Dalia Ziada

Dalia Ziada is director of the Liberal Democracy Institute of Egypt.
SYRIAN PRESIDENT Ahmed al-Sharaa attends the opening of the Damascus International Fair, the first held since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, in Damascus, last week. ‘Sharaa is engineering something I call neo-jihadism,’ says the writer.

The end of the Muslim Brotherhood, but the birth of neo-jihadism - opinion

Ahmed al-Sharaa is engineering neo-jihadism: a new hybrid ideology that fuses the political tactics of the Muslim Brotherhood and the violent rigor of al-Qaeda and ISIS.

SEPTEMBER 3, 2025
AN EGYPTIAN military outpost at the Israel-Egypt border as seen from southern Israel, 2021: For the Egyptian public and government, Sinai is not just a geographic zone but a perpetual strategic concern, says the writer.

Egypt-Israel security ties and Sinai’s double-edged role - opinion

The Sinai Peninsula is a vulnerable front and a strategic concern for Egypt, particularly during the Israel-Hamas War.

JULY 22, 2025
FOREIGN MINISTERS from Egypt and Gulf Cooperation Council countries meet in Mecca last month. Arab states, particularly in the Gulf, are recalibrating their positions toward the US-Iran nuclear talks because they fear being left behind by the US and outmaneuvered by Israel, says the writer.

Nuclear talks may empower, embolden Iran if US isn't careful - opinion

Without these considerations, the US risks unintentionally accelerating a new Cold War in the Middle East.

APRIL 26, 2025

Is Trump's Gaza proposal a strategic move or political gambit? - opinion

Trump’s talent for making unexpected, bold moves could be the beginning of a larger strategy that we have yet to fully understand. 

FEBRUARY 9, 2025
THEN-US president Jimmy Carter, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and prime minister Menachem Begin join hands at the signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty at the White House in 1979. Sadat declined to take Gaza because he knew it was a minefield, says the writer.

Barbie in hijab: Glorification of oppression, or empowerment?

Imagine how this little doll can inspire millions of young girls in Muslim families to realize their utmost potential, regardless of what they look like or how they choose to dress.

DECEMBER 2, 2017
Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad poses with a barbie doll made in her likeness

A new strategy to combat terrorism and advance human rights

In that sense, we should understand that terrorism is not a threat to human rights, but a threat to human existence

NOVEMBER 28, 2017
AN AMBULANCE drives by the Suez Canal University Hospital where many victims from the Sinai terror attack were treated. (Reuters)