Cairo citizens caught between Isis violence and Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s draconian security crackdowns

With journalists and activists jailed and a new terrorism law in effect, a culture of fear is growing in Egypt

The blast shook buildings for miles around. Sleeping residents awoke, called each other, then stared at glowing screens, seeking an explanation for the explosion and the sirens wailing in the distance.

Last Thursday a massive car bomb had detonated outside a security building in Shubra Al-Khaima, a working-class district on Cairo's northern edge. Chunks of concrete had been blasted off the building, shards of glass were sprinkled across the pavement. The windows of the neighbouring apartment building had been blown out, the private spaces of the families within flung open to the street.

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