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David Degner

Boston Photographer and Photojournalist

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Sudan’s Revolution

Protesters in front of the military headquarters during Ramadan
Protesters in front of the military headquarters during Ramadan
Volunteers cook for protesters at the Sit-In
Volunteers cook for protesters at the Sit-In

Awadiya Mahmoud: Union for the Development of Women participating in the Khartoum Sit-In

Awadiya Mahmoud hands out free tea to protesters on May 03, 2019 in Khartoum, Sudan. Awadiya started selling tea in 1983 and by 2013 she had organized 13 community groups for tea sellers and a union to organize them. The union worked together to fight police harassment, find homes for the women, and open a clinic. She says there are around 26000 women in the union. She started serving free food and tea to keep the protesters strong and is an a constant presence at the sit-in.

Neighborhood gatherings in Omdurman
Residents of Omdurman gathered in a soccer field of Abu-rof neighborhood to listen to speaches
June 30: Protesters Take To Streets To Call For End Of Military Rule

Protesters calling for a civilian government held large protests in Khartoum to commemorate those who were killed June 30, 2019 in Khartoum, Sudan. The protesters headed towards the Republican Palace but were stopped by security forces.

Security forces face off against protesters June 30, 2019 in Khartoum, Sudan. The protesters stopped in the main airport road facing off with armed forces.
Protesters Take To Streets To Call For End Of Military Rule
Protesters Take To Streets To Call For End Of Military Rule
A protesters faints from tear gas
Protesters run from the sounds of gunshots and teargas
Protesters set up barricades to prevent security forces trucks from attacking
Protesters set up barricades to prevent security forces trucks from attacking

Who still supports Morsy?

When President Morsy was removed from office by a military Junta thousands joined a month long sit-in at Rabaa al-Adawiya. State media reported that the protesters were terrorists, weapon wielding, foreign, mercenaries. These portraits are an attempt to directly photograph and quote the people I met in Rabaa al-Adawiya to decrease any distortion.

Taher Gamal El-Din, a software developer from Atfiha. “My grandfather was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but that was 40 years ago.” “I voted for the Islamists in the congressional elections, and Morsy in both presidential elections.” “There were things that I didn’t agree with about the constitution but they were relatively small.” “Under Mubarak there were only 5 families that controlled all the wealth and power in the country and this corruption existed at all levels.” “I had a friend that graduated from law school with very high grades, when he tried to get a job in the court system he was refused because he didn’t have the right connections. Now he is a teacher.”

At this moment Egypt was entering a very precarious time. A significant part of Egypt put their faith in the democratic system and Morsy to represent their needs and address their grievances. That system failed, and their dream disappeared. Now they are living together in Raba’a Adiweya.

Afraid of the police state that waits for them outside, waiting for God to intervene, believing that the army will split before it clears them out with force. The most important question in Egypt’s future is how the new government will re-integrate this significant portion of the population back into the system or will they be pushed further to the edges of society.

When Rabaa al-Adawiya was violently cleared and hundreds to about one thousand people were killed in the ensuing violence many in this section of the Egyptian population lost their lives and their peaceful voices. Some of the cell phone numbers of the people in these portraits have been closed and I don’t know where they are.

Amal Mohamad Hassan, a school teacher from Shubra, a district of Cairo. “In the 90’s, after the events in Luxor, State Security broke down our door and disappeared my husband for a week. They didn’t have any reason or warrant, just that he was a religious man. This same system is now returning.” “I know the brotherhood from their community service, helping, and teaching.” “Under Morsy was the first time we felt freedom and democracy. The media was free to be critical and we weren’t afraid of State Security. He was trying to rebuild Egypt from the ground up with many projects even though all the media was lying about him.” “I want you tell the American people that we are mad at them for supporting this coup. But we aren’t waiting for anything from America, we are only waiting on God.”

Ramadan Shehaf, 41, from Atfiha, a town south of Cairo. “State Security broke down my door and tortured me with electricity, attaching leads to my fingers, armpits and testicles. They told me to scream louder so that my neighbors would hear.” “The liberals said we would use a democratic system. We won the presidency, and 4 other votes because we have the majority. If you don’t want us in the government you don’t want democracy.” “I will sit here until I die. I came here to support his legitimacy, The secularists have played with the people using the media to lie to them.”

Ali Mohamed Saad, from Fayoum, a large agricultural area near Cairo. “I came to support legitimacy and because I love Morsy. I feel that he supports democracy more than any other president in the world.” Why do you love Morsy? “He protects our freedom and our Islamic identity.” How has your life changed under Morsy? “I daily feel the freedom of living under a civilian government, ruled by law. Especially during elections.”

