Leila Zaki Chakravarti

Leila Zaki Chakravarti is a Research Fellow at the SOAS Centre for Gender Studies, London University. She is currently publishing a monograph based on her PhD fieldwork exploring constructs of class,

Chez Morsi : palace petitioners and street entrepreneurs in post-Mubarak Egypt

As soon as Egypt’s first democratically-elected Islamist leader moved into the Presidential Palace, the surrounding streets became thronged by huge unruly crowds waving petitions addressed to the new ruler. Alongside them appeared an army of street vendors vigorously peddling their wares. Both for

By Leila Zaki Chakravarti

/ 1 Oct 2012

Entrepreneurs of the revolution: jockeying for livelihood and security in post-Arab Spring Cairo

In the context of lax policing in the aftermath of the Arab spring, Cairo’s affluent neighbourhoods have seen the incursion of new ‘street entrepreneurs ’ from the city’s poorer areas and outskirts. Educated, business-savvy and fleet of foot, they articulate a new sense of entitlement that blends

By Leila Zaki Chakravarti

/ 31 May 2012

Football and the game of politics in Egypt

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' call for an official inquiry into football violence, following the deaths of 74 al-Ahly team supporters in February this year, has been rejected by most clubs as a sham designed to obscure the blame that belongs to the Mubarak regime’s structures which orch

By Leila Zaki Chakravarti

/ 20 Mar 2012