Gameela Ismail is an Egyptian politician and media figure.
A defender of freedom of opinion and
expression, the rights of prisoners, workers, the poor and the oppressed,
Gameela Ismail courageously fought against injustice, corruption and tyranny in
the era of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
She was one of the most prominent women in confronting inherited
succession and extension of powers, in calling for the January 25 Revolution,
and in pushing for the revolution’s continuance in the subsequent years to
achieve the aims of the revolution and retribution for the martyrs.
Born in 1966 in Cairo Qasr el Nil
district, Gameela Ismail studied in Al Gezira Language School in Zamalek, where
she currently lives. She graduated in 1986 from the Cairo University Faculty of
Mass Communication. After being selected
university rover scout crew leader, she distinguished herself in her activities
in the student union throughout the years of study.
She obtained a Diploma in Simultaneous
Interpretation from the American University in Cairo, and then chose to work in
media and journalism as a correspondent for various foreign magazines and
papers in Cairo. She moved into Egyptian
television, reflecting the realities, pain, and dreams of ordinary people through
her work as a presenter in a number of programs reporting from the street.
In 1994, she began working in local
public service through an NGO in downtown Cairo. The residents in Darb el Ahmar, el Mosky, el
Gamaliya, Bab el Sha’riya, el Zaher, and Manshiet Nasr repeatedly honored her
for her sincere efforts over ten years in providing housing, healthcare, and
education services, and in working with local popular committee members to
address the neighborhood residents’ problems.
In 2001, she ran for office in the
Shura elections, amid large celebration and popular support from Cairo downtown
residents, recognizing her dedication in providing real services, running
against the the majority leader in the ruling party at that time.
In 2003, she participated in founding
the Ghad Party.
In 2004, she became a member of the
Ghad Party’s high council.
In 2005, she led a media campaign for
the party's candidate in the presidential elections.
From 2004 to 2010, she participated in
national struggle to free prisoners of conscience, prisoners of opinion, and
political detainees, and participated in campaigns calling for the ousting of
Mubarak and for rejecting inherited succession and extension of powers,
confronting tyranny and corruption, defending freedom of opinion and
expression. She became an active member
in most social protest movements calling for change, along with national
currents and powers (Kefaya, Egyptian Women with Change, Madaneya, National
Association for Change).
In 2010, she ran in parliamentary
elections against one of the most important figures in the dissolved National
Democratic Party.
In January 2011, she was among those
who called for the January 25 Revolution, led marches to Tahrir Square and
protested in sit-ins until the fall of the regime.
In June 2011, she emerged as one of the most
important political analysis program presenters on television, through her
weekly program "E'aadet
Nazar.”
In November 2011, she ran again in the
first post-revolution parliamentary elections, running for an individual seat
in the downtown Qasr el Nil district, independent of any party or political
current, and won almost 30,000 votes, coming in just 100 votes less than the
Freedom and Justice Party and Egyptian Bloc candidates.
In 2011, Gameela Ismail figured among the 150
most influential people across the world according to a Newsweek/Daily Post
poll, and one of the top four women in the “Sisters of the Arab Spring” on BBC
television.
In the Spring of 2012, she participated
in the founding of the Dostour Party, founded and led by Dr. Mohamed
ElBaradai. She has been a member of the
committee of one hundred, a leading member in the steering committee, and head
of the party’s organizing secretariat in April 2013.
In March 2013, she directed a message to John
Kerry during a meeting with him in Cairo, which was picked up by the media,
requesting him to stop supporting former president Mohamed Morsi, saying, “You
want democracy for us in a shape and size defined by the American
administration, but we Egyptian people are building democracy on the
imagination and dreams of the January 25 Revolution, and we will show you that
we are capable of revolution again.”
In May 2013, she participated in the call for
June 30, and led party marches to the Presidential Palace.
In January 2014, she was nominated for the
position of Dostour Party president, to succeed Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, heading
the list "Elbaquaa' le mann yabny," which means “those who build
persevere.” After a mission building the party, she held an active leadership
role from April to December 2013.
From 2011 - 2014, she has played a prominent
role in the struggle to complete the revolution in Egypt, defending its aims
and goals through her political action, support and contribution in a number of
revolutionary protest movements, a role which continues to date.
Gameela Ismail in the Dostour Party
Gameela Ismail participated in the
establishment of the party since its inception, as founding member in the one
hundred member founding committee, then in the steering committee, and in most
of its activities from its announcement in Spring 2012 to date.
