The Egyptian Revolution is only two years old. While it has already changed Egypt profoundly, it is far from over. This was proven again today, January 25, 2013, two years from the beginning, as thousands went to Midan al-Tahrir (Liberation Fields or Plaza, "square" seems quite inapt for such a strangely shaped space) on the anniversary of the Revolution's birth. It was also manifested in the massive and courageous protests in late 2012. Important as street protests are, as with any real revolution they are the result of the changes in people’s actual lives. These changes cannot be undone.
While it was a great victory to remove Mubarak and convict him, his system remains. Real revolutions are never simple. Some take a decade or longer, others never finish, as with Mexico’s “frozen” revolution. Others fail to overthrow the old regime, or end up with a new regime that is no better. So, yes, Egypt’s Revolution could still fail, even partial democracy is not assured. But there are real reasons for hope.
What has happened already and what is still possible cannot be understood without careful attention to Egypt’s complicated history and complex situation today. Illusions about technology ("Facebook Revolution"), Islam (monolithic, but actually it is as complicated as Christianity which ranges from Unitarians to the Aryan Nation) and Arab culture (anti-democracy) are staples of Western mass media analysis. The future of the Revolution is impossible to predict, of course, but one mistake should not be made again, although it certainly will. Do not underestimate the bravery of the Egyptian people or the resilience of their ancient culture.
1. Tahrir Midan, February 8, 2011 (photo from Wikipedia Commons).
While the start of the Egyptian revolution came as a surprise to many Egyptians, and most of the rest of the world, many people organized for years to make it happen. Egypt has a long history of social struggle against foreign domination and against misrule. Still, few predicted that the January 25, 2011 protests would lead directly to the end of Mubarak’s dictatorship. It took literally millions of people in the streets to make it happen. The revolution remains powerful, as polls and the hundreds of thousands of protesters who face death regularly prove. But the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and their new ally the Moslem Brotherhood, have cleverly portrayed themselves as a stabilizing force when actually they have kept things chaotic while they pursue strategies to discredit the original revolutionaries ("nonbelievers controlled by foreigners"), the Islamists ("terrorists") and anyone else who seems a threat to their power.
2. NDP HQ, July 2011 (photo by C.H. Gray).
The former headquarters of Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP), as seen from the bank of the Nile. Directly on its other side is Tahrir. Ever since it was burned and looted during the first stage of the Revolution every demonstration in Tahrir has taken place in the shadow of this monument to the power, and anger, of the people of Cairo.
NDP party headquarters all over Egypt were destroyed, many NDP leaders are in jail, and the NDP is defunct, although many of its functionaries have moved to other parties. But the real power remains with the military, where it has always been. Now, instead of being orchestrated through Mubarak and his circle it is managed by SCAF. They pressure and reward those powers willing to deal (the Moslem Brotherhood, the Coptic Hierarchy, key business interests) in service of sustaining their control.
3. Facebook Revolution T-shirt bought in Tahrir, July 2011 (photo by C.H. Gray).
The “Facebook Revolution” shirt is for the tourists. The popular shirt among Tahrir protesters when I was first there (Summer 2011) was “I (heart) Egypt.” Yes, the revolutionaries use Facebook, and phones, and cars and email and electricity and toilets. But revolutions always come down to people making choices, confronting power and risking their lives. As with printing presses in the past, social media is new and important yet it isn't the existence of particular technologies that is crucial but how they are used and by whom. Facebook and email are important at some points, useless and compromised or even blocked at others. Cutting off the internet actually propelled large numbers of "the party of the couch" (as activists call them) to go out into the streets.
Television also played a big role at times. A half dozen people (a professor, some students, a worker from Giza) told me they joined the protests when they saw Al Jazeera broadcasts of "The Battle of the Camels" when mounted thugs attacked the protests. It wasn't just the horrible brutality of the regime hooligans that offended people, it was also the insulting image of camels being used this way at the heart of one of the world's great cities. A number of interviews and news stories on Egyptian TV also were influential, especially once journalists started rejecting censorship. But TV can be shut down, even the Internet can be shut down. Revolution fundamentally depends on people in the streets. It always will.
4. Picture Shrine to the Martyrs of the Revolution (photo by Adel Wassili).
Since January 25, 2011 thousands of Egyptians have died, and tens of thousands have been seriously injured, protesting for freedom. That only a few security personal have died shows how fundamentally nonviolent these protests have been, despite the greatest provocations. In this picture of a memorial for revolutionary martyrs from the first 18 days notice that none of them are bearded, a sign that few, if any, were activists in the Moslem Brotherhood or the Salafist networks. While some of these "first responder" core revolutionaries are truly secular, many more are moderate Moslems and Christians and some are formerly apolitical hard-core soccer fans (Ultras) radicalized by years of police brutality. Revolutionary is as good a label as any for these activists who are still the driving force for true democracy.
