It's Breaking Out All Over?

In today's Washington Post, Fred Hiatt presents "The Nitty-Gritty of Democracy, which examines the treatment of an Egyptian human rights activist both by her own government and by ours:

Dr. Seif El Dawla, a psychiatrist who was in this country to receive an award from Human Rights Watch, founded the Egyptian Association Against Torture and helps run a clinic for female victims of violence, whether state-sponsored or domestic. She has battled religious intolerance as well as government repression, thus occupying the narrow space that administration officials now say must be expanded if democracy in the region is to take root.

But over the past few months, as President Mubarak's regime has refused to register her organization, she says she has sensed no support from the U.S. Embassy.

He also observes that, rather than democratizing, Morocco "seems to have made the decision to restrict liberty in the name of security".

Hiatt also writes,

In an interview last week, an administration official knowledgeable about Mideast policy acknowledged that some skepticism is to be expected. "We don't have a lot of credibility in some places," the official said. "People understandably say, for decades you haven't cared about democracy and you haven't cared about human rights. . . . Part of what we have to do, and what I hope we're beginning to do, is show people that we are serious, that we're here for the long term."

Which, perhaps, explains why we're ignoring Dr. El Dawla, and closing Iraqi media outlets in the name of security - to advance our notions of democracy and free speech.

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