Interviews with Namees Arnous

I believe that Egypt as a country must lead the Middle East – no, must lead the world. We have a very, very strong history. We have a civilization. We have natural resources and human resources. And we have a new generation, have – full of hope and full of power and full of challenge to change all the society.

I hope Egypt become a very democratic state and respect the human rights, respect woman rights, and have a regime that stop killing us. I aim to have a government work for our benefits, not work for personal benefits. I aim that Egypt be back on the – on the map, because 60 years of military control, 60 years of corruption, 60 years of abusing human rights, 60 year of security state and police state, kill a lot of things inside the Egyptians.

I love to see Egypt lead the region and the lead the world – one of the leaders of the world, because Egypt and the Egyptian deserve it.

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.