Vivienne Matthies-Boon

Vivienne Matthies-Boon is an Assistant Professor in the International Relations of the Middle East at the University of Amsterdam. Her work particularly focuses on political trauma amongst activists inside and outside of Egypt. Her writings can be found on academia.edu

Dancing with the devil: how the EU is complicit in Egypt’s brutal regime

Just weeks after staff from an Egyptian human rights group were arrested on terror charges, Macron rolled out the red carpet to welcome President Sisi to France.

By Andrea Teti and Vivienne Matthies-Boon

/ 11 Dec 2020

Dancing with the devil: how the EU is complicit in Egypt’s brutal regime

Egypt's political system is a pressure cooker: it will explode

Egypt will at some point explode in everyone's faces. The question is when, how and most of all, at what cost. How much more blood will flow?

By Vivienne Matthies-Boon

/ 10 Apr 2018

Egypt: from rebel to revolution?

From the revolution’s very beginning in January 2011, western diplomats were keen to reduce the demands of the Egyptian revolution to a call for formal democracy. In doing this, western spokesmen and domestic elites ensured that more substantive reforms – such as an overhaul of the entire socio-ec

By Vivienne Matthies-Boon and Brecht de Smet

/ 8 Jul 2013

The revolution continues: Morsi’s miscalculations and the Ikhwan’s impasse

After President Morsi’s Constitutional Declaration providing him with unprecedented sweeping powers, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt faces unprecedented protests. Is this a sign of its political weakness?

By Andrea Teti, Gennaro Gervasio and Vivienne Matthies-Boon

/ 3 Dec 2012

Anti-Islam film protests: a reification of public debate?

Beyond their regrettable cost in terms of human lives, "Innocence of Muslims" and the subsequent protests that spread across the Arab world ultimately entrap the world in a binary entrenchment reminiscent of the civilizational justifications for the War on Terror.

By Vivienne Matthies-Boon

/ 20 Sep 2012