But since January 25 many militants from the Moslem Brotherhood and the Salafist groups have protested and died for the Revolution despite the pragmatic (many say craven) Moslem Brotherhood policies that veer between support for the SCAF and protesting it and Salafist confusion over the politics of theology. During this period many young people, moderates, and others have left the Moslem Brotherhood and Salafist militants have faced danger and death with nonIslamist protesters by their side. The Moselm Brotherhood combines authoritarian theology and organization and public charity with a lust for power and that many followers find disillusioning. The Salafist movement, on the other hand, is in a period of profound change, as it enters into revolutionary and electoral politics for the first time after years of holding itself apart. There is a base in Egypt for profoundly reactionary and patriarchal politics but it is a deeply unsettled situation, as can be seen in the Spring (2012) protests at the Defense Ministry, with liberals joining Salafists, and in the decision by the Salfasit Nour party to endorse the moderate former Moslem Brotherhood leader, and now leading moderate, Aboul Fotouh for president.
5. Regime Thugs attack Tahrir (photo by Adel Wassili).
This image shows police agents and allies attacking the Tahrir protesters early in the Revolution. The protesters of Egypt do fight back when confronted by thugs such as these, or uniformed police run amok, or military special forces bent on assassinations. However, these defensive actions are seen as fundamentally nonviolent by the majority of Egyptians, because they do not aim to kill (and very few thugs, police, or soldiers have been killed or even seriously injured).
Nonviolent activism is a continuum, and what makes sense morally and politically varies by cultures and circumstances. The type of actions that led to the revolutionaries taking control of central Cairo are certainly not going to work in the US, despite the dreams of some young men who dress in black and feel liberation in the trashing of little stores in Oakland, San Francisco, or Santa Cruz. It is not a simple matter of pacifism versus violence. Even pacifists get beaten to death when they threaten a system whose very existence is structural violence. But violence begets violence, and the more violent the social change is, the more violent (and hierarchical, and masculine, and authoritarian) the new society. Means delimit ends. Sophisticated revolutionaries around the world understand this and nonviolent strategies are being embraced by the vast majority of struggles. Even some groups with a military capability such as the Zapatistas, go to great lengths to minimize armed conflict. After all, the side of justice doesn't automatically win in war, the best killers usually do.
6. Women protesters in Tahrir (photo by Adel Wassili).
Revolution isn't just about changing governments. Real revolutions change the fabric of daily life, although not necessarily for the better. Six months after the fall of Mubarak people often told me how polite everyone was and, even more amazing, that many lower level functionaries were refusing bribes. But the economic cost has also been high, especially with the collapse of tourism, so as the struggle has worn on optimism sometimes gives way to depression, even despair.
Inevitably, the status of women is effected by the Revolution. Egyptian women are a powerful presence in society and have many rights by law. They have been at the heart of the Revolution as well. To disempower Egyptian women would take a counter revolution as fundamental as the current process. But it is possible. Some groups, often well supplied with Saudi money, are working toward this, even as they claim to be part of the struggle for democracy.
7. The Egyptian Military (rubbing of a relief of unknown age, origin unknown, colored by an unknown artist, photo by C.H. Gray).
The Egyptian military has a very long history indeed. Most recently it has been directly ruling Egypt; Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak were all officers. The higher officers of the Army, Air Force, and Navy have not only had a monopoly on political power for over 50 years but they control much of the economy as well through an incredible web of corruption. They are particularly close to the United States. Most of them have trained in the US and a significant part of their yearly budget comes directly from US taxpayers to the Ministry of Defense in order to "encourage" Egypt's acceptance of the status quo with Israel and general acquiescence to Pax Americana.
When confronting soldiers the revolutionaries often chant "The soldiers are the brothers of the people." Once, in the middle of one such confrontation, the hatch of a tank popped open and the brother of one of the protesters appeared laughing, exclaiming how true it was. Egyptians have a marvelous sense of humor so when the protesting brother told me this story with a group fellow architecture students who knew it well, the laughter was still infectious. Some lower level officers and soldiers have joined the protests (and been tortured and jailed) and many more, even special forces troops who are the ones used against protesters, have let it be known through relatives and anonymous messages that they support the Revolution.
