Photo by Abdalla Hassan for the International Herald Tribute, via New York Times.
As ever, it's difficult to tell what's going on in the Middle East and difficult to tell who's going to come out looking good (if anyone). But a strong asskicking candidate is
Bothaina Kamel, the first woman to run for the presidency of Egypt. Profiled in the New York Times (linked), Kamel is a Muslim woman who was formerly a news reader under the old administration until she began to suspect she was being used as a mouthpiece for propaganda. So she took leaves of absences rather than read any story she suspected of being false, then took to the streets before and during the Egypt protests this spring. Since the protests, Kamel has continued to take the fight to the security forces currently running Egypt, withholding judgment until she could investigate, then laying the responsibility at the feet of the military government. Even providing the military government holds to its current oath that it wants to get out of power as soon as possible, it's not going to be easy to run for president when the security council is running an open file on her. Since the original protests, Kamel has advocated lowering the age of public service to 20 in recognition of the young people that led the protests, and is pictured above walking with and listening to the concerns of the Coptic Christians protesting the sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians that has cropped up since the end of the major protests in Egypt. Honestly? It's impossible to know what's going to come out of this, but just based on this running record, I'm pretty comfortable saying Kamel is kicking some ass.
Peace with justice style.
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