About the Book
Alaa Abd el-Fattah is arguably the most high-profile political prisoner in Egypt, if not the Arab world, rising to international prominence during the revolution of 2011. A fiercely independent thinker who fuses politics and technology in powerful prose, an activist whose ideas represent a global generation which has only known struggle against a failing system, a public intellectual with the rare courage to offer personal, painful honesty, Alaa’s written voice came to symbolize much of what was fresh, inspiring and revolutionary about the uprisings that have defined the last decade. Collected here for the first time in English are a selection of his essays, social media posts and interviews from 2011 until the present. He has spent the majority of those years in prison, where many of these pieces were written. Together, they present not only a unique account from the frontline of a decade of global upheaval, but a catalogue of ideas about other futures those upheavals could yet reveal. From theories on technology and history to profound reflections on the meaning of prison, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated is a book about the importance of ideas, whatever their cost.
About the Speakers
Sharif Abdel Kouddous is an independent journalist based in Cairo. He has reported from across the Arab world for a number of print and broadcast outlets and is currently an editor and reporter at Mada Masr, Egypt's leading independent media outlet.
Sanaa Seif is an Egyptian filmmaker, producer and political activist. She has been imprisoned three times under the Sisi regime for her activism. Most recently from the summer of 2020 until December 2021, when she was abducted by security forces after trying to get a letter in to her brother in prison. Hundreds of cultural figures and dozens of institutions campaigned for her release. She was released in December and will travel to the US to promote her imprisoned brother, Alaa Abd el-Fattah's, newly published book, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated.
Aslı Ü. Bâli is Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law where she is the recipient of this year’s Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching. She was the founding Faculty Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights and also previously served as Director of the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies. She currently serves as co-chair of the Advisory Board for the Middle East Division of Human Rights Watch and as chair of the Middle East Studies Association’s Taskforce on Civil and Human Rights. Bâli’s scholarship focuses on topics in international law and the comparative law of the Middle East.
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Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies, The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law, Asian American Studies Department , Asian American Studies Center