Interviews with Namees Arnous

The foreign government help the democracy movement in Egypt and also made a lot of things against the democracy movement. I give one example about U.S.

The U.S. have the USAID to help democracy for fund the civil society organization to promote the meaning and the values of democracy and the freedom and some issues like this.

But the beginning of the – our revolution, the U.S. administration gave a speech – the secretary, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, gave a speech and said that Mubarak is very strong and he can control everything, which is against our demands, against democracy. They know very well Mubarak is very strong by violence. Mubarak is very strong by police. Mubarak is very strong by guns – not by democracy. He was 30 years president of Egypt without any democracy, without any fair election.

So I think foreign government have their benefits with Mubarak and with other government. But those government have this window of – support the civil society, especially in promoting democracy, which is helpful, because in Egypt you haven’t an Egyptian funder to fund projects to aware or promote democracy and human rights and freedom. So USAID help civil society organization, Egyptian civil society, to make projects and aware people about democracy and to make people know what the meaning and values of democracy and the freedom.

But the foreign government have the benefits and the – with Mubarak regime. And I gave the example of U.S. speech in the beginning is – of revolution. And a lot of countries even had no speech in the beginning; nothing, no reaction about the regime kills people. I think it’s not good for – the total, the foreign government, not supports democracy.

The same fund the civil society take from USAID, the same fund go to the government and go to – for the military. And now we have NGO attack. They just not accused in media. They attack NGOs’ offices by military and by police. So I think it’s – maybe if any reaction from the USAID and U.S. administration against the government who did all this violation against civil society and maybe cut them – I don’t like to cut the USAID, but maybe they can put it just for civil society, not for the government.

Namees Arnous is a well-known television reporter and civil society activist in Egypt. During the Egyptian Revolution, Namees was asked to spread inaccurate stories by El Mehwar Television, her employer. When Namees used social media to publicize the channel’s stance against the Revolution, she was characterized as being a foreign agent and receiving money from foreign governments. She resigned from El Mehwar.

Namees then founded a new media production company which includes television, radio and social media outlets. She aims to promote human rights and democratic principles by training individuals in new media. She is currently working on a project to produce a new television program aimed at Egyptian women, focusing on issues of concern to them.

Namees has worked on a number of civil society campaigns. These include the Change Your Life Campaign, which aims to encourage women to be independent and the Be Free Campaign, which addresses young Muslim women extremists.

She worked on a civic journalism campaign to cover youth participation in elections in their respective regions. The campaign was broadcast on her NGO’s radio station and website.

Namees was among the inaugural group of the George W. Bush Institute’s Women’s Initiative Fellowship Program in 2012, a leadership program designed to empower and equip women to catalyze change.

Namees has her Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication with a focus on Television and Radio.