Muhammad ‘Ablah was rather surprised to be selected for the Committee of Fifty to amend Egypt’s 2012 constitution. “I have been against the government and anti-regime my whole life,” he said.

An internationally acclaimed artist, ‘Ablah suspects his name was chosen in consultation between the Arts Syndicate and the Ministry of Culture, be the official invitation came from the office of the presidency in September 2013. ‘Ablah accepted as if in a dream. Thoroughly disappointed by the constitution written under an Islamist majority, here was a chance to “help the people have a better life”.