General Sisi’s Egypt

As Peter Hessler reports in this week’s magazine, Egyptian Defense Minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has moved quickly to consolidate power since forcing his predecessor, the Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, from the Presidency last year. “Since the coup, he has developed the image of a populist, drawing on the tradition of Gamal Abdel Nasser and other military leaders,” Hessler writes. Sisi’s efforts have included the imprisonment of activists who played key roles in toppling the country’s longtime dictator, Hosni Mubarak, in 2011, and banning “the only two political parties that managed to lead the country in the past decade.” Sisi, Hessler notes, “is expected to become the next President.”

Here are images of Cairo under Sisi’s rule.

Photographs by Rena Effendi/Institute.