False News From the Sisi State

Mona Eltahawy, NYT
APRIL 4, 2016

CAIRO — My friend Mostafa Massouny has one of the most eclectic music collections of anyone I know. I initially typed “had” and “knew,” because I fear Mostafa is dead.

We met at a party where I was impressed by a playlist of Nubian musicians he played. Since then, he shared some of that collection with me, often via Facebook or Twitter messages sent at the oddest of hours, accompanied with a simple “listen.” The two most recent gifts I got from him, last year: Chet Baker and Paul Desmond’s “Autumn Leaves,” followed by Hugo Díaz’s “Guitarra Mia.” It was always a delight to receive a YouTube or SoundCloud link from him.

I am ashamed, and immensely regretful, that I didn’t respond to the last message he sent me, a short one aimed at breaking the ice of an earlier unanswered message and missed attempts to meet. But we always think we can afford carelessness, especially with younger friends.

On March 26, he turned 27. His birthday also marked nine months since he — known to his friends simply as Massouny — disappeared after leaving a friend’s apartment in downtown Cairo to buy food.

Massouny hasn’t been charged with anything, there is no record of his detention anywhere, and his body hasn’t shown up at any morgues. All we know is that two weeks into his disappearance, the domestic security agency, National Security, called his workplace, where he was a video editor, to confirm that he was employed there. His family has said that National Security told them that Massouny was in their custody and would be released after an investigation was concluded.

(More here.)