Stability takes root

Given that Watani International has in 2021 marked 20 years in print—our first issue was printed on 18 February 2001—we promised our readers to regularly publish reviews of our issues during those 20 years. The reviews read like history in real time. We already reviewed the issues from 2001 to 2017; today we keep good on our promise by covering the three last years under review: 2018, 2019, and 2020. A journey through Watani International issues during those years reveals stories on a stable Egypt where political and economic activity goes ahead in an upbeat manner despite the coronavirus pandemic that hit in February 2020, a Coptic Church actively working through hard times, a marked decrease in attacks against Copts even though sectarianism persists as is obvious in cases of blasphemy and missing Coptic women, a plethora of feature stories on significant events and, naturally, obituaries on figures who passed away.

Coptic

19 August 2018: Murder of Anba Epiphanius, Abbot of St Macarius Monastery, at the hands of defrocked monk. The killer was sentenced to death and executed in May 2021

Pope Tawadros gives Watani two interviews on 18 November 2018 and 14 June 2020

11 February 2018: Journey of the Holy Family on its flight into Egypt

27 May 2018: 50 years on manifestation of Holy Virgin in Zeitoun

3 June 2018:100 years on foundation of Sunday Schools in Coptic Church

29 December 2019: Opening of Central Papal Library at Anba Bishoy Monastery in Wadi al-Natroun

Sectarian

28 October 2018: Troublemaking by Ethiopian monks at the Coptic monastery of Deir as-Sultan in Jerusalem

4 March 2018: Coptic Church declared 15 February Feast of Modern-Day Martyrs; report on Coptic martyrs since 2011 to 2018

20 May 2018: Bodies of Libya’s Coptic martyrs beheaded by Daesh in February 2015 brought home to Egypt

11 October 2020: Body of African Martyr Matthew Ayariga brought to Egypt to rest with the Coptic Libya Martyrs

11 November 2018: For the second time since May 2017, Coptic pilgrims heading to St Samuel the Confessor Monastery attacked by Islamist terrorists, seven Copts shot dead. 28 had lost their lives in the 2017 attack.

2 January 2019: report on death sentences for killers of Copts

16 June 2019: Missing Coptic women

6 December 2020: On charging Copts with blasphemy against Islam

Features

4 October 2020: Story of Engineer Rassem Bedwani (1912 – 1994) who built the bridges the Egyptian army used to cross the Suez Canal into Sinai in the 1973 October War

22 November 2020: Interview with Yousriya Loza Sawiris

1 November 2020: Egypt ventures into ecotourism

30 June 2019: Egypt hosts Africa Cup of Nations

14 July 2019: Implementation of first phase of Egypt’s universal healthcare insurance system

15 September 2019: National Committee for Eradication of FGM

29 April 2018: Education reform takes off

9 September 2018: 1st Coptic Youth Week for Diaspora Copts

2020 – 29 March: Coronavirus breakout, partial closure of public institutions, closure of churches; 5 July: reopening; 20 December: availability of vaccines. In April 2020, Egypt launched virtual 3D visits to its antiquity sites (3 May)