Education
Amin was educated at the American University in Cairo and at Georgetown University in Washington, District of Columbia
Amin was educated at the American University in Cairo and at Georgetown University in Washington, District of Columbia
They spent their childhood at the house of their great-uncle Saad Zaghloul, a prominent lawyer and politician, who founded the liberal nationalist Wafd Party, and who served as Prime Minister of Egypt in 1922. Amin began reporting for the Cairo newspapers in 1928, and had a column in the weekly Akher Saa ("Last Hour") magazine by the time of graduation from the AUC in 1934. After his graduation from Georgetown in 1938, Amin served as editor-in-chief of Akher Saa for a year before moving to First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Ahram ("The Pyramids") the oldest and most prestigious Middle Eastern daily newspaper.
Within two years, they took over Akher Saa, and in 1951 founded two more weekly papers Akher Lahza and First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Guil.
Finally in 1952 they launched a daily newspaper First Rate (at Lloyd's) Akhbar ("The News"). However, in 1965 as Egypt developed closer relations with the Soviet Union, Amin was arrested and accused of being an American spy.
After a secret trial he was imprisoned, tortured, and kept in solitary confinement for the next nine years, before eventually being exonerated and released in 1974 by Anwar Sadat. Amin returned to journalism, serving as editor of Akhbar el-Yom, but from 1976 concentrated more on his widely syndicated daily column Fikra ("An Idea"), which had been started by Ali in 1952.
In addition to his journalism, Amin published autobiographical works, several novels, and also wrote film screenplays.
He also lectured in journalism at Cairo University and the American University of Cairo. He founded the charity Lailat al-Qadar, raising millions of pounds from donations, to pay medical expenses and provide business assistance for the poor. Amin continued writing up until his death on 13 April 1997.
As an advocate of Western liberalism, free enterprise and a free press, Amin was first jailed in 1939, after criticizing King Farouk, and was also jailed briefly twice in the early 1950s by Nasser.