8. Unknown Arrests in Tahrir, July 2011 (photo by C.H. Gray).
This is a picture of a mysterious arrest in Tahrir Midan on July 2, taken from my hotel room. No one I asked knew about it, although many people commented on how common the formation of the plain clothes police with their van was. It wasn’t mentioned in any media I saw.
The security apparatus that proceeded and then sustained Mubarak is as strong as ever. Not only does it deploy armed gangs to attack and kill nonviolent protesters, but there is a great deal of evidence that it has organized the bombing of Coptic Churches, the massacre of football fans (the ultras who have played such a role in the Revolution), and the assassination of targeted activists. The military runs its own system of kangaroo courts and has also systematically sexually assaulted arrested women under the flimsy pretext of "virginity exams." Need it be said yet again that most elements of the forces of order have been trained by the US and work closely with the CIA and the US military?
Another specialty of the deep state that runs Egypt is rigging elections. The last election under the Mubarak administration was a bit sloppy, however, not even offering the illusion of honesty. The first parliamentary elections under the SCAF were handled more subtly, using large districts, short timelines, and judicious disqualifications for much of the manipulation, although outright fraud and voter intimidation were also widespread, especially in support of the Moslem Brotherhood, temporary allies of SCAF. Now that the people have demanded, and died for, legitimate elections, and as social organization and independent media expands, it will become harder and harder for SCAF to commit outright larceny yet they have no choice but to try and keep the genie of electoral democracy bottled up.
9. US policy (photo by C.H. Gray, stencil by an anonymous activist, near Tahrir).
A telling montage of the US presence in Egypt--an ad for English lessons next to a stencil about the made-in-the-USA tear gas, used against the revolutionaries. One cannot ignore that the US is an empire with incredible power over Egypt, supporting its military and warping its foreign policy through cultural, military and economic pressures. Egyptians are incredibly friendly and hospitable people, so it is no surprise most are nice to Americans. But it goes deeper, they are interested in the West, including the US, and interested in Western politics and culture but not at all interested in not being Egyptian.
10. Information Flows: Cairo roofs as seen from the 14th Century Fatimid gates (photo by C.H. Gray).
Much of the Western theorizing on the flows of information that made the Revolution possible has been facile, especially attempts to brand it the Facebook Revolution. As a complex, dynamic, chaotic system that we are part of we can never fully explain phenomena like the Egyptian Revolution.
Here we see the roofs of a Cairo neighborhood, linking every building to the world wide interweb. The obvious garbage is a result of the sanitation crisis created by corruption. For hundreds of year the Zabaleen, a community of Coptic Christians, have collected the garbage of Cairo for a small fee and recycled as much as possible, turning kitchen waste into pigs, for example, for further profit. But Mubarak's government bought in European companies that for massive profits set up a western system of giant bins and trucks that don't fit in the ancient streets. The end result, unemployed Zabaleen, rich officials and foreigners, and garbage everywhere.
11. July 8, 2011 Rally, Tahrir Square (photo by C.H. Gray).
Since January 25, 2011 there has almost always been some protest presence in Tahrir, although a number of times the Military has cleared it with great brutality. Some of these protests have been massive. And there are important protests at other sites in Cairo, such as those in the Spring of 2012 at the Defense Ministry, and in most other cities in Egypt, especially Alexandria, Port Said, and Suez.
But just as important is the spread of democracy at the grass roots. In Cairo there are over 50 neighborhood councils and there is a campaign to make municipal elections truly democratic. Through negotiations, protests, and even sit-ins students, faculty and staff at universities across Egypt are pushing for democratic governance of their schools. Despite police repression and attacks by corporate thugs, workers are organizing across the country. Many different groups are organizing charity and community empowerment programs, including at least one alliance of liberals and Salafists.
12. Egyptian Revolutionary Ahmed Salah speaks in Oakland, California, May 1, 2012 (photo by Bob Thawley).
In many respects, Egypt is the center of the Arab world. Through movie and television production, music, theology, demographics, and history Egypt has been, and still is, a powerful influence on Arab culture. But its influence is actually greater, and not only in the non-Arab Muslim countries but beyond to the whole world. It isn't just that the ancient Greeks (and therefore all of Western Civilization) were shaped by the wisdom of Mother Egypt, as Martin Bernal's brilliant Black Athena demonstrates, but Egypt has played a crucial role in modernity as well, particularly in the politics of anti-colonialism and the balance of power in the Middle East.
