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Abdelrahman ElGendy

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Abdelrahman ElGendy
عبدالرحمن الجندي
Born (1995-12-12) 12 December 1995 (age 29)
NationalityEgyptian
CitizenshipEgypt
EducationBachelor's degree in Power Mechanical Engineering from Ain Shams University

MFA in Creative Writing [1], University of Pittsburgh

CELTA Certification by Cambridge Assessment English

Certificate in Public Narrative: Leadership, Storytelling, and Action [2], Harvard Kennedy School
OccupationWriter and Editor
OrganizationLeading Change Network [3]
Notable workAnatomy of an Incarceration, Mada Masr, 2021 [4]
Websitehttps://abdelrahmanelgendy.com/

Abdelrahman ElGendy is a former Egyptian political prisoner and writer, who spent more than six years behind bars in Egypt, from 6 October 2013 until his release on 13 January 2020. He was arrested at 17, and left prison at 24. While in prison, he earned a mechanical engineering degree from Ain Shams University.[1]

He was born on 12 December 1995.[1]

In prison, his smuggled writings were published online, developing a gradual readership, until picked up in 2018 by the independent journalism platform, Mada Masr, to be published there.[2]

Since his release, he turned to studying creative nonfiction and continued to officially write bilingually in English[2] and Arabic[3] for Mada Masr, and later started writing for several notable platforms in the Arab world, such as Raseef22[4] and Daraj Media,[5] and more recently on Newlines Magazine,[6] and The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.[7]

As a writer, his vision is to oppose prevalent single-stories of oppressors, and embrace counter-narratives as a form of resistance.[8]

He is currently the content writer and editor of the Leading Change Network,[9] and pursues his MFA in Creative Writing, nonfiction genre, at the University of Pittsburgh.

Prison

Coming from an a-political background and family,[8][10] ElGendy's first contact with politics was like many of his generation, in the 25 January 2011 revolution.[8][10]

In his early teens, he was not an active participant in the revolution. He remained disinterested in politics until after the Rab'aa massacre on 14 August 2013, where the father of his close friend was killed, as he recounts in several interviews.[8] The effects this incident took on her were a turning point for ElGendy. He took part in several peaceful protests, until on the 6 October 2013, he was arrested while photographing a protest in Ramsis, Cairo.[8][1][10]

During this period, Egypt was notorious for mass arrests and mass trials in locations of any protests.[1][11][12][10] ElGendy was added to a case with sixty-seven other prisoners, and they had the regular list of charges added to their case of disrupting the public peace, rioting, and terrorist acts.[1][8][10][13] All the adults ended up being sentenced to fifteen years of prison in a maximum security prison, and their appeals rejected less than two years later.[1][8][10] The minors on the case were sentenced to ten years, and their sentence was reduced to three years later, to be released in 2016.[1][8][10]

There was a legal loophole in ElGendy's particular case, as he was only seventeen at the time of his arrest, a minor, yet due to the officer's breaking of his ID before being delivered to the police station, and with no way to prove his true age, he was added to the case as an adult.[8][10]

ElGendy was sentenced to fifteen years like the adults in the case, had his appeal rejected by the court of cassation as well, and continued to serve his fifteen-year sentence, moving between six different prisons throughout his incarceration period.[1][8][10]

In December 2020, the Public Prosecution office finally decided to look into an appeal by ElGendy's family regarding the legal error concerning his age at the time of arrest, after countless rejected past appeals.[1]

Following a review of his case by the Public Prosecutor and after six years in prison, on 12 January 2020 ElGendy was released pending trial.[1] On 14 September 2020, El Gendy’s sentence was decreased to five years' imprisonment by Court of Cassation of the Criminal Court in North Cairo. At the time of his release in January 2020, ElGendy had already been detained for six years and three months, and therefore had completed his sentence.[1][14]

Thus, he did not return to prison.[15][16][17][18]

Study

ElGendy was fresh out of high school at the time he was arrested. 6 October 2013 was the eve of his first day as a freshman at the German University in Cairo, on a scholarship to study Mechatronics engineering.[8][13][19]

On his first year in prison, the German university in Cairo expelled him.[13][19] He then transferred to the public Ain Shams University to start and continue his studies in Power Mechanical engineering from prison.[13]

For the following five years, ElGendy passed year after year, until in July 2019, he graduated from Ain Shams university with a bachelor of science in Power Mechanical engineering.[20][21]

After his release, he shifted his career to teaching English as a second language and writing. In 2021, he obtained a CELTA certificate in teaching English as a second language from Cambridge Assessment English with a Pass A grade.[22]

In December 2021, ElGendy was awarded a certificate of completion for the Public Narrative: Leadership, Storytelling, and Action Program with professor Marshall Ganz, from Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, Executive Education.[22]

He's currently pursuing his MFA in Creative Writing, nonfiction track, at the University of Pittsburgh.

