Ahmed Gatnash is co-founder and Executive Director of Kawaakibi Foundation. He is author of The Middle East Crisis Factory (Hurst, 2021).
Kawaakibi Foundation announces the recruitment of Khalid Albaih and Ramy Essam, as co-directors of our upcoming Arts Program. The arts program will work with artists in authoritarian and post-revolutionary contexts, to strengthen free expression and the public sphere, build cultural narratives in support of movements of dignity, and harness the... read more
Kawaakibi Foundation proudly supported the production of Egyptian rock musician Ramy Essam's new video, Lagl Tentesri (For You To Win). Lagl Tentesri (For You To Win) highlights the resilience and sacrifices of the people in the Egyptian revolution whether they be martyrs, prisoners, or still carrying on the... read more
Has autocracy won out in the Middle East? Or is another future still possible? Why is the Middle East a crisis factory, and how can it be fixed? What does the future look like for its 500 million people? And what role should the West play? Iyad El-Baghdadi and Ahmed... read more
After over two years of cover up by the Trump administration, the Biden administration has declassified the formal US intel assessment of the murder of our fallen friend, Jamal Khashoggi. As expected, it implicates Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and de-facto ruler. With the full truth... read more
Since losing close friends and fellow activists to murder by terrorists (Raed Fares) and authoritarian regimes (Jamal Khashoggi), as well as receiving direct and credible threats ourselves from both the Saudi government and ISIS, we have been forced to be extremely private about our work. Our highest-impact projects are ones... read more
Oslo, Monday, 13 May 2019; Iyad El-Baghdadi addressed the widely-reported threats against him by the Saudi government in a press conference. Thank you. Last week, the story broke that I had been contacted by the PST about a threat. The story – and the details that followed – generated a lot of... read more