Now, as modernity comes to its uncertain end, the Egyptian people have shown simple tired stories about Islam and Arab culture are just that, simple and tired. The bravery, the persistence, and the refusal of an easy slide into violence of the Egyptian Revolution have inspired people around the world. The struggle for democracy in Egypt is an integral part of the world's Crisis of Democracy, which is as acute in Europe and North America as anywhere. Here Ahmed Salah, the noted Egyptian organizer, speaks at the 2012 May Day Occupy Oakland protest in California.
13. The Pyramids as seen from Gaza City, June 2012 (photo by Corey Alexander Grayson).
The distant past and the difficult present coexist in Egypt. There is a large and sophisticated middle class, very much divided now between revolutionaries, crooks, reformers, secret police, reactionaries, and a majority impossible to label. Most Egyptians are still small farmers (even peasants) and very poor workers. Organizing among them is intense, but difficult, facing as it does the direct power and profits of rural (almost feudal) and urban (always linked to the security forces) elites.
14. Stencils near Tahrir, June 2012 (photo by C.H. Gray).
An Anonymous (Guy Fawkes) stencil is next to a coffin that reads "Down with the rule of the military". The third image is the face of Shafik, former general/Vice-President of Mubarak, and the old regime's candidate in the presidential elections, with the word "Hypocrite". Shafik came in second in the election, after first place Morisi. The three revolutionary candidates had more than 50% of the vote, but it was divided between them. It is important to note that election cheating is still very common, that soldiers and police (overwhelmingly anti-Moslem Brotherhood) can't vote and that recently the revolutionaries have been cooperating as well as ever. In the three major elections the Moslem Brotherhood support has continually declined. In the last vote for approving the Constitution, while 62% approved, only 33% voted.
15. Mural near Tahrir, June 2012 (photo by C.H. Gray)
The heads of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on this hydra were replaced by President Morisi, but the military/intelligence leadership clique remains the most powerful force in Egypt, thanks to the support of the United States, their great (stolen) wealth, and their control of the guns of the military and police. For now they have a working arrangement with the Moslem Brotherhood but it is tenuous. Their own grasp on power is far from secure, in large part because the majority of the military, such as most of the middle ranks of officers, does not benefit from the corruption and the common soldiers are just short-term conscripts and are quite unreliable. While the police are universally hated popular views of the army are more complicated. More and more people make distinctions between regular soldiers and security troops, between corrupt generals and patriotic ones, such as Major General Mohammed Batran, killed at the start of the Revolution because he tried to stop the prisons from being opened by the Mubarak regime, which set the freed thugs on the protesters.
16. Mural near Tahrir June 2012 (photo by C.H. Gray).
This mural is of some martyrs with their names and a woman who holds a paper that shows the black ribbon (symbol of death) next to the words "the youth" and then "I'll bring justice to my son" as in "I'll avenge my son." She is obviously the mother of a dead revolutionary. At protests, one always feels the pride Egyptians feel for standing up for their rights and for a better Egypt. But there is alway the realization of the price already paid, and of the sacrifices the future will demand.
17. The Sphinx, rotting away, June 2012. (Photo by Corey Alexander Grayson).
It is better not to pretend we know the future, the riddle of the now is difficult enough. The future has yet to be determined by decisions we have not yet made…
But it is clear that Egypt only has so much time. The corrupt economy is in shambles, Saudi money pours in to support the fundamentalists, tourists stay away in droves, the greed of the government/military bureaucracy throttles almost all innovations, the air is so dirty it rots the great monuments and the hungry fill the streets. Until the Revolution is carried through, these problems will remain. It might not be a bad thing that as the party in power now, the Moslem Brotherhood will bear most of the blame for the upcoming hard times. But at some point things must get better, or they will get a whole lot worse.
18. Sponge Bob Square Pants and a Salafist candidate share the honors on the side of a souvenir stall in Tahrir, June 2012 (Photo by Chris Hables Gray).
Nothing stays the same in Revolutionary Egypt. The Salafists originally refused to enter politics. The Moslem Brotherhood has broken a series of promises: not contesting all the seats in the legislature, not running a president candidate, not using violence. Old enemies make temporary alliances and new forces make themselves felt. With revolutionary Libya on one side, an aggressive Israel on the other, and war nearby in Mali and Iraq, the whole region is unstable.
19. A small "feeder" protest moves through Tahrir, June 2012 (photo by Corey Alexander Grayson).
Eighteen months after the overthrow of Mubarak some revolutionaries despaired at their inability to catalyze millions into the streets again, but Egypt was still a ferment of small protests, strikes, and specific struggles in neighborhoods, factories, and schools. With his grab for power a few months later, President Morisi himself proved that millions were still ready to risk their lives (over 50 died) in the streets for the Revolution.
