About Karim Zidan
About Karim Zidan
I am an Egyptian who grew up in Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt, a military dictatorship which had near perfected the art of legitimizing its oppressive rule to endear itself to the West. I came of age, both as a young adult and a writer, during the 2011 Arab Spring, and have experienced the reassertion of retooled and often more savvy dictatorial regimes across the region. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have chosen to pursue a career in journalism, where much of my investigative reporting centers around the machinations of the politically powerful, and in particular the use of sports as a legitimization tool.
During my tenure as an investigative reporter, I helped pioneer and develop the intersection of sports and politics as a legitimate area of reportage. I researched topics ranging from far-right extremists weaponizing sports to radicalize disenfranchised youth, how former U. S.