David Degner

Boston Photographer and Photojournalist

Jihadi Rehab

Al-Ha’ir Prison and The Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Center are two of Saudi Arabia’s five facilities holding its more than 5,000 inmates charged with terrorism-related offenses.

They are part of a reform program staffed by psychologists and religious officials who try to deradicalize inmates by teaching them what Nasser al-Ajmi, a psychologist with the center, called “correct Shariah thought.”

The prisons include many comforts and freedoms, including an on-site hotel. The hotel is designed to give jihadists who behave well a respite from inmate life and help them reconnect with their wives and children, and perhaps even conceive new ones.

Uighur Identity in Xinjiang

Before the camps

The Uighurs of Xinjiang are one of 55 minorities in China, but they are ethnically and historically closer to the Muslim Turkic groups of Central Asia. In 2008 the Chinese government was starting to cement its hold on the resource-rich Xinjiang by suppressing cultural and religious differences in schools and workplaces and by resettling millions of eastern Chinese into the wild western region.

Racism, language requirements, and lack of higher education prevented many young Uighurs from getting jobs in the new economy while their traditional roles as traders and farmers became unprofitable. As Han Chinese influence increases, many young Uighurs feel they must adapt, immigrate to coastal business centers, or be left behind economically.

Many young Uighurs saw opportunities in learning English to become international businessmen or studying the Quran in Arabic so they could go on to study at Al-Azhar. But I’m afraid that travel restrictions quashed these dreams.

Locks hung by couples in a park above Urumqi. Some have names inscribed in the distinctive Uighur script while some have names inscribed in Chinese. This particular lock has the name in UIghur, the date in Chinese, and the numbers in English.

A statue in Hotan’s main square shows Mao Zedong shaking hands with an old Uighur. As the story behind this statue goes, Kurban Tulum, also called Uncle Kurban or Uncle Kuerban was a Uighur electrician, born in 1883 in the Keriya oasis. When the People’s Liberation Army marched into Xinjiang, a few years after the 1949 revolution, Kurban Tulum wanted to show his appreciation so he rode more than 1,500 km around the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang to the provincial capital of Urumqi on his donkey to bring grapes or a melon as a symbol of appreciation for Chairman Mao.

Party officials saw the public relations opportunity and flew him the remaining more than 3,000 km to from Urumqi to Beijing to meet with Mao Zedong. They first met in 1958 and the handshake was reenacted some time later in front of a Communist party meeting, where the famous photo on which these two monuments are based was taken. The government likes to hold up Kurban as an ideal for Uyghurs, who they believe should welcome the government’s policies in Xinjiang.

A nearly empty bus winds over massive sand dunes as it passes through the Taklamakan desert.

One of the largest infrastructure projects in Xinjiang is a highway running through the middle of the Taklamakan desert connecting the southern road to the northern road and the capital Urumuqi.

I arrived in Xinjiang about 5 months before the 2008 Olympics and spent that time learning the language and slowly traveling around the region. My plan was to be in Xinjiang during the Olympics in case something broke out. A few weeks before the Olympics started I was in a rural area near Kazakhstan looking into reports of a torched police station. While in the small town of San Gong the police picked me and revoked my Visa, kicking me out into Kazakhstan.

center: The olympic torch was greeted by large crowds as it traveled around China but in Xinjiang residents were told to stay inside and and the streets were lined with police and a select few groups of workers and school children. In this picture police and military watch an Urumqi alleyway that runs parallel to the route.

right: Immediately after the olympic torch passed through Urumqi groups of workers line up for a photo.

Modern Miracles

Thomas Hardwick, an Egyptologist, holds his lucky stone with ancient leather wrapped around it.
Nour al-Dein Zaki sees this stone as a modern miracle that appears to include Arabic script.

Modern Miracles

While working on news stories in Egypt I heard other stories of modern miracles that intrigued me, so I started keeping a list. The list grew to about 50 miracles, interventions in the physical world, or blessed locations.  Over about 6 years I tracked down these stories to their sources and made photographs along the way.

Every Friday a large numbers of people visit the Seven Daughters seaching for a modern miracle.

Miracle, flying cat seen in Egypt is the title of the clip on YouTube.  It shows a white cat with winglike appendages on the table of a home in Ismalea. The father stretches out the cat’s wings and turns it around, the better for the camera to film it. The family tells the story of how the cat landed on their balcony. Someone says “It is a sign from God,” especially as its landing coincided Sisi’s rise to power.