In April 2013, Gameela Ismail headed up the
organizing secretariat of the Dostour Party, commissioned by party founder and
former president Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, after disagreements caused large rifts
in the party leadership in various regions and centers. These led to repeated sit-ins and anger among
the bases, with calls to establish democratic and transparent provisions for
decision-making and selection of local leaders and executive offices.
Despite the difficulties of the task,
she courageously took on the responsibility and rebuilt the organizing
secretariat anew. Together with the
organizing secretariat members' dedicated efforts, her success in achieving
this was a huge accomplishment, in light of the difficult conditions that the
party and country were going through, the problems between the members and
leadership, and the series of difficult events in the country from April 2013
to January 2014.
The organizing secretariat announced six- and
nine-week plans to rebuild party member trust.
This was accomplished in the timeframes laid out, by establishing
election principles and procedures in the governorate secretariats where they
had not been structured, or in which they were subsequently being
challenged. Elections were held in
Alexandria, el Sharqia, Monoufiya, Aswan, and Beheira; partial elections were
held in Cairo, Giza, and Alminya. A total
of 1174 candidates competed, with more than 350 officials being seated across
all governorates, through free and direct elections.
A neutral committee was charged with making a
determination on the appeal challenges that members had previously presented on
the secretariat structures. The
organizing and holding of elections played a role in re-organizing the party in
the various governorates, and putting an end to the problems and conflicts
among the members. These elections were
key in getting the party ready to have impact and presence on the street and in
various media outlets, and to re-draw the party’s image in the eyes of the
citizens.
In the subsequent nine-week plan, the
organizing secretariat began building the secretariats, training the secretaries
of the organizing and membership across the country, and providing them with
technical capacity. It then built up the
party database with a full inventory in all founder delegations, entering them
in the new advanced and centralized database with innovative mechanisms to make
founder and member data more complete.
This process has increased the amount of information in the database by
180%.
In the beginning of June, the organizing
secretariat began fixing the membership cycle and producing membership cards,
for the first time in the party after a year of not doing so. It provided the materials, machines, and
accessories needed to issue membership cards, designated an administrative team
to the membership committee, and coverage of full cycle expenses for an average
of 1600 membership cards per month.
The organizing secretariat contributed to
opening and continuing a number of new party headquarters, and to overcoming
many of the crises that several secretariats were going through across the
country.
At the request of the election oversight
committee appointed by Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, the organizing secretariat
exerted great effort across the country in record time, to prepare and submit
the database of associate and active members, in accordance with the announced
standards and regulations, so to be used in the preparation and oversight of
the general conference. It was submitted
in electronic and hard copy to both the higher governing council and the
general conference oversight committee on 14/11/2013, in fulfillment of the
timetable commitments required to convene the first general conference.
The data was submitted in four lists:
1) founders who had paid their subscriptions and membership dues, 2) founders
who had not yet paid them, 3) associate members whose membership had been
transferred to active membership, and 4) associate members. The organizing secretariat requested the high
elections committee to announce a disclosure period for challenge and appeal,
and for all to participate in making any additions or deletions, so to attain
the most accurate voter base and to overcome any human error that may have
occurred when entering mass amounts of private data.
On November 14, in her remarks upon submitting
the database, Gameela Ismail requested that the new bylaws be approved before
opening elections procedures.
Directly upon completion of the tasks with
which she had been charged, and upon which the party’s first general conference
depended, Gameela Ismail gave notice to the party president, his deputies, and
the general secretary to freeze her position as organizing secretary, pursuant
to the high commission resolution in the event of party executive and
leadership holders being nominated for open positions in the general conference
elections.
In January 2014, Gameela Ismail announced her
candidacy for the position of president, heading the list "Elbaquaa' le
mann yabny,” which means “Those who build persevere.”
Between 2012 and 2014, Gameela Ismail has
participated in most of the party’s mass actions, constitution article
awareness campaigns, calls for marches 30/06/2013, and Shura council
demonstrations on the anti-demonstration law and the articles on military
trials. She submitted herself to the
public prosecutor office as one of those calling for the release of detainees
imprisoned on pending demonstration cases.
She took on legal and humanitarian
follow-up for party member detainees, working for their release and
accompanying family members visiting them.
From 2013 to 2014, through her field
visits, conferences, and appearances on numerous media outlets, Gameela Ismail
has contributed significantly to overcoming the
difficulties and challenges that the party has experienced since its
inception, from the departure of its founder, to confronting smear campaigns
and the subsequent blows to which the party was exposed. She has been a moral and political support to
the membership base across the country.
