A secular dentist speaks out for change in Egypt

Dr. Alaa Al Aswany runs a private dentistry practice and has no political career, but he happens to be one of the best-selling authors in Egyptian history and is voicing a call for change that is being noticed across Egypt, wrote Pankaj Mishra in The New York Times Magazine on April 27.

For more than ten years, the gregarious, well educated Al Aswany has hosted his own salon, where those of like mind gather to discuss Egyptian politics and society with one of the country’s experts on the subjects. Since 1993, Al Aswany has written a monthly column for Al Arabi, and he has been a member of various human rights organizations for years. Additionally, Al Aswany wrote The Yacoubian Building, a best selling novel about Egypt’s unequal distribution of wealth and the corruption of power.

Now, in a nation where, as Al Aswany puts it, there is “the freedom to talk, but no freedom of speech,” a stubborn, secular dentist is starting to shake up a nation’s conscience, and beginning a debate that may shape Egypt’s future.

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