Noha Radwan

Noha Mohamed Radwan is a comparative literature professor at University of California, Davis, and was an Egyptian literary scholar and Assistant Professor Arabic Literature Columbia University. Radwan was born in Cairo, Egypt. She teaches “Introduction to Islamic Civilization.” Radwan received her MA from the Department of Arabic Studies at the American University in Cairo and her PhD at the University of California at Berkeley.

She has also taught at U. C. Berkeley. ^{[1] [2]}

Political views

Radwan told a reporter, “I am an anti-Zionist.” ^[3]

Radwan defines the “Arab nationalist project” as “liberating Palestine and achieving true independence and real progress.” ^[4]

On the protests currently happening in Egypt, Radwan told reporter, "Well, what we see are mobs of supposedly pro-Mubarak crowds, that are supporting him to stay for at least ’til the end of his term. I think that this is not unprecedented. We know that this has been happening for years. In fact, before even Mubarak was president, President Sadat hired mobs to receive President Nixon in ’74, to receive him after going to Israel in ’77 and after ’79. Mubarak has hired thugs and mobs to make sure that we never have a fair election or referenda in the past. So, Egyptians are very aware of this scene. It is not a surprise to them. I think the magnitude may be a surprise, but the act is not." I think the demonstrators understand that every time he comes on TV, it’s a small victory, because it shows that he’s actually retreating. What he offered first was to change the government. And then what we saw is not a change of government, actually a reshuffling of some old faces—so, one point against him, as far as his very little credibility is concerned.

"And then, what he actually said yesterday, still the reaction was that we don’t want to negotiate with him. The emotional response of the people on the street is that we did not come here to negotiate with him. We came here to ask him one thing, which is to step down. If you think about this in a more rational way and if you think about the reasons why they do not want to negotiate with President Mubarak, I can tell you that he has absolutely no credibility. We do not believe that he’s going to do anything that he promises. He is now in a very weak position. And so, he’s making some promises. There’s absolutely no guarantee that if these people in Tahrir Square go home, that he is going to do any of the things that he is promising.

Egyptians have not missed the fact that he did not say, "I promise not to run for another term of presidency." What he actually said is "I had no intention of running for another term of presidency." But by the same token that makes him unable to step down right now, because Egypt is facing difficult times and an emergency situation, there is no reason why he cannot create a similar scene like this in November and say, "It is also a very difficult time for Egypt, and I would have loved to step down, but I absolutely can’t." There’s also no reason why his son cannot run for the next term of presidency. We know that he may have left the country, but we also know that he can come back. He has never resigned his position in the National Democratic Party.

Mubarak never spoke of dissolving this parliament that we have, that has come through forged and completely farcical elections. So, if he promises constitutional reform, the question is, who is going to supervise this constitutional reform? If it’s this farcical parliament that we have, this charade of a parliament, then it’s going to be similarly a charade of constitutional reform. Even that, he could not do very well.

He spoke about reforming Article 77 and Article 76. We know that Article 77 is the one about the—I’m not sure which one is which, actually—76 may be the one about terms of presidency, but we can always create an exception, because of exceptional times, like we have right now. And the other article is about the majority vote of the parliament. And even if he changes that, makes it maybe 25 percent instead of 75 percent, or whatever it is, how do we know that he’s not going to have his own people in the parliament to give him whatever number of votes that he needs for whoever he wants to become our next president? The Egyptians understand that there is no guarantee that Mubarak and his government can deliver any constitutional reform or any meaningful change in Egypt. They really are adamant they want him out."

Well, these pamphlets, I actually collected on the square this morning. And they are still adamant about—it says, "There is no alternative to bringing down Mubarak’s regime." They’re calling for another peaceful Friday demonstration, this coming Friday, February 4th. And the third one is saying, "No negotiations with this regime."

What I found most interesting about these pamphlets is not exactly what they say, because there is nothing new here, but what is interesting is who has signed these pamphlets. The first one that is calling for the peaceful Friday is signed by something called the Movement of the Youth for Liberation. The second one is the Socialist Bloc for Change. And the third one is called the Voice of Revolution, which I understand is done by the youth movement that we call the Facebookers in Egypt.

What is interesting is that this is really a diverse group of people who all want democratic constitutional reform. It is—the movement is not at all contained by any one party or any one group. People understand that we want a civil government and that we want everybody to be represented, and we want everybody’s voice to be heard. People are very tired of this dictatorship that we have. And I am afraid that if we do not give this movement a chance, that we are going to be putting the Egyptian people between the rock and a hard place, between the choice of dictatorship and theocracy. I have—I am not going to make predictions as to what they are going to choose, but I think this is more—this is better than both of the alternatives that would be left if this movement gets crushed.

Well, I also have friends who are still in Tahrir Square, and there are reports of people who have been hurt and injured right now by the pro-Mubarak mobs.

I also wanted to really mention that we are in fact—by "we," I mean the people who have been camping out in Tahrir Square—we are counting on the support of the people abroad. We’re not too hopeful about the administration, but I get reports of big demonstrations in San Francisco, where I have left my daughter, and she has been telling me about all the demonstrations she goes to. And I have friends in New York who are telling me about the demonstrations that they have been in in New York. I’m counting on the support of a lot of friends and a lot of Egyptians abroad.

The Egyptians here have told me that they understand that the American administration has its interests in the region that it’s worried about it, and that it now is itself stuck between supporting the ideals of democracy that President Obama spoke about when came as president and in his inauguration speech—he said that dictators should know that they are on the wrong side of history. These are really fine ideals, but Egyptians understand that speeches are one thing and interests in the region are a different story. And they understand the dilemma is that there is a conflict between interests and ideals. And the message, I think, that they want to get out is that Egyptians are willing to negotiate. They’re not willing to capitulate, like Mubarak has done in the past, but they are not going to refuse to negotiate with foreign governments and talk about what is best for them and for the region at the same time. We really do want to negotiate, but we really cannot accept another capitulation.

And I do believe that the people are going to stay until the end. I am going to finish this recording now and go back to Tahrir Square, and we’ll see what happens. What the people swore this morning is that we’re not leaving ’til he leaves.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/2/as_mubarak_pledges_to_finish_term

Publications

Redefining the Canon: Shi'r Al- 'Ammiyya and Modernism in Arabic Poetry (2004) University of California Press.

A Place for Fiction in the Historical Archive , (Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 17 Issue 1 2008 , pp. 79-95)

Notes

1. ^ Free UC Berkeley Extension Lecture Examines Nonviolence After 9/11, Business Wire, May 20, 2002 [1]
2. ^ [ fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/mesa02/2002su200.htm]
3. ^ Faculty Denounce 'Right-Wing Attack,' by Jacob Gershman, New York Sun, April 5, 2005 [2]
4. ^ Revolutionary musahharati, Noha Radwan, Al Ahram, 13 - 19 November 2003, Issue No. 664 [3]

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