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‘We need to talk’ about Sisi’s twisted take on human rights

No one is keeping the Egyptian government from “fighting terrorism.” But Sisi’s rhetoric on the “right to combat” terrorism underlies his belief of an “Egyptian exceptionalism.”

Published:
MENA/Xinhua News Agency/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.
MENA/Xinhua News Agency/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El Sisi delivers a speech at the inauguration of the World Youth Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, November, 2017. MENA/Xinhua News Agency/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.On November 4, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi of Egypt inaugurated the World Youth Forum, an international conference hosted in the country’s Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheikh.

Dozens of Egyptian and foreign officials as well as hundreds of foreign and Egyptian youth—many of whom Egypt luxuriously funded to come—attended the conference organized under the catchy phrase “We Need to Talk.” 

The question is, talk about what?