Abdelrahman ElGendy

Screenshot from abdelrahman_elgendy95's instagram account: “HOW DOES MUTUAL AID EVEN REACH GAZA?" WITH THE ONGOING ISRAELI SIEGE AND STARVATION OF PALESTINIANS AS TOOLS OF GENOCIDE, MANY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ASKING THIS OUESTION — SOME OUT OF CONCERN, OTHERS OUT OF SKEPTICISM. UNFORTUNATELY, MISINFORMATION AND CONFUSION HAVE DISCOURAGED MANY FROM GIVING. AID IS AT AN ALL TIME LOW! BUT AID DOES GET THROUGH. HERE'S HOW.

I'm sharing a series of slides from @elgendy95.bsky.social's instagram account about how mutual aid works in Gaza. There are 5 slides (I will thread them) & you can see the original post here: www.instagram.com/p/DMaj16Ostyh/

A quote from "Zaytouna" over a photo of an olive tree

@ahmeddouma.bsky.social ’s “Zaytouna,” written during the author’s incarceration, is an ode to an olive tree planted by a friend in Palestine, and to the hope it symbolizes. Read the poem (tr. @elgendy95.bsky.social : wordswithoutborders.org/read/article...

For the @washingtonpost.com, I wrote about Laila Soueif—not only the grieving mother starving for her son’s release, but the towering icon of dissent with a legacy all her own.

No matter how this ends, Laila lives.

wapo.st/3HT3xin

Why I Had to Flee the United States I was a political prisoner in Egypt. I didn’t want to become one again in America.

"Why I Had to Flee the United States
I was a political prisoner in Egypt. I didn’t want to become one again in America.
Abdelrahman ElGendy

The hallmark of authoritarianism isn’t the knock at the door—it’s life under the constant fear of its arrival."

I was a political prisoner for over six years in Egypt. Last week, I fled the US to escape the possibility of the same fate. After Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil was abducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in front of his university apartment in New York City, I locked myself inside my home for a month. As an Egyptian international student whose name had appeared on one of the Zionist doxxing sites being used by the Trump administration to help pick its deportation targets, I knew to expect the worst. When the administration revoked the first F-1 visa at my university, my lawyers gently but unequivocally told me that the question had likely become no longer if I would be arrested but when.

“After Mahmoud Khalil was abducted by ICE agents in front of his university apartment in NYC, I locked myself inside my home for a month… my lawyers gently but unequivocally told me that the question had likely become no longer if I would be arrested but when.”

So, Abdelrahman ElGendy fled the US.

Why I Had to Flee the United States I was a political prisoner in Egypt. I didn’t want to become one again in America.

“The hallmark of authoritarianism isn’t the knock at the door—it’s life under the constant fear of its arrival.” Critical & devastating read by Abdelrahman ElGendy
www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Why I Had to Flee the United States I was a political prisoner in Egypt. I didn’t want to become one again in America.

“The hallmark of authoritarianism isn’t the knock at the door—it’s life under the constant fear of its arrival.”

Abdel Rahman Elgendy, who was a political prisoner in Egypt for six years, has now fled the US.

www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Two days ago, I officially earned my MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. But, for the second degree in a row, a dictatorship robbed me of a graduation day. 🧵

“Let us grieve the costs we pay for being non-ideal imperial subjects, but may our grief not distract us from the real story. May it propel us into fury.”

listen, listen! ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

This is what I keep thinking about as I digest my alma mater @swarthmorecollege.bsky.social’s response to protest. The fury and fear aimed at protesters, not a state that has erased entire futures. The willingness to play into the hands of an administration that gleefully scapegoats Arabs & Muslims.

Let us grieve the costs we pay for being non-ideal imperial subjects, but may our grief not distract us from the real story. May it propel us into fury.

Still, let me end with clarity: I had a university to go to; Gazan universities have all been obliterated by U.S.-funded Israeli scholasticide. I had a family that couldn’t join me; entire Palestinian bloodlines have been erased from the public record.