Awataf Mohamed Ibrahim, from Shubra, a neighborhood in Cairo holds a portrait of deposed president Mohamed Morsy. Awtaf supports Morsy and wants him re-instated as president because “Under Mubarak people that lived outside of Cairo, especially those in the Sinai and Upper Egypt were forgotten, as if they weren’t even Egyptian. Morsy gave them their rights and the supplies they need to work and farm. He provides them with investment and services.” “He and the Brotherhood have worked to develop the culture and economy of Egypt.” “If we leave our children to these secularists they will grow up without morals.” “Under Mubarak Egyptians weren’t able to breath. He only helped those that were close to him and left most Egyptians hanging in the wind.” “I didn’t have any relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, but after the revolution I wanted to know more.” “They are from us, and listen to us.” “The military should return to just guarding the border and the people. But right now they are coming and killing their own brothers as if they didn’t even know it.”

Walid Ahmed, from Assiut, a majority christian city in southern Egypt. “I came to this protest because this is the first time we have chosen a president and I feel he should finish his term.” “I love Morsy because he is finally leading the country in a manner we want, and he respects us.” “Morsy has ended the war on Islam and there is more freedom.”

Shaban Hamada, 31, from Atfiha used to sell chickens. “State security took my brother and tortured him for 13 days, breaking his hands and arms, to the point I had to help him do everything including wiping his ass.” “I studied religion at Al-Azhar University. But the system is so corrupt and anti-religious that they continue to prevent me from taking my final exam so I can graduate.” “If the military doesn’t return Morsy to his rightful place we will set this country on fire, and if they come here they won’t have to kill just one, they will have to kill us all.”

Manal Mahmoud of Zeitouna, is a grade school teacher in a girls school. “I have family in the army that think opposite from me and we have been split. We can’t talk about politics when we meet, but the army is made of our brothers, sons, and uncles.” “I didn’t have any relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, but I heard they are good people and help others. They are part of the Egyptian population.” “The Brotherhood combine religion and politics in a way that helps spread the idea of love that is Islam. They speak the truth.” “The Mubarak regime was a failure. There wasn’t any freedom of opinion and if I said Mubarak was bad I would be taken to jail. I have friends that were woken from their sleep and taken to jail. But under Morsy is the opposite.” “I feel that they are laughing at us because they have returned the old system, the kill us, and close our media.”

Tamer Sakury, a 36 year old Civil Engineer, a Nubian from Luxor in Upper Egypt. Nubians have been forcefully kicked off their land and ignored by the government historically. “Morsy is the first president to respect the Nubians and teat us like full citizens.” “Morsy has increased pensions and social benefits to the Nubian community.” “He had the idea to give free health insurance to all.” “He has helped farmers get their chemicals and seeds.”

Alaa Mohamed, from Minya, a city in southern Egypt. “I came because I want to defend my freedom and my right to vote.” “I love Morsy because he is from the people, natural and simple. I think he is better than Nasser, because Nasser only tried to unite Arab nations, Morsy’s project is to unite all of the Muslim world.” “In Mubarak’s days if I went to the mosque too often someone from the Interior Ministry would start questioning me and possibly arrest me. But with Morsy we are free to pray as we want.”


The Al-Nahda Garden is located beside one of the Pro-Morsy sit-ins in Cairo and has been taken over as a place to relax in the shade, especially during the monthlong fasting of Ramadan. According to a report by Amnesty International, the garden has also been the location of torture and murder by the Morsy supporters.

Syrian Revolution

Syrian Refugees in Homs

Photos: Syrian revolution from both sides

Twice, I have received visas to photograph in Syria. Surpassingly I was allowed into pro-Assad districts in Damascus. Many photojournalists were denied entry; no reason is given. I didn’t have government minders while working in Damascus and the rural towns of Ma’loula and Douma, but some checkpoints prevented me from entering rebel-held areas (I snuck past a few), overbearing restrictions, and conversations that crashed into ideological walls.

Arabaeen, a pro-revolution protest in Damascus, Syria.

Most pro-Assad Syrians espouse variations of the same narrative: The Free Syrian Army is composed of foreign-backed terrorists bent on destabilizing Syria who are at the service of Saudi Arabia, Israel, and America; Assad has been forced to use measured violence to crush them, and he is the bulwark keeping Syria from fragmenting into bloody sectarianism; many of the atrocities Western journalists are blaming on Assad’s army and shabiha (Assad-hired thugs who dress like civilians and sneak-attack protestors) are actually being committed by the rebels and their criminal milieu.

Damascus Elite at a Karaoke Bar
Bunat Alajial school sit in a math class in Damascus, Syria

In my experience, when Assad supporters are asked about reports of the state officials torturing activists or the overwhelming use of indiscriminate force on civilian populations, they say either that these claims are exaggerations, if not fabrications, or that violence is necessary. One Syrian journalist even pointed out that if the US is permitted the use of extrajudicial arrests and torture to thwart “terrorists,” then Assad’s government should also be allowed to do so. 

