Diaa Rashwan (born 1 January 1960) is an Egyptian journalist, politician and the current Chairman of the
State Information Service
The State Information Service is an Egyptian government agency affiliated to the Egyptian Presidency. It is the official media and public relations apparatus of the Egyptian state, with a number of local and international offices, and its respo ...
. Rashwan graduated from
Cairo University
Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...
in 1981 with a
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
in
political science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
from
Cairo University
Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public university ...
, he also received a
Master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
in the same field from the
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
based
Sorbonne University
Sorbonne University (french: Sorbonne Université; la Sorbonne: 'the Sorbonne') is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon ...
in 1985. Rashwan began his career in Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in the early 1980s as a researcher and has been an expert scholar over there since then and many years later in 2011 he became the Director of the Center.
Rashwan was a dissident during the Mubarak era, and a founding member of
Kefaya
Kefaya ( arz, كفاية ''kefāya'', , "enough") is the unofficial moniker of the Egyptian Movement for Change ( ar, الحركة المصرية من أجل التغيير ''el-Haraka el-Masreyya men agl el-Taghyeer''), a grassroots coalition ...
movement which was the seed of the 2011 revolution. Rashwan is also a member of the board of trustees of the
Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), founded in April 1985 and with its headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, is a non-profit NGO and one of the longest-standing bodies for the defense of human rights in Egypt. It investigates, monitors, an ...
since the 1980s. In 2010 he nominated himself in the
parliamentary elections
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
Armant
Armant ( ar, أرْمَنْت; egy, jwn.w-n-mnṯ.w or ''jwn.w-šmꜥ.w''; Bohairic: ; Sahidic: ), also known as Hermonthis ( grc, Ἕρμωνθις), is a town located about south of Thebes. It was an important Middle Kingdom town, which was ...
, however he lost to the NDP candidate due to widespread rigging of the elections by Mubarak's government.
In March 2013 Rashwan was elected president of the Egyptian Press Syndicate however he failed to secure a reelection for a second term. As chief of the Press Syndicate, Rashwan strongly opposed the
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...
-led government of president
Mohamed Morsi
Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa al-AyyatThe spellings of his first and last names vary. survey of 14 news organizations plus Wikipedia in July 2012 June 2013 protests that led to Morsi's subsequent overthrow in July that year. Rashwan was chosen to be appointed to the 50-member constitution committee during the second transitional period to draft Egypt's current constitution. The constitution was later approved by popular referendum in January 2014. In June 2017 Rashwan was appointed by President el-Sisi as Chairman of the
State Information Service
The State Information Service is an Egyptian government agency affiliated to the Egyptian Presidency. It is the official media and public relations apparatus of the Egyptian state, with a number of local and international offices, and its respo ...
and later that year he was appointed as a member of the Supreme Council for Combating Terrorism and Extremism. In March 2019 Rashwan once again became president of the press syndicate after being elected by a landslide while retaining his position as senior government official which drew the criticism of some observers.
In April 2022 the Egyptian president declared his intention to hold a national dialogue in Egypt under the auspices of the National Training Academy that will include all political parties including most of the secular opposition forces and all segments of Egyptian civil society. In June of the same year Diaa Rashwan was selected as the General coordinator of the National Dialogue in his capacity as both the Chairman of SIS and The Presient of the Press Syndicate.
Rashwan comes from a political family,his father Youssef Rashwan was a member of the Egyptian parliament representing the district of Armant in Upper Egypt.