muslim college in the United States. Founders Hamza Yusuf and Zaid Shaker seek to provide an "American alternative to traditional Muslim education" while...

Listening to Barack Obama's address to the "Muslim world" from Cairo University, I found myself checking off the points that I had heard mentioned by Dalia Mogahed, the executive director of Gallup's Center for Muslim Studies and the Muslim West Facts Project and the face of Obama's strategy to...

"You know Barack Obama is coming to Cairo, right?" I ask in Arabic.

"You mean Barack Hussein Obama?" the man replies in English, turning fully around in his seat and grinning hugely.

So goes a typical exchange between an American (me) and a taxi driver in Cairo in...