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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Mona Eltahawy

I left behind an authoritarian state to move to the US. Now I see my new home falling to the same dark forces

A row of police facing a row of protesters.
Police stand opposite pro-Palestinian student protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles, 2 May 2024. Photograph: Étienne Laurent/AFP/Getty Images

“What’s he done now?” My parents live in Cairo and I’m in New York City. We FaceTime once a week and that question is like a game we play. My parents ask about Donald Trump and I ask about Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, whom Trump calls “my favourite dictator”. Aren’t we Egyptian-Americans lucky – a dictator for each side of our hyphen.

Tellingly, the “he” my parents ask about has dominated our conversations lately.

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