Comments on: Laura El-Tantawy – Cairo https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/ burn is an online feature for emerging photographers worldwide. burn is curated by magnum photographer david alan harvey. Sat, 18 Jun 2016 11:11:45 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.4 By: The Rough Guide to the “Arab Spring” « radical africa https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-104051 Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:47:14 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-104051 […] during the initial uprising. Beautiful, thoughtful, and so necessary. More recently, her post on Reda Abdelaziz Mohamed, a young man blinded by the Egyptian military while trying to carry away the corpse of a fellow […]

]]>
By: Imants https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-104012 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:12:37 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-104012 With all sides fearing one another………winner takes all is a real worry.

]]>
By: panos skoulidas https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-104005 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:01:49 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-104005 LAURA you are strong!!! be safe… keep up the good work… and yes safety (whatever that means really) first – you have to stay alive and well to be able to share the story with us! !!!

Haik, Happy Birthday!!!

]]>
By: Herve https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103990 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:01:39 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103990 Contrasts…. Hot from Rio…. Heavy from Cairo! :-(

]]>
By: david alan harvey https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103989 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:47:20 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103989 In reply to lauraeltantawy.

LAURA

i have been traveling and now just catching up here….what i am trying to figure out is how the departure of Mubarak has led to a worse secret police situation then when he was in power….i thought his departure was to improve not make worse the situation…yes yes i know what i read, but still there must be more…of course we have seen many times in many countries where the departure of a powerful “dictator” has in fact led to massacre and war…these often cruel dictators have gotten in power by consolidating rival forces, and then when they are deposed, the rivals come out of the woodwork….i am sure i am oversimplifying this, and am anxious for your opinion….

in any case, as much as i would love to see you finish your Egypt essay, i fear for you and your family more….if the police are on to you, then they are on to your family as well….how could it be safe for you to return in January? please wait before returning…i well know your commitment and admire this of course, yet at the same time having watching this sort of thing come and go and evolve and change in other countries i see little point in exposing yourself to danger over police/military security issues…you are a journalist, and you are an artist….i simply want to see your work have the most lasting effect for the most number of people for all the right reasons….basically, just want you safe….you have already done some moving work since the beginning of the revolution….please do not push too far…we all want you around for an epic Egypt book…..

cheers, hugs, david

]]>
By: eva https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103982 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:23:00 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103982 A link to that video here:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/12/video-egyptian-soldiers-beat-tahrir-woman-couple/1

]]>
By: eva https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103980 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:32:00 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103980 Scary, upsetting video in the news today, military kicking a female body on the ground, pulling her around, half naked, and not stopping kicking her in the breasts.. bestial..

]]>
By: The Rough Guide to the “Arab Spring” – Africa is a Country https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103979 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:04:09 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103979 […] during the initial uprising. Beautiful, thoughtful, and so necessary. More recently, her post on Reda Abdelaziz Mohamed, a young man blinded by the Egyptian military while trying to carry away the corpse of a fellow […]

]]>
By: eduardo sepulveda https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103925 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:14:01 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103925 I was writing at the moment you did Laura. I read you after. Wisdom is real strenght I think. Many thanks again.

]]>
By: Gordon Lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103923 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:09:18 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103923 I am so sad for you and the people of Egypt Laura. The story is still un-folding, let’s be hopeful. You have been very wise to get yourself out of there.

]]>
By: Thomas Bregulla https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103921 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:53:16 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103921 LAURA,

itwas a wise decision to return to London. Let’s hope the situation in Egypt stabalizes for good and let you return to a safe and peaceful country.

]]>
By: eva https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103914 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:55:46 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103914 That was my fear, that something like this would happen, with all the news coming out of Cairo.. I think you made the wisest choice, but I also think you’ll go back, ’cause you feel you must go back..

It does not look good.. yet, once the process is initiated it cannot be stopped.. perhaps I’m being just naïve, I want to believe that fear and oppression will lose in the long run..

Wishing you and your people strenght! And thank you for your work! You’ve done right, otherwise they would not come after you!

]]>
By: eduardo sepulveda https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103912 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:39:04 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103912 After seeing Reda even that ‘leave a reply’ up here becomes painful… Abuse, abusers… blindness… humanity, humans, people with names and faces, with their own lives, with their joys… No more, never again… saying stop, saying it out loud, confronting… fear paralizes… When abuse does come as a reply? Is it really an answer or is it just a cowardly way to avoid it?… Never stopping until you get a real answer… making it evident… Abuse is abuse, in any degree, any way, any form, anywhere. – i think. As I think as well many of us here share the same path.

