As Egypt is rapidly approaching 60,000 reported cases of COVID-19, it is easy to glance at the country as a whole and claim that they are ineffective in combating the spread of the virus. With fewer…
I get a lot of blank stares when asked what I do. For starters, many Americans have never heard of Copts. I’m certain some initially think I’m talking about cops or police. I then explain how…
A church that imitates the state will likely also inherit its corruption. The immigrant churches did nothing to counter such deviations, and in some cases unintentionally furthered them. A people living in economic security and cultural freedom chose to inherit the flaws created by a repressive society. The man who hailed Shenouda as “King of the Copts” in 1977 was wrong at the time, but prescient about the things to come. Sooner or later new generations outside Egypt were bound to ask the question of what it means to be a Copt and seek their own path and their personal answers. They are beginning to ask for a different deal from the one their parents accepted from Shenouda. Their passions and support for Egyptian Copts still burn, but they are unlikely to accept a shushing in a church basement.
I thought a lot about whether or not I should venture on the topic of what it means to be a Copt. What kind of expertise do I have to dare to go there? What sort…
Many of my memories in childhood revolve around the Coptic Orthodox Church and the community I grew up in. My sister and I always looked forward to the weekends, where we spent evenings and afternoons with…
When I told people that I was going to take on Female Genital Mutilation for the Coptic Voice, I got one of two responses: “What’s that?” and: “That’s not a problem for Copts; we don’t have that.”
When I returned to Egypt in August 2014 after studying civic engagement in the US, I found a country of failed revolution and lost aspirations; a country polarized and torn apart following three years of protests…