Free the Nile: liberalism in Egypt.

• Author: Freund, Charles Paul
• Position: Citings - Brief Article

LEBANON'S Daily Star reported last summer that Egyptian parliamentarians have formed a new liberal political party. Hizbal-Ghad, or the Party of Tomorrow, says it stands for "a free-market economy, respect for the rule of law; good governance, women's empowerment, freedom of expression, and an open relationship with the West."

The new party's secretary general is Mona Makram-Ebeid, a Harvard-educated Coptic Christian. Makram-Ebeid told The Daily Star she has high hopes for the future of the party and for liberalism in Egypt. "The prevailing feeling in the country is that change is inevitable," she said.

"It is out of frustration that a powerful wave of nostalgia in Egypt has emerged for the liberal period of the country's politics."

That period lasted from 1920 until the catastrophic rise of Gamal Abdel Nasser and his poisonous variety of Pan-Arabism in 1952. The new party is specifically evoking the politics of the time. "The...