When uprisings took place throughout the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, it seemed like Egypt would be the big success story. In November, Egyptian state security arrested three prominent human rights leaders with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, or EIPR. During a visit with Sisi earlier this month, President Emmanuel Macron said France would continue to sell weapons to Egypt, despite its human rights record. And Donald Trump even called Sisi his “favorite dictator.”At that meeting in France, Sisi dismissed criticisms about human rights. “‘It's really just a form of colonialism.’”But Cook said the recent arrests of prominent human rights activists in Egypt set off an unprecedented international outcry.

Source: The North Africa Journal December 17, 2020 21:22 UTC