Rebel fighter in Homs, Syria

The storylines of rebels and loyalists are constantly competing in the Arab media. Satellite television stations like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, networks that made their names with impartial coverage, have had a noticeable pro-rebel tilt. Inside Syria, the Damascus-based array of state-run television channels and Addounia TV (a privately owned station viewed by many as a mouthpiece of Assad) broadcast the government’s line. These Assad-backed channels have been blocked by satellite television services in Egypt and many countries throughout the Gulf.

Smoke and explosions in Damascus Syria
Syrian State TV in Damascus

The only time I ran into a Syrian state-TV reporter in downtown Damascus, she was conducting street interviews on a pressing issue: “Which fruits and vegetables do you freeze so you can eat them out of season?” It made the smoke billowing on the horizon all the more surreal.

Earlier that day, I had been sitting at a coffee shop on the slopes of Mount Qasioun, taking in the sweeping view of Damascus. I saw smoke then too, rising from the southern suburb of Qadam. A man walked up to me and identified himself as state security. He told me that I was not allowed to photograph anything, explaining that the smoke on the horizon was black, which, according to him, meant that the rebels were burning tires to make the government look bad. He had no explanation, however, for the thud of artillery fire that had been audible since dawn.

Helmet of a UN observer in Homs
First Day of School in Damascus Syria

The roar of such fire fades into the background of Damascus but doesn’t ever dissipate. On the first day of primary school in the upper-class neighborhood of Mezzeh, the sound seeped into a closed-window classroom where I was photographing young students. One mother tried to comfort her son by claiming it was thunder. Eventually, he didn’t believe her anymore and asked, “When will it rain?” A couple of young hairdressers hanging out in Mezzeh joked with me that it was “the sound of romance.”

Rama Hamdi tries to coax her son, Hadi Shaban, to leave for his first day of school in Damascus. Even in peaceful parts of the city, the daily routine has been disrupted—students are going to schools closer to home since the roads are unsafe after dark. Even in the supposedly secure neighborhood of Mezzeh, the low thud of artillery shells is a constant.

The only place in the city where artillery fire couldn’t be heard was during karaoke night at a place called the Mood Lounge. There I watched a small crowd of the rich and well-connected crack jokes and prod one another to sing patriotic songs, French classics, and Amy Winehouse.

Free Syrian Army Soldier in Homs
Sniper victim in Homs
Running from snipers in Homs

Just two days before my visit to the Mood Lounge, a writer, translator, and I were heading down a back road into Zabadani, one of the rebel-held towns along the Lebanese border. We were stopped at a checkpoint outside town and escorted to a house that had been turned into a makeshift command post. Inside, a military officer firmly told us that, for our own safety, we wouldn’t be allowed into the city. He confirmed that the artillery constantly sounding in the distance was being lobbed at Zabadani.

Paradoxically, while the officer prevented us from entering his jurisdiction, he also demanded that we, in our journalism, “tell the truth.” He told us that Assad would rather watch 100 of his soldiers die than allow a single innocent civilian to be killed. The next day, a Syrian activist tweeted that about 20 people had died at the hands of the Syrian Army in Zabadani.

A public square of Khalidiya is pitted with holes from mortars and explosives. At one time this square was used for organizing anti-government protests where many were originally killed.

The officer speculated that his nation’s erupting civil war was just the beginning of World War III—after an attack by Israel, he said, Syria would be forced to defend itself by invading and eventually liberating Jerusalem. And with that, we were ordered to turn around and join the line of cars evacuating the area. The other vehicles were mostly filled with families of civilians. 

Moving from Zabadani while under shelling

Sheep owned by a Bedouin family are fed on the outskirts of Damascus. Sheep are one of the few populations faring better than normal during the war; fruits and vegetables that can’t be transported to the city are being used to feed local livestock.

In Ma’loula, a small southwestern Christian mountain town, I had a drink in the home of a soldier who fought in the 1973 war with Israel. He said that he was a former member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, and that while fighting in the Sinai he and a group of fellow soldiers had wanted to prove themselves to their Egyptian counterparts—their allies in that ill-fated assault on Israel—so they had roasted a dead Israeli soldier on a spit and pretended to eat his flesh. They were actually eating from a lamb that had been cooked nearby. His explanation for their actions? “It was a time of war.”

Aramaic speakers in Ma'aloula, Syria
Ma'aloula, Syrian Christian Village

The soldier then pointed to my jawline, to a patch of white in my brown beard, and said that terror alone can cause such a spot to appear almost instantly. He was probably right; I noticed the discoloration after my first trip into the fighting in Homs, a city that has been devastated in the war. The cure, he told me, was to rub it raw with steel wool until it bleeds, for three days straight. Then let it scar over. 

Free Syrian Army in Khalidiya
Abdul Baset al-Sarout, singer and football player

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I'm a freelance photographer in Boston, working on editorial, commercial, and personal projects.