Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the ruling National Democratic Party have retained majority control of the country's parliament since Mubarak took office in 1981. In November 2005, Egypt allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to run in the country's first highly contested parliamentary election, amid violence, stabbings, and election law violations in several parts of the country.

During this time, photographer and Knight International Journalism Fellow John Smock traveled to Alexandria to train local photojournalists. He advised them how to cover voters, who for the first time had real choices in an election. "I decided to travel to the opposition neighborhood because the people there wanted change," recalls Smock. "We aimed to capture what this election meant to them." Despite violent outbreaks, Smock remembers undeterred citizens in this Alexandria neighborhood passionate to vote. "I was standing outside the polls and saw this woman enter the booth and emerge with a big smile, ready to have her finger marked [indicating that she had voted]. She was so proud." He never spoke to her, but her smile showed that she believed her vote mattered.

New York-based photojournalist John Smock has worked as a reporter, editor, and photojournalist for publications such as the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and Washingtonpost.com. In 2005, Smock became a Knight International Journalism Fellow, assigned to train photojournalists in the Middle East. He teaches at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism.