A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Friday, October 16, 2009

Ah, the Radicalism of the Young: I Guess it's Not the Sixties Anymore

Okay, we old Boomers who remember the sixties are glad to see student agitators still exist, but something seems a tad different somehow. Cases in point: a) the other day, Kuwait University's student elections saw a solid victory for the Islamist movement, while the Al-Wasat al-Dimuqrati group ("The Democratic Center") ran well behind; b) while in Egypt, women and other protestors at Cairo University have staged a sit-in over the recent ban on the niqab or full face veil in classrooms. Oh, come on, at least call it a veil-in or something.

I feel old.

2 comments:

LJ Marczak said...

Re your age: if AlBaradei isn't available, maybe you could be the youth candidate of the Wafd?

Michael Collins Dunn said...

Nahh. I'm still too young for the Wafd. Serageddin Pasha lived to be close to 100 I think before he died, to be succeeded by a contemporary of Mubarak. Ayman Nour left the party because he was a mere child.