Obstructed, a photo-essay by Sara Ahmed

Abdel Aziz

Lebanese-Egyptian street artist Bahia Shehab once said "Graffiti is like flowers. They are beautiful, but they don't live long," (interview with the Louisiana Chanel). This statement perfectly illustrates the fleeting lifespan

of a graffiti piece etched on the walls of Cairo downtown streets, namely on Mohamed Mahmoud, in the month of May 2015. Egyptian graffiti transcends time and political circumstances, many photos made their way to the

walls during Egypt’s 2011 and 2013 revolutions. My photo-essay seeks to illustrate the intricate relationship between politics, bypassing censorship, fighting erasure and opinion on media. Each picture reserves a quote

taken from an interview with journalist and AUC professor Kim Fox.

• My photo-essay seeks to illustrate the intricate relationship between politics, bypassing censorship, fighting erasure and opinion on media. Each picture reserves a quote taken from an interview with journalist and AUC professor Kim Fox.

“Some people are not putting out information because they’re afraid it’s going to be censored so they censor themselves. When we talk about gate-keepers, who’s putting the information out, what are they not sharing with us as consumers? We don’t know; usually it takes a person to go behind the scenes and say this message was manipulated or this part wasn’t communicated to the public for whatever reasons.”

“Sisi is the best, Sisi is the best’’, c’mon now, it’s okay to be critical of the president- or is it? It’s one of those things. People are afraid to say that Sisi is not the best and here is where he went wrong but you can get an occasional person who has a different perspective and will get it out there but that’s the problem, it’s a person and not a media outlet.”

“When you think about your independent media, people think of MadaMasr and some people don’t consider it a bonafide media outlet. Same thing for Egyptian streets, this is citizen journalism. That’s where you’re getting the different perspectives. I think it is very important that we have those voices but they’re like preaching to the choir, people who are reading that are like-minded and there’s still very much in the minority’’

On the Al-Wafd newspaper decision in October to refrain from attacking the government’s judiciary system, police, military and its method of implementing counterterrorism: “Do we appreciate the fact that they announced that they stopped doing it? It’s kind of nice to get that heads up. Again, it’s nice to know who they are. I talked to my MassCom student about diversified their media palette, we know where we can go to get the support of where people think like us. So it nice to know that’s what they’re doing and when I want to look at that perspective, I know exactly where to go. Is it problematic? Of course it’s problematic.”

“It’s hard to get different perspectives in the mixes. Sometimes I feel like Egypt is so cult-like and people will take the message and gobble it up.”

“We need media to be out there to provide us with information that helps us make decisions, if the media is not going to present that, then how am I going to gather information? When we talk about voting and democracy, that’s what it’s supposed to be about. It’s the media’s job to get the information to present it to the public as fact and I make my decision, based on the facts that I’ve been presented with. But we get these opinions and information that are not accurate or don’t paint the full picture, then it’s a problem.”

On the issue of journalists covering sensitive topics such as protests: “The way the laws have been set up, they may or may not arrest you. It’s a huge risk.”

“I don’t know if too many media outlets in the states are self-censored the way they do here. The access to information in the states is there, I can sue the government for not making

documents accessible to me as a journalist. I put in a request, 7 days and I’m supposed to get a response. There are rules in place that ensure that I, as a journalist am able to do my job to inform the public and get access to documents that some people say well someone has to put

in a public record request but once you get it , it’s out there.|”

“We don’t have the right to information act. You’re not going to get that information, you probably could through some measures that are a little intricate. For example, Sisi Leaks, that’s really

interesting. Someone is already authenticating, yeah that’s him. So now the question is So now the question is ‘when did he say that? And to whom? And who reported it? And how?’ but people will still question it as in, it’s not the truth, in denial. ‘No he wouldn’t say that’, well he did. So it’s

out there, it’s on tape. Someone had to stoop to that measure to make illegal recordings of a situation to sort of affirm that this is going on behind closed down. It’s unfortunate because, get these opinions out there and be transparent people don’t have to stoop to these kind of things.”

“We still have the problem of citizenship. What’s going to get me believe what you say? You see how that plays into this? Now it relies on people who don’t have the credentials because we aren’t getting it from mainstream media. If it’s Egyptian

streets- how serious are they about this? What’s their reputation? I need to look at them over time to see how credible are they and it’s not that I look down on Egyptian streets, it’s just to say: are they true journalists? Do they have to be true journalists?

They’re filling a void, for sure. How else are you going to get that information?

“If Madamasr is not doing it, where are you going to get it [information]? I think the online presence of these organizations is huge, even if I look at Madamasr- and I haven’t looked at them lately to check this out- but they usually don’t list the staff. They know what they’re doing could

be problematic so they’re trying to give us what we need and protect themselves. It’s really dicey but the online presence is huge. There’s no way Madamasr would exist if they didn’t have online presence. They can’t survive on a paper copy and a paper copy is going to be too old, especially if you’re dealing with an international audience. It’s just not going to get to people in the states

fast enough- it’s going to be outdated by the time it gets there”

“So I think online presence is huge. Not only that but even for their funding structure: if I want to pay to get news from Egyptian streets or any of these independent organizations, they can do a campaign and I could get the money from PayPal in a heartbeat.”

Graffiti in Egypt springs back on the walls quickly, despite all efforts to obliterate it. In it, many Egyptians have found a new way to channel a

revolutionary voice stifled by the media.