My Arab, Muslim family also feared detention at the airport or deportation if they flew to the U.S. When Mohsen Mahdawi was arrested, they begged me to leave.

I fled ten days before my graduation, my cap and gown folded in a suitcase. Another degree. Another dictatorship. Another graduation taken.

I had spent months saving up and working to make it possible to fly my family over—to finally have the moment Egypt had denied us. But U.S. authoritarianism had another curveball.

After the recent wave of ICE arrests, and having been doxxed, it grew too risky.

Years later, in exile, a scholarship allowed me to pursue my three-year MFA at the University of Pittsburgh, my first real college experience. While many cringed at walking at the graduation commencement, I couldn’t wait.

I graduated in 2019 without ever setting foot on campus. On graduation day, my class held up a banner with my face and a symbolic standing ovation to recognize the could-have-been friend they had never met, but whose journey they carried with them. I was released by a miracle months later.

I was arrested from a protest the day before my freshman year at the German University in Cairo. A year in, my scholarship was revoked and I was barred from exams. I transferred to Ain Shams University, and over six years in prison, I studied for my mechanical engineering degree.

Two days ago, I officially earned my MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. But, for the second degree in a row, a dictatorship robbed me of a graduation day. 🧵

Why I Had to Flee the United States I was a political prisoner in Egypt. I didn’t want to become one again in America.

Today in @thenation.com: After 3 yrs of carving a home in U.S. exile, I fled again fearing an ICE arrest. The risk wasn’t just deportation, but life in prison back in Egypt.

What myths does the US empire uphold about itself? When does fascism stop "descending"?

www.thenation.com/article/soci...

“Our persecuted fled to the US from prisons, wars, and bloodshed, the belly of the beast a refuge from its claws tearing at our homelands. But today, we relive the very realities we fled.”

@elgendy95.bsky.social on political imprisonment, from Egypt to America. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Why I Had to Flee the United States I was a political prisoner in Egypt. I didn’t want to become one again in America.

“The hallmark of authoritarianism isn’t the knock at the door—it’s life under the constant fear of its arrival… It wasn’t just a departure I was weighing; it was the abandonment of a life I had painstakingly built against the conditions of my exile.” www.thenation.com/article/soci...

"Why I Had to Flee the United States," essay in The Nation.

From our guest editor @El_Gendy_95, in The Nation today.

www.instagram.com/p/DJJwpXfsoj...

“Our persecuted fled to the US from prisons, wars, and bloodshed, the belly of the beast a refuge from its claws tearing at our homelands. But today, we relive the very realities we fled”

I am enraged and heartbroken and I am sure Abdelrahman’s story is only one of many.

An important, eloquent and deeply upsetting piece by @elgendy95.bsky.social who I was lucky to teach while he worked on his upcoming book. After years as a political prisoner in Egypt, he faced the same risk in the US and had to flee. Such an enraging loss.

"The hallmark of authoritarianism isn’t the knock at the door—it’s life under the constant fear of its arrival."

Why I Had to Flee the United States I was a political prisoner in Egypt. I didn’t want to become one again in America.

"The hallmark of authoritarianism isn’t the knock at the door—it’s life under the constant fear of its arrival." My heart breaks for my writer friend @elgendy95.bsky.social, who recently fled the U.S. He had made a home here after being a political prisoner in Egypt. Please read his story.

"The hallmark of authoritarianism isn't the knock at the door--it's life under the constant fear of its arrival."

Former Egyptian political prisoner @elgendy95.bsky.social came to the US to seek stability and security. I am heartbroken that a talented, empathetic, and brilliant author like him could not find that.

The greatest indictment of a country is its inability to protect the most vulnerable.

Why I Had to Flee the United States I was a political prisoner in Egypt. I didn’t want to become one again in America.

"After Mahmoud Khalil was abducted, I locked myself inside my home for a month." Why @elgendy95.bsky.social, a former political prisoner in Egypt, decided he had no choice but to flee Donald Trump's America.