 The journalist who originally reported on the cat said he will take me to meet the family, but never follows through. So I am left with the three facts I can glean from the video: The father’s name is Ibrahim Naseem, He lives in a neighborhood called Salam, and he is a Christian.

 I start my quest early in the morning, walking from church to church and asking for Ibrahim, and while church members try to be helpful none of them had heard of Ibrahim Naseem or his winged cat.

 Around 3pm I find the last church. I duck inside and the security guards wave me over and ask what I want.  I tell them I am looking for Ibrahim and his winged cat and they say “come with us” and walk me to the closest police station.

In the station I share the same story of my search for a winged cat to a series of low level police men until I am passed upstairs to the head officer.  After I’m inside the stations only air conditioned office I wait my turn because there is already a sweaty portly man standing at attention wearing only white underwear. He is being verbally accosted about something to do with drugs. My best guess is he came from a holding cell for one last scolding before being released.

The man in his knickers is ushered out and I am invited to have a seat and share my story of miraculous cats. I expect some sort of reaction from the officer but he doesn’t even blink.  He asks to look at the photos on my camera and tells me to wait a little longer as if this is a normal occurrence.

 I am ushered out and another fully clothed man is ushered in my place. My short wait turns into 2 hours in a office with police who were filling out reports and organizing a drawer of cell phones.  While these are the state’s eyes and ears on the ground none of them have heard of a winged cat in their district.

 I became restless and a little concerned because no one will tell me what I am waiting for. I text my location to a few colleagues just in case I am disappeared down to one of the holding cells. Eventually a dapper looking member of State Security walks in and introduced himself in perfect English.

 He pulls out a pen and a pad of paper and starts interviewing me and taking notes for an interesting addition to my docier that I imagine will be filed deep in the bowls of the feared security forces offices.

 When he finished getting my story I was released and make my way back to the last church. A deacon who knew everyone in the church said he didn’t know any Ibrahim Naseem and assured me that I had visited all the churches in the area.  So I trudged to my hotel defeated.

The next morning, as I’m riding to the bus station I relate this whole story to my taxi driver. He surprises me by saying that I had forgotten to visit one small evangelical church, a minority sect of a minority religion in Egypt. 

We happened to be near the offices of one of their prominent business members so he dropped me off and told me to ask inside his tire store.

One of the advantages and disadvantages of these small communities is that everyone knows everyone.  When I ask for Ibrahim Naseem the owner puts me on the back of a motorcycle and told his shop boy to drive me back into the neighborhood.

 Within 15 minutes I meet the neighbor of Ibrahim. He confirms the video of the cat with wings. Ibrahim  is at work on the other side of town so I take his phone number and call him.

 It was a short and sad conversation over a bad connection.  But he told me how that the moment of jubilation at the sign from God, had turned into doubt, and eventually he questioned if the cat may not have come from god, but may have come from the devil.

 So the family decided to cut off the cat’s wings, and the cat escaped, lost somewhere, walking through the streets of Ismalea.

Footprints of Mohamed

Dosa Sword

The Rifai Tariqa from Dishna performs a ritual known as “Dosa” at the Moulid Abou Al- Hassan Al-Shazly. Followers put a sword on their neck and the leader stands on top of the blade. If the man pure and fears god he will not be cut. Another similar ritual is putting a long skewer inside the mouth and piercing the cheek. When done by pure men who haven’t recently drank or smoked no blood is drawn.

Tree that bleeds

Every Friday the men go to the small mosque for Friday prayers and women sit under the tree that bleeds. They wait until the end of the sermon then light small fires and swing their children over them 7 times.

Some of them are looking for answers to their problems of mental afflictions, fertility issues, or accidents like a concussion after falling down stairs.

Jebel Al-Tier

Many families visit the the Jebel El-Tier Moulid to pray for children, then return the next year with a child. The room for baptism has so many babies that they are done in batches on an assembly line, one priest takes the oaths, another priest dunks in the water, and the last priest blesses with oil.

Sheikh Fathala

Sheikh Fathala is 92 years old and doesn’t move any more so his daughter carries on his work of teaching the Quran to children and praying with visitors. Sheikh Fathala memorized the Quran when he was 7 years old. He became famous for helping people with all kinds of problems and teaching the Quran to the children of El Deir Esna for many generations. Now his daughter Oum Ziad is in charge of the house.