Many thanks Laura.

]]>
By: lauraeltantawy https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103908 Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:14:25 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103908 All – thanks for your kind comments and for the conversation that ensued, regardless of what direction it eventually took. It’s all on the subject one way or another.

I just got back to London after a terrifying night in Cairo. I was due back in London end of January but literally had to book a flight and jump on a plane three hours before it was due for takeoff.

At 2 am this morning a detective came to my home and said the car I had been in was stolen and involved in a serious accident that he described as a “disaster”. I was actually not at my house and was spending the night at my uncle’s. The car was parked right underneath my uncle’s house, so what this officer/detective said was an obvious lie. My cousin who had spoken to him started to make some calls and eventually was asked about my political activity. They said there were many question marks regarding the whereabouts of the car and a woman seen in it and they wanted to speak to me in person.

By now it is about 3 am and the mere mention of “political activity” made it clear this was a matter of state security and that I was in big trouble.

Alarm and panic were indeed felt but most of all, there was fear of the unknown and the unpredictable and having to deal with the state security apparatus, which has been corrupt for more than 30 years and whose mere mention causes terror.

My family deliberated and we decided it was best for me to leave. I say this with utter sadness, but the last few weeks I spent in Egypt made me feel terrified to be in my own country. The situation is much worse than I had expected. People are generally scared and the military has split up public opinion between siding with them or with the protesters. People are fighting on the streets, in Tahrir people are being shot and killed and the military continues to blatantly deny using force against the protesters, who in my opinion are really being exterminated and are fighting a violent campaign started by the military to ruin their reputation.

I have no answers for anything. At this moment I am trying to get my thoughts together. It’s extremely difficult to be a journalist under those circumstances and I have the utmost respect to all my friends who are working in Egypt. It’s not just about physical harm and verbal intimidation from police and the military, but simply being able to tell a balanced story given all the conflicting statements.

I have known which side I am on with this story from the start and I really want to do this work with persistence, focus and as much honesty as I can. Right now it is not so clear how I will proceed and how I will plan my return ahead of January 25 (one year anniversary of the revolution). My work will remain focused on the humanitarian cost of fighting for freedom and dignity. On people like Reda who will never go back to a normal life because they stood up for what they believe.

Please keep Egypt in your thoughts, especially the young Reda’s who are being beaten, tortured, killed and injured as you now read this. It will be so sad if at the end of this their voices are silenced and we go back to what we were or something worse.

Laura.

]]>
By: Carlo https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103847 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:34:11 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103847 Thanks Michael.
I was trying to think what could possibly have brought this about?
Then I thought PETA?

Seems like it after reading this comment:

Alicia Calzada
March 19, 2011 @ 10:48 am
Denny, my understanding is that the Farm Lobby is trying to prevent exposes that have created bad publicity. I guess the legislators understand the theory “you don’t want to see how sausage is made.” The argument they probably would make would be that they are trying to protect their trade secrets- but of course a) there are already laws protecting trade secrets and b) how you mistreat animals or fail to properly process crops should not be a trade secret.

Sorry to hijack Laura’s work here but this was a bit startling!
Back to Laura!

]]>
By: Pete Marovich https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103845 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:19:28 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103845 It has been upheld over and over that a person is free to photograph things in plain sight while standing on public property.

Any majority of idiots can pass a law. The law may get passed but it would never hold up on appeal.

Oh and it would be appealed. The NPPA has a bunch of lawyers that love this stuff.

]]>
By: michael kircher https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103843 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:18:01 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103843 Here’s the story, Carlo.

http://blogs.nppa.org/advocacy/2011/03/02/photographing-farms-in-florida-say-that-3-times-fast/

Not yet law, but legislator still trying.

]]>
By: Carlo https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103836 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:33:09 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103836 Panos,

“felony if u shoot a farm in florida”

What’s that about?
Do you have a link?

]]>
By: michael kircher https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103835 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:57:07 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103835 “Whining” about being gratuitously pepper-sprayed while sitting peacefully protesting is part of what halts a progression of violations by the State against it citizens. Expressing outrage of “minor” brutality helps keep “major” brutality in check. And sometimes it doesn’t:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/10/occupy-oakland-protester-severely-injured-in-police-clash-ided-as-iraq-war-veteran/

]]>
By: michael kircher https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/12/laura-el-tantawy-cairo-2/#comment-103834 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:41:04 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=11566#comment-103834 Shall we snort at Egypt because Syria has it “worse”?

]]>