Shayfeencom (
Egyptian Arabic
Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian, or simply as Masri, is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic variety in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt. The esti ...
: ''We see you'') is an initiative that started with three Egyptian women (a prominent TV newscaster, a university professor, and a marketing consultant) to help bring
political reform
Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...
and
democracy
Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...
to Egypt.
The movement aims to end corruption in both governmental and non-governmental institutions through public monitoring of elections, whilst increasing awareness of the principles of democracy.
The non-profit was established in 2005 by a group of non-politically oriented individuals, and started its first
monitoring and observation experience in
Egypt's first multi-candidate presidential elections. Within the first month of launching the initiative, 5,000 people volunteered and joined online, and over 1,000 volunteers actively participated in monitoring elections. Today, the movement includes over 10 founding members, and thousands of regular members.
Goals
Shayfeencom has three primary goals: to end corruption in all public and private institutions through public monitoring, to enable the citizens as key fighters against corruption, and to attain
electoral and
judicial reform
Judicial reform is the complete or partial political reform of a country's judiciary. Judicial reform can be connected to a law reform, constitutional amendment, prison reform, police reform or part of wider reform of the country's political system ...
.
The main focuses are on:
*
Corporate corruption
In criminology, corporate crime refers to crimes committed either by a corporation (i.e., a business entity having a separate legal personality from the natural persons that manage its activities), or by individuals acting on behalf of a corpor ...
*
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...
*
Government corruption
Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influen ...
*
Judicial corruption
*
Kleptocracy
Kleptocracy (from Greek , "thief", or , "I steal", and from , "power, rule"), also referred to as thievocracy, is a government whose corrupt leaders (kleptocrats) use political power to expropriate the wealth of the people and land the ...
*
Police corruption
Police corruption is a form of police misconduct in which a law enforcement officer breaks their political contract and abuses their power for personal gain. A corrupt officer may act alone or as part of a group. Corrupt acts include taking ...
Methods
Shayfeencom uses its large membership database, all types of
social media
Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
, and a
hotline
A hotline is a Point-to-point (telecommunications), point-to-point information transfer, communications Data link, link in which a telephone call, call is automatically directed to the preselected destination without any additional action by t ...
to receive reports of corruption in the country; it then files a case against the specified party. If the party does not respond, Shayfeencom uses the media to expose what has occurred; they might also carry out sit-ins and other demonstrations.
In 2007, documentary film director
Jehane Noujaim (with Sherief El Katsha) broadcast the film ''Shayfeen.com'', which was a part of the ''
Why Democracy?'' project.
Members
Originally, the movement was founded by three women. It was ended by the
Mubarak regime, but after the
ousting of Mubarak in 2011, Shayfeencom was re-established by new members.
Shayfeencom's membership is in the tens of thousands, but due to fear of
political persecution
Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby ...
, they have been discreet when pursuing official figures and have created a privacy policy which does not allow them to share other members' names.
History
Pre-Arab Spring
Shayfeencom began in 2005, after President
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011 and the 41st Prime Minister of Egypt, prime minister from 1981 to ...
announced that for the first time in 24 years, elections would allow for multiparty participation; this sparked demonstrations by Egyptians who denounced this move as a sham. When the government responded with a violent crackdown,
Bothaina Kamel,
Ghada Shahbandar, and
Engi El-Haddad formed Shayfeencom.
For the 2005 elections, Shayfeencom armed supporters with video cameras and sent them to
polling station
A polling place is where voters cast their ballots in elections. The phrase polling station is also used in American English, British English and Canadian English although a polling place is the building and polling station is the specific ...
s around the country to monitor the elections and document the political process. Supporters witnessed
electoral fraud
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share o ...
and
voter intimidation. When
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...
candidates made a good showing in the first round of voting, security forces barred voters from entering the polls for the second round. By the third round, voters' frustrations incited violent clashes between protesters and police.
Although discouraged by a
voter turnout
In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...
of only 30%, the Shayfeencom leaders were heartened by the willingness of two judges to investigate election fraud carried out by eighteen of their colleagues. The judges found evidence of fraud, and Shayfeencom began rallying support for an
independent judiciary
Judicial independence is the concept that the judiciary should be independent from the other branches of government. That is, courts should not be subject to improper influence from the other branches of government or from private or partisan inte ...
. In spite of the prohibition against assemblies of more than five people, crowds gathered outside the
Egyptian Judges' Club to show their support. Many in the crowd were arrested and beaten, including Judge Mahmoud Hamza. The three founders of Shayfeencom produced a short film, aired on
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
, about the plight of the judiciary. They encouraged the public to use all the technology at their disposal—radio, plasma screens, and the Internet—to support the May 25, 2006 "Judges' March for an Independent Judiciary".
The march and demonstration resulted in the arrests of thousands of civilians, who remained in prison for months. Though faced by a lack of money and failure to achieve earlier objectives, Shayfeencom continued its work. Co-founder Engi El-Haddad spoke to a group of world leaders (including former president
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
) at the
UN, describing the lack of political freedom in Egypt. In spring of 2007, Shayfeencom mounted a campaign against the government's proposed 34 constitutional amendments that would write parts of the
Emergency Law into the Constitution.
Post-Arab Spring
Following the
2011 Egyptian revolution
The 2011 Egyptian revolution, also known as the 25 January Revolution (;), began on 25 January 2011 and spread across Egypt. The date was set by various youth groups to coincide with the annual Egyptian "Police holiday" as a statement against ...
, Shayfeencom was re-established, with dramatically changed methods. They began preparing for the first Egyptian presidential elections months before it was announced, collecting thousands of volunteers from across Egypt and training them through
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
videos
and online
seminars
A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some part ...
.
Members of the public watched for electoral irregularities and called a hotline to report them. Reports also came in through
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
and
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
. Alleged violations would immediately appear on Shayfeencom's website; a few minutes later, official monitors would either confirm or deny the reports. Two days into the first phase of Egypt's presidential elections, Shayfeencom received reports of over 1,000 violations throughout the country.
Shayfeencom remains as a
watchdog
Watchdog or watch dog may refer to:
Animals
*Guard dog, a dog that barks to alert its owners of an intruder's presence
* Portuguese Watchdog, Cão de Castro Laboreiro, a dog breed
* Moscow Watchdog, a breed of dog that was bred in the Soviet U ...
, anti-corruption movement.
Port Said
Shayfeencom opened its first
board of trustees
A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency.
The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...
in
Port Said
Port Said ( , , ) is a port city that lies in the northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, straddling the west bank of the northern mouth of the Suez Canal. The city is the capital city, capital of the Port S ...
following the
Port Said Stadium riot
The Port Said Stadium riot was a riot which occurred at Port Said Stadium in Port Said, Egypt on 1 February 2012, following an Egyptian Premier League football match between Al Masry and Al Ahly. Seventy-four people were killed and more than ...
in April 2013.
Notes
References
External links
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* (scroll down for English)
{{Election Organizations
Egyptian democracy movements
Egyptian revolution of 2011
2005 establishments in Egypt
Nonviolent resistance movements
Political organisations based in Egypt
Anti-corruption organizations
Organisations of the Egyptian Crisis (2011–2014)