Interviews with Namees Arnous

Women affected the revolution and democratic transition in Egypt very well. And I have some example. The first one, Bothaina Kamel [An Egyptian journalist and civil society activist who ran as an independent candidate in the 2012 presidential elections.] She was an anchor and state TV, and they fired her before the revolution, many years ago because she supports democracy and against Mubarak regime and against Mubarak attitude in Egypt. She now decide to run for presidential election, the first woman in the Middle East who decided to run for the presidential election – which is good, which is an idea, which breaks the taboos is woman can’t be the president. That’s one example.

The second example, the girl – the blue bra girl. You know, blue bra girl is – it’s the girl at last September, I think, the military stripped her and beaten her and (de-dressed) her clothes. And she just – a lot of very famous photo for her was blue bra. And she was beaten a lot from the military because they wanted to end the sit-in in front of the cabinet. And there was violence – as they’re used to. So it’s a girl, and she is one of the protesters, and she was beaten from the military till they stripped all of her clothes. She is affect a lot of people to be pro-democracy in Egypt.

Another example, we had a lot of girls at the similar accident for blue bra girl. They was – they were beaten very bad from the military, and they also affect the people to be with the democracy. So I think women have a very important role in democratic transition. And she get a role. And actually the regime help by the violence against women to make people see that image, because women in Egypt – people respect women in Egypt as women. People must respect that.

Maybe some people don’t agree with woman became – become a president of the state; don’t agree with that. But when someone abuse the woman in the streets and take off her clothes in the streets, and all the world publish her photo with just the blue bra and the military beating her and take off her clothes, it makes people believe that we must protect our women, because Egyptian people respect their women. So they have a very good effect.

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.