20. At the Great Pyramid, June 2012 (Photo by Corey Alexander Grayson).
If you visit Egypt in the future, go to the Great Pyramids and ponder how long human history is, because it started there. This Egyptian Revolution will only be a tiny fraction of that story, even if it goes on for a decade or two, but it will be an important part none-the-less. Egypt has offered many great gifts to human civilization and no matter how it turns out, this Egyptian Revolution is another one.
Six months after Mubarak's fall, I met Mohammed, who runs a shop on Tahrir Midan. He spoke excellent English he perfected running a store in Atlanta during the Olympics. He showed me the dried blood on the threshold of his place. "To remember," he said. "To remember we still have a mountain to climb." The mountain remains, but so far, Egypt is not turning back.
** For more of Adel Wassili's amazing photographs see http://www.adelwassily.com.
An shorter version of this photo essay appeared on my personal website in mid-2012.
Sources Much of my understanding of Egypt comes from my visits there and being befriended by some amazing people. Still, all opinions here are my own. There are also many great writings on Egypt, revolution, and related topics and more each day. Below are some of those I have found most useful and that I strongly recommend. In particular, Translating Egypt's Revolution: The Language of Tahrir, edited by Samir Mehrez, is incredible. A uniformly excellent collaboration of students (including undergraduates) and faculty of The American University in Cairo. I've listed some of the chapters from it that I found particularly useful for this essay below.
Al Aswany, Alaa (2011a) On the State of Egypt: What Made the Revolution Inevitable, Vintage.
__, (2011b) "Narrating the Revolution, The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, 1/1, pp. 88-93.
Beinin, Joel (2010) The Struggle for Worker Rights in Egypt, DC: Solidarity Center.
El Dawla, Aida (2011) “Seeking Justice,” The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, 1/1, pp. 119-125.
El Deeb, Sarah (2011) “Street by street, Egypt activists face Old Guard,” Daily News Egypt, July 12, p. 2.
El-Ghobashy, Mona (2011) “The Praxis of the Egyptian Revolution,” Middle East Report, 258/ 41, no. 1, Spring, pp. 2-13.
Fahmy Nabil (2011) “A More Assertive Arab Foreign Policy,” The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, 1/1, pp. 101-111.
Hamid Shadi (2011) “The Struggle for Middle East Democracy,” The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, 1/1, pp. 18-29.
Hamzawy, Amr (2011) “From Dictatorship to Democracy,” The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, 1/1, pp. 112-118.
Hessler, Peter (2013) "Big Brothers: Where is the Muslim Brotherhood leading Egypt?" The New Yorker, January 14, pp. 24-30.
Idle, Nadia and Ales Nunns, ed., (2011) Tweets from Tahrir, New York: OR Books.
Kader, Ramadan (2011) “Egyptian Tales: Revolt on Campus,” Egyptian Mail, No. 25, July 5, p. 2.
Khouri, Rami (2011) “Region in Revolt,” The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, 1/1, pp. 126-134.
Keane, John (2009) The Life and Death of Democracy, Norton.
Khalil, Menna (2012) "The People and the Army Are One Hand: Myths and Their Translations" in Translating Egypt's Revolution, ed. by Samia Mehrez, pp. 249-275.
LeVine, Mark (2012) "Egypt's revolution reloaded?" Al Jazeera, Aug. 13.
Madbouli, Ashraf (2011) “Divisions ahead of Friday’s protest,” Egyptian Mail, No. 25, July 5, p. 1.
Mehrez, Samia (2012a) Translating Egypt's Revolution: The Language of Tahrir, The American University in Cairo Press.
__, (2012b) "Translating Revolution: An Open Text" in Translating Egypt's Revolution, ed. by Samia Mehrez, pp. 1-23.
Sadiki, Larbi (2012) “Egypt's Presidency: The revolution within the Ikhwan," Al Jazeera, April 10.
Salem, Hebra and Kantaro Taira (2012) "al-Thawra al daHika: The Challenge of Translating Revolutionary Humor" in Translating Egypt's Revolution, ed. by Samia Mehrez, pp. 183-211.
Steavenson, Wendell (2012) "Radical Rising: Who are Egypt's hard-line Islamists and what do they want?" New Yorker, April 30, pp. 24-30.
Viney, Steven (2012) "Profile: Former banker seeks to empower youth through local councils," Egypt Independent, May 7.