Exactly three years ago, I was visiting Aswan, in the south of Egypt, with two friends. We wanted a break from the 6-week volunteer programme we were doing. We went out for dinner and on our way back to the hotel some images on a TV shop caught our attention: an ocean of people gathering and chanting in Tahrir Square. Puzzled, my friend and I asked our Egyptian friend what movie that was, he said “it’s not a movie, those are live pictures from Tahrir”. When we got back we found a chaotic, loud, vibrant and demanding Cairo.
Every once in a while, I found myself thinking of how lucky I was to be in Egypt when such a beautiful revolution, that started in Tunisia, reached the country: the Arab Spring! Egyptian youth took Tahrir Square (Liberation square in English) to demand the end of corruption and violent police forces, better living conditions, access to basic services and, of course, the ousting of Hosni Mubarak.
On 11 Feb 2011, Mubarak renounced and in 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood elected Mohamed Morsi for president. A year later, on 30 Jun 2013, we saw another protest, now against President Morsi and arguably had the largest number of protesters in a political event in the history of mankind. Days later, the Egyptian army overthrew Morsi.
There is still a lot to come for Egypt. Three bomb blasts yesterday, the day before the anniversary of Egypt’s Revolution Day 25 January, which killed at least five people and injured about 70 others in Cairo. Also this week, a referendum ended up with 98% voting ‘yes’ on a new constitution with the (already expected) boycott of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Critics say the new constitution will give Egypt’s military and political elite more power on a day-to-day basis, while supporters believe it will improve human rights.
For me, the Arab Spring proved social media as a catalyst to social movements and political involvement that spread around the world (Turkey, Brazil and Ukraine as latest examples). I believe we will still hear a lot about youth and social media in the years to come.