Name: Mohamed Morsi
Age: 60
Title: President of the Arab Republic of Egypt
Inauguration Date: June 30, 2012
Term Length: Four years per term; up to two terms
Party: Freedom and Justice Party
This week, Mohamed Morsi once again caught international attention after an attack Sunday in Sinai killed 16 Egyptian soldiers. Egyptian forces responded with air strikes against suspected Islamic militants responsible for the attack near the Gaza border of Egypt and Israel. Major reorganization of security forces also took place this week, as Morsi “forced Egypt’s general intelligence chief, Mourad Mowafi, into early retirement,” according to Arham Online. Additionally, Morsi held talks this week with Iran’s Vice President Hamid Baghaei.
Mohamed Morsi was elected as Egypt’s fifth president and the first democratically elected one. He replaces Hosni Mubarak, who resigned following the Arab Spring protests in Tahrir Square after nearly thirty years in power.
Morsi is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, and ran as head of the Freedom and Justice Party. According to Reuters, “the Brotherhood established [the Freedom and Justice Party] last year to promote its aims in the new party political system, Morsy has been described as an apparatchik.”
He is married to First Lady of Egypt Naglaa Mahmoud and they have five children. She prefers not to be called “First Lady”.
Morsi has a doctorate in engineering from the University of Southern California and was an Assistant Professor at California State University, Northridge. Two of his children were born in California and are United States citizens by birth.