Arab Spring in Egypt / Egypt Revolution

Arab Spring in Egypt

The Arab Spring which first broke out in Tunisia, 2010-11 encouraging other countries of the Arab World and become the hottest topic of Arab politics in terms of International Relations. After Tunisia, Egyptian protest broke out against Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak on January 25, 2011.

Egypt as a Country:

Egypt got independence in 1922 from British rule despite independence UK controls the Suez Canal matters. Egypt relates to two regions North Africa and southwest Asia. Egypt shares a border with Libya to West, Sudan to South and Gaza strip to North.  Also, share costliness with the Mediterranean Sea, The Red Sea, and the River Nile. 

Egyptian Revolution:

The revolution of Egypt inspired by the Tunisian revolution started in January 2011 and ended within 18 days. This was the shortest campaign that overthrown the 30 years of Hosni rule. The revolution started with the marches, demonstration and civil resistance by Labour Union added to pressure on government officials. During the unrest, Cairo, the capital of Egypt defined as ‘a War Zone’.

Presidency of Hosni and Reasons for Protest:

After Anwar Sadat assassination in 1981, Hosni Mubarak became a President of Egypt through the National Democratic Party. He was getting support from the USA against the Islamist Militants and peace with Israel.

The government and rule of Hosni based on corruption, bribe injustice, unemployment, and autocratic government. He always has a referendum for his re-election No other political party no other candidates elected.  The referendum was not transported in Nature.  Hosni had complete control in setup. He also formed a party had was NDP, that party was not functional in a sense in other states. 

He also established his own police force which has been known as a Baltageya (plainclothes police) they were being formed for the purpose of political support.

The political oppression increased in 2000, that’s why when the election of 2005 held many left and right wings political groups expressed the opposition inheritance power and demands uniforms. The opponents and their demands increased in 2006, with the opposition the torture of the Hosni government through the Police increased. The Egyptian Organization of Human Rights Documented 30 Cases of torture in 2009.

Reasons:

The political oppression of Hosni lack of freedom and expression, lack of freedom of election, unemployment, injustice, bribe, corruption, poverty and unequal distribution of wealth gave the voice to people that they wanted a change and Hosni was an authoritarian complete.

Torture: From 1993 to 2007, 567 cases of torture documented under this police and 167 torture casualties took place. Police harassment was common, took free food from vendors, bribe the spoke person, corruption in the transportation sector.  Moreover, corruption in the economic and political sectors increased. According to World Bank Egypt was one of the most corrupt countries in the Middle East and North African region.

Youth Bulge and unemployment: Youth Bulge was there, 1/5 population under the age 15-24, its mean’s the youth population was in a rise in Egypt but the job opportunities for youth were not there.

Unstable Economic Condition: As Egypt's economic conditions were not stable until 1990. According to UNO, 20-30% of the population living in Egypt was under the poverty line.  Egypt was also facing the problem of unequal distribution of wealth. According to UNO estimate, Egypt was ranked at the seat of 92 of being an unequal distribution of wealth. 

According to UNICEF child poverty in Egypt is poor in terms of health, shelter, water sanitation, information education. According to UNICEF, 47% of children are facing poor households.

When the torture of police and political oppression increased then the public started marches against the Hosni. In that way, the violent clashes between security forces and protestors increased. The protest transforms into a National revolution movement and within 18 days, 30 years of rule overpowered by the public. During this 18-day campaign, almost 846 people have died and thousands more were injured.

The revolution was famous of Tahir Square and narrated as a SYMBOL OF CHANGE because of the Hosni Mubarak step down. 

Question is what escalated the revolution? 

This Revolution highly inspired by Social Media.  That is the reason it is also known as Social Media Revolution. This revolution created by Khalid with a Facebook page who posted the brutality of Hosni government and encouraged people to raise voice for their rights, as a result, the government jammed all the internet services throughout Egypt, all the telephonic services in order to contain this networking of people but the message already sent to the people. Khalid killed by the Egyptian police. In the honor of these men, the Facebook page got 4 Lac likes. It was used to commute to reach out to each other via social media. The death of Khalid became a source of voice of people and common people, doctors, lawyers’, judge’s media officials gathered at Tahir Square. The march of public on Tahir Square showed the power of the public to the government and Hosni decided to stepdown.

The clashes started on 25 January 2011 and on 11 February 2011 the Vice President of Egypt Omar Sulieman announced the resignation of Hosni, turning power to the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF). On 13 February, the Head of State Mohammad Hussain announced that the constitution of Egypt suspended and both Houses of Parliament suspended and, on that situation, military govern the country and previous Cabinet including Prime Minister Ahmed serves as a Caretaker government.

The session of protest didn’t stop yet. After the 18 days, the campaign and stepdown of the Hosni Muslim Brotherhood took powers in Egypt with Egyptian electing Islamist Mohammad Morsi in June 2012. The government also faced protests in the sparkled general outrage from the members of the military on 28 June 2013. In July 2013, Morsi deposed by a Coup détente led by minister defense General Abdel Fattah and he became a President in 2014 elections. The revolution of Egypt was successful in sense of awaking people for their self-rights and showed the world that if the power of the common public made someone ruler or powerful then the power of the public also overthrown that rule.