When people come to pray with the sheikh she will put their hands in his and say a prayer with them. Then she leaves for a minute to fill a plastic baggie with water, say an appropriate ayat from the Quran over it and tell them to drink it. In the few hours I stayed there were many visitors, a young couple, an older lady, a small group of ladies.

Remains of exorcisms

Fathar Saman holds weekly exorcism services at the Simon the Tanner Church in Mansheyat Nasr. Beside the sanctuary there is a room filled with the wheelchairs and crutches of people who have been healed. Fathar Saman has a strong following but his popularity and practices have brought retaliations from the Coptic Church hierarchy.

1968 Appearance of Mary

The appearance of Mary above a church in the Zeitoun district of Cairo is one of the most well known miracles in the country. It drew large crowds every night for months and was officially acknowledged in papers and by politicians like the rising Hosny Mubarak.

Mary is venerated in Christianity and Islam so her appearance was celebrated around the country. The timing of her appearance was also a convenient distraction from Egypt’s recent defeat in the 1967 war with Israel.

Praying for a home on Humaithera

The Moulid of Abu al-Hasan ash-Shadhili occurs annually in the eastern desert. Abu al-Hasan ash-Shadhili predicted his own death when leaving Alexandria on the Hajj in 1258, he fell ill at Mount Humaithera and died. After climbing to the top of Mount Humaithera people stack stones and ask God for help, often for to travel to Mecca or build a house.

About 6 months after the Moulid Abu al-Hasan ash-Shadhili I visited the Rifaai Tariqa in Dishna. One of the men who had built a pyramid on Mount Humaithera asking for a house was actually building his new house.

Burning bush

Exodus 3:2 – There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

Quran 20:10 – When he saw a fire, he said to his family, “Stay; I have noticed a fire; Perhaps I can bring you a torch therefrom, or find some guidance by the fire.”

On Jan 25th revolution the security forces violently pushed protesters out of Tahrir Square. As I was running I saw a burning bush out of the corner of my eye.

Ramadan Lanterns in Cairo, Egypt

Cloth Ramadan lanterns hang over the Al-Khayama street in Darb Al-Ahmar

One of the many Ramadan traditions, especially in Egypt, is Ramadan lanterns. You can see them in front of homes and businesses, large ones are hung across streets, often designed with some local flare.

This is a selection of photos about the workshops where Ramadan lanterns are still made around Cairo.

Old Ramadan lanterns hang over the entrance to the mosque of Hasan Pasha Tahir

Old Ramadan lanterns hang over the entrance to the mosque of Hasan Pasha Tahir at the workshop of Atef Salama in Birkat al Fil. Birkat al Fil is named as the Pond of the Elephants, a watering hole that has now dried up and has long since been turned into a dense Cairo neighborhood. In 1735, De Maillet, the French consul in Cairo, wrote about Birkat Al-Fil, one of the most famous location for princely palaces until the 19th century: “Nothing is more pleasant than this place filled with water during eight months of the year, while during the remaining months, it turns into a perfumed garden.” Salama claims that there have been 4 generations in his family making ramadan lanterns by hand and his workshop is the only one that doesn’t use machines.

A portrait of the father of Atef Salama
A photo of Ataf Salama at the workshop of Atef Salama in Birkat al Fil
An old photo of a previous generation of Ramadan lanterns hangs beside a radio playing audio clips from old films at the workshop of Atef Salama in Birkat al Fil.
Workers eat breakfast and light the fires to start making Ramadan lanterns

An artist heats his soldering tool and water for tea at the workshop of Atef Salama in Birkat al Fil on March 23, 2019 in Cairo, Egypt. Salama claims that there have been 4 generations in his family making ramadan lanterns by hand and his workshop is the only one that doesn’t use machines.

An artist heats his soldering tool and water for tea at the workshop of Atef Salama
Red lantern outside the Ramadan Lantern workshop of Oum Ibrahim

I also visited he Ramadan lantern workshop of Oum Ibrahim in Sayida Zeinab. They make more modern looking lanterns, stamping out designs with machines and sometimes making special theme lanterns of football players or politicians.

The Ramadan Lantern workshop of Oum Ibrahim in Sayida Zeinab
The Ramadan Lantern workshop of Oum Ibrahim in Sayida Zeinab
A machine to stamp and imprint on the metal
The store of Nabil Hussein Shata sells a vide variety of Ramadan lanterns in Darb Al-Ahmar in Cairo, Egypt.
The store of Nabil Hussein Shata sells a wide variety of Ramadan lanterns in Darb Al-Ahmar. This includes lanterns that are up to a meter and a half tall.