Hani ShukrallahHani Shukrallah, author of Egypt, the Arabs and the World, is the main guest at the Book Festival on Campus, where he will be interviewed by journalist and author Karl Schembri about his latest book, his experiences, the Arab Spring, and the future of Egypt.
When Shukrallah, one of Egypt’s most respected journalists, was forced out of Al Ahram Online – Egypt’s largest English- language news website – by allies of the Muslim Brotherhood last year, he gave his typical firebrand response to the powers that be: “I have something immeasurably more precious: my dignity and self-respect. What do you have?”
It was not the first time that he found himself in this position. Under Mubarak’s regime in 2005, when he was chief editor of Al Ahram Weekly, he was already dismissed after having written numerous articles criticising Egyptian politics and voicing his scepticism about promised reforms.
Born in Cairo in 1950, Shukrallah was a Marxist student activist during the time of Anwar Sadat, but he was also critical of the dogmatic leftist thinking. Throughout his career as journalist and author, he has always stood up to speak truth to power.
The event is being organised by the National Book Council and Għaqda tal-Malti (Università) on April 30 at 7.30pm at the University of Malta, Msida.