Works

Anatomy of an Incarceration, Mada Masr, 2021: a six-part series of essays documenting the political prison experience in a creative-prose first-person narrative.

Smuggled prison writings, Mada Masr, 2020

Opinion articles, Raseef22, 2021

Opinion articles, Daraj Media, 2021

First person narratives, Newlines Magazine, 2021

Political analyses, The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, 2022

First person narratives, AlManassa, 2022

Writing Residencies and Awards

Lesser Amman Library residency, MMAG Foundation, May 2020

Logan Nonfiction Fellow, June 2021

A finalist for Margolis Award for Social Justice Journalism, December 2021

Interviews

Cairo in Exile Podcast, with Marlyn Tadros

Bi H'obb podcast, Kerning Cultures Media, with Heba Afifi

Refugee Radio Podcast, with Stephen Silverwood

EL PAÍS newspaper interview, with Marc Español

Podcast 11 interview, with Solafa Magdy

Official Social Media Accounts

Facebook

Twitter

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 "After his retrial as a minor, El Gendy's sentence decreased to 5 years | MENA Rights Group". www.menarights.org. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Abdelrahman ElGendy". Mada Masr. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  3. ↑ "عبد الرحمن الجندي". مدى مصر (in العربية). Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  4. ↑ "عبد الرحمن الجندي". رصيف 22. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  5. ↑ "عبدالرحمن الجندي - كاتب مصري | Daraj". daraj.com (in العربية). Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  6. ↑ ElGendy, Abdelrahman (2021-12-21). "When I Spent Six Years Behind Bars, a Smuggled T-shirt Took on Deeper Meaning". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved 2021-12-29.
  7. ↑ "Abdelrahman ElGendy". TIMEP. Retrieved 2022-05-08.
  8. ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 "Abdel Rahman ElGendy by Cairo in Exile مصر في المنفى". Anchor. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  9. ↑ Zuriekat, Thaer. "About". Leading Change Network. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 "عن الصاحب الجدع - كيرينيج كلتشرز" (in العربية). Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  11. ↑ "Egypt: Death sentences and heavy prison terms handed down in disgraceful mass trial". Amnesty International. 2018-09-08. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  12. ↑ "UN Human Rights chief condemns Egypt's mass trials in maiden speech". France 24. 2018-09-10. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 "اعتُقل طفلاً وخسر مستقبلاً دراسياً مرموقاً... الإفراج عن المعتقل المصري عبد الرحمن الجندي". رصيف 22. 2020-01-13. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  14. ↑ "الإثنين 30 ديسمبر: إخلاء سبيل عبد الرحمن الجندي بعد 6 سنوات سجن". مدى مصر (in العربية). Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  15. ↑ "Abdel Rahman ElGendy by Cairo in Exile مصر في المنفى". Anchor. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  16. ↑ "After his retrial as a minor, El Gendy's sentence decreased to 5 years | MENA Rights Group". www.menarights.org. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  17. ↑ "عن الصاحب الجدع - كيرينيج كلتشرز" (in العربية). Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  18. ↑ "الإثنين 30 ديسمبر: إخلاء سبيل عبد الرحمن الجندي بعد 6 سنوات سجن". مدى مصر (in العربية). Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 "The Nightmare Egyptian Abdelrahman ElGendy Lives in Prison". HuffPost. 2016-08-26. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  20. ↑ "The Nightmare Egyptian Abdelrahman ElGendy Lives in Prison". HuffPost. 2016-08-26. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  21. ↑ "اعتُقل طفلاً وخسر مستقبلاً دراسياً مرموقاً... الإفراج عن المعتقل المصري عبد الرحمن الجندي". رصيف 22. 2020-01-13. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 "The Coaches | The English Coach". www.theenglishcoachonline.com. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
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