Seeking Growth After the Arab Spring

Unless it can nurture entrepreneurs and create jobs, the popular movement that toppled the dictators won't make a difference in real lives

Myriam Abdelaziz for TIME

The shops in Cairo's bazaars, once packed with tourists, are often deserted.

After even a short walk through Cairo's stifling heat and throat-clogging car fumes, the Diwan Bookstore, with its quiet café and histories of the pharaohs, is a welcome oasis. But the shop is much, much more than just that. Amid the neatly aligned bookshelves, we can discover how to ensure the success of the Arab Spring.

Diwan was founded by an unlikely pair of entrepreneurs: sisters Hind and Nadia Wassef. After both became bored in NGO jobs, they thought a start-up of their own could put their master's degrees in literature to work and help Egyptian society at the same time....

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