The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) is pleased to invite you to join us on Thursday, May 16th at 2:00pm for an in-person panel discussion featuring distinguished Egyptian human rights defender and founder and Executive Director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) Hossam Bahgat. In a discussion moderated by TIMEP Executive Director Mai El-Sadany, Hossam will be joined by President and CEO of the Center for International Policy Dr. Nancy Okail to together present insights on the state of civil society, human rights, and accountability work in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, including Egypt, in light of the ongoing war in Gaza.
This event is invite-only; however, we have limited seating available to the public. To RSVP, please send an email to TIMEP at [email protected] if you would like to attend, and we will let you know if we are able to secure a seat for you. A location will be provided upon RSVP.
Speaker Profiles:
Hossam Bahgat
Founder and Executive Director, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)Hossam Bahgat has spent the last 25 years working as a human rights defender and investigative journalist in Egypt. With a background in political science and international human rights law, he was founding executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) in 2002 and recently returned to lead the organization since 2021. Bahgat previously served as board chair of the International Network for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) and board member of the Fund for Global Human Rights. He is a recipient of Human Rights Watch’s Allison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism, the Catherine and George Alexander Law Prize from Santa Clara University and the Anna Politkovskaya Award for Courageous Journalism. Because of his activism, the Egyptian government placed Bahgat under a travel ban for eight years until March 2024.
Nancy Okail
President and CEO, the Center for International PolicyDr. Nancy Okail is the President and CEO of the Center for International Policy. Dr. Okail is a leading scholar, policy analyst, and advocate with more than 20 years of experience working on issues of human rights, democracy, and security in the Middle East and North Africa region. In 2020, Okail was appointed as a visiting scholar at the Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University, focusing on accountability and the intersection of human rights and technology. Prior to joining Stanford, she served as Executive Director of TIMEP, which under her leadership became an internationally renowned policy research organization. Before coming to the United States, Okail worked on, managed, and evaluated foreign aid programs for several international organizations, including the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme. In her subsequent role as Director of Freedom House’s Egypt program, Okail was one of the 43 nongovernmental organization workers convicted and sentenced to prison in a widely publicized 2012 case for allegedly using foreign funds to foment unrest in Egypt. She was then exonerated by a court ruling in December of 2018. Okail holds a Ph.D. from the University of Sussex in the UK. Her policy analysis and political commentary have been featured in top outlets including the Washington Post, New York Times, Foreign Affairs, and Lawfare. She has been interviewed or quoted by The Guardian, BBC World News, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera, and she regularly speaks on current affairs panels at world fora and academic institutions.
Mai El-Sadany
Executive Director, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP)Mai El-Sadany is TIMEP’s Executive Director. She is a human rights lawyer with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Throughout her career, she has worked to expand creative pathways to accountability, to leverage international and regional mechanisms to advance human rights, and to publish accessible analysis and scholarship on legal, judicial, and constitutional issues. She was previously TIMEP’s Managing Director and Legal and Judicial Director. Prior to that, she worked at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, among other organizations. She is a Steering Committee member of the World Movement for Democracy, a member of the Working Group on Egypt, and a Board Member of HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement. Mai holds a J.D. and certificate in refugees and humanitarian emergencies from the Georgetown University Law Center, and a B.A. in political science from Stanford University. You can follow her on Twitter: @maitelsadany.