In September 2012, Tahseen, a village in the Nile Delta governorate of al-Daqahliya, declared “administrative independence” from the municipal government due to state neglect. This movement arose in response to the government's failure to provide and maintain essential infrastructure services. Over a span of more than two decades, the Tahseen community took it upon themselves to provide most of these services, using construction expertise and funding primarily sourced from Arab Gulf migrant labor remittances. After successfully establishing these essential infrastructure services, Tahseen's community initiated a civil disobedience movement. What sets Tahseen apart is not only its rare rural revolutionary action during Egypt's 2011 uprising and its aftermath, but also its unique origin story. The village was established in 1956 as part of land reform policies and "land reclamation" efforts under Gamal Abdel-Nasser's regime. However, as Egypt's socialist project was gradually reversed in the following decades, Tahseen received minimal economic, infrastructural, social, and agricultural support from the state. Viewed through the lens of neglect and ruination, Tahseen's story highlights the transformation of an Egyptian village created by the state in the 1950s. Despite its origins in state-led development efforts, Tahseen ultimately sought administrative independence in 2012, demonstrating how villagers took it upon themselves to rebuild infrastructure and utilize it socio-materially for political action.
Nada El-Kouny is a sociocultural anthropologist who holds a PhD from Rutgers University. Her research in Egypt's Nile Delta has centered on community efforts related to infrastructure provision, land rights, and migration. This work has been supported by grants from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the National Science Foundation. Before joining EUME, Nada served as a postdoctoral researcher for the project, "Traces of Mobility, Violence, and Solidarity: Reconceptualizing Cultural Heritage Through the Lens of Migration," which was funded by Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo. Her previous professional experience includes journalism for Ahram Online and documentary film production for Ado Ado Pictures. During the academic year 2023/24, Nada is a EUME Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien, funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, where she is working on her book project. Nada’s publications include an article for Mondes Arabes, CAIRN, as well as an upcoming article for the Citizenship Studies journal.
Rim Naguib received her PhD in Sociology from Northwestern University (2016) and her MA from Sciences Po Aix-en-Provence (2006). Her research interests address three different, but not unrelated, fields: the colonial practice of ideological-ethnic deportation of internationalist foreigners and ‘local subjects of foreign extraction’ in the policing of communism in interwar Egypt; the post-colonial securitization of Egyptian nationality legislation and practice and of the management of foreigners’ residence; and the political and cultural history of Egyptian patriarchal nationalism. She is also writing and illustrating a graphic biography of Joseph Rosenthal (1872-1965). Since 2022, Rim Naguib has been a EUME Research Associate at the Forum Transregionale Studien.
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