tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/tahrir-square-1934/articlesTahrir Square – The Conversation2022-11-24T19:05:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1926022022-11-24T19:05:43Z2022-11-24T19:05:43ZFriday essay: shaping history – why I spent ten years studying one Wikipedia article<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496330/original/file-20221121-9586-h0rj85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C134%2C4083%2C2323&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Egyptian woman takes part in a demonstration in Cairo, 25 January, 2011.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amel Pain/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In mid-July 2008, I arrived in hot and sticky Alexandria. I had travelled to Egypt to attend Wikimania. As the name suggests, Wikimania is an event for those who share an all-consuming passion for the wiki. But not just any wiki … the most important wiki of all: Wikipedia – the online encyclopedia. </p>
<p>This annual conference for Wikipedians (Wikipedia’s volunteer editors) is a chance to celebrate the project, discuss important issues, and geek out on wiki lore.</p>
<p>I was one of 650 attendees from 45 countries that year. But the conference (held in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, an attempt to revive the Great Library of Alexandria) had been mired in controversy. There were calls to boycott the event because of Egypt’s censorship and imprisonment of bloggers. In his opening speech, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales highlighted the case of Abdel Kareem Nabil, a former university student sentenced to four years in prison on charges of insulting Islam and Egypt’s then President Hosni Mubarak, and inciting sectarian strife.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495572/original/file-20221116-16-5617k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495572/original/file-20221116-16-5617k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495572/original/file-20221116-16-5617k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495572/original/file-20221116-16-5617k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495572/original/file-20221116-16-5617k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495572/original/file-20221116-16-5617k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495572/original/file-20221116-16-5617k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495572/original/file-20221116-16-5617k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales pictured in 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yonhap/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Although some governments tried to impede free speech, Wales said, this was pointless in the age of the internet, where people could share ideas on platforms like Wikipedia.</p>
<p>“Kareem Amer has become a cause around the world,” he said, showing Nabil’s English Wikipedia page on the screen. “Not the best strategy for keeping his ideas out of the public eye.”</p>
<p>Two and a half years on, in late January 2011, Egyptians took to the streets to demand the end of authoritarian rule. Less than two weeks after protests erupted, Egypt’s autocrat president Mubarak resigned. Some were calling this “the Facebook revolution,” others a “Twitter revolution”. </p>
<p>Sadly it was to be short-lived. In 2013 Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took over in a coup. He still rules today and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/18/greenwashing-police-state-egypt-cop27-masquerade-naomi-klein-climate-crisis">has imprisoned</a> an estimated 60,000 political prisoners, including those advocating democracy and free speech. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495563/original/file-20221116-11-mv7o0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495563/original/file-20221116-11-mv7o0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495563/original/file-20221116-11-mv7o0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495563/original/file-20221116-11-mv7o0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495563/original/file-20221116-11-mv7o0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495563/original/file-20221116-11-mv7o0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495563/original/file-20221116-11-mv7o0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495563/original/file-20221116-11-mv7o0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Police stand over a woman protesting on January 25, 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amel Pain/EPA