Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Documentary: Now That It's Mine

CBC Radio's "The Current"
21 February 2011

CAIRO - The protests that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak did more than bring down an unpopular regime. They brought back to Egyptians a sense of pride in their country -- a feeling that had been missing for decades. Heba Aly was in Cairo during the protests. Here is her documentary, Now That It's Mine.

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Mubarak Steps Down

CBC Radio's "The Current"
11 February 2011

CAIRO - After 18 days, Egyptian protesters are successful in pushing President Hosni Mubarak out of power. The CBC's Margaret Evans and Heba Aly report live from Tahrir Square and beyond.

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Women and the Egyptian Revolution

10 February 2011
CBC Radio's "The Current"

CAIRO - Women are playing a significant role in organizing the protests in Egypt. Could this uprising re-shape Egypt's gender relations and social landscape? Heba Aly talks to host Anna Maria Tremonti.

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Documentary: The Price to Pay

CBC Radio's "The Current"
7 February 2011

CAIRO - Egypt's capital Cairo is returning to a more normal frenzy after nearly two weeks of anti-government protests that brought the city to a standstill. Yesterday, the banks re-opened, people went back to work, and police were back on the streets.

But Egypt remains deeply affected. The protests have not only divided the country, but in the extended absence of government services, they've also forced many neighbourhoods to organize themselves and create a kind of grassroots democracy Egypt was always lacking.

Heba Aly takes us beyond the protests, to how people have been living outside Tahrir Square in her documentary: The Price to Pay.

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Egypt Crackdown

CBC Radio's "The Current"
4 February 2011

CAIRO - Amid widespread reports of crackdowns -- including detentions, beatings, and robberies -- on human rights activists and journalists covering the protests in Egypt, Heba Aly describes her day upon arrival in the city

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(about 10 minutes in)

Albania's Untold Story

The Christian Science Monitor
31 January 2011

Fritzi Weitzmann Owens came from a "cultured city". So in 1938, when Hitler's invasion of Austria forced her to flee her native Vienna, Albania -- "a backwards country", as far as she was concerned -- wasn't her family's first choice.

But few places in Europe were willing to accept Jews, and the United States had a quota system. Albania, one of Europe's least developed countries, became her family's refuge. Offered visas by King Zog himself, the Weitzmanns spent four months in Albania before getting papers for the US.

...

Weitzmann is one of thousands of Jews to have been saved from the Holocaust through Albania, Europe's only Muslim country at the time. Amid better-known tales, such as "Schindler's List", this instance of Jewish rescue went largely unknown for decades because of a postwar dictatorial communist regime that left Albania's borders closed to the world. Today, a growing body of research is finally shining a spotlight on this story of hospitality, sacrifice, and religious harmony.

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Monday, December 6, 2010

Albania's BESA

CBC Radio's "The Current"
17 November 2010

TORONTO - In a little known fact of history, in Muslim Albania, there is no evidence of a single Jew was handed over to the Nazis during WW2 because opening your door to strangers is entrenched in an ancient Albanian code of honor, Besa. The Current's producer, Heba Aly, joined Anna Maria in studio to share this remarkable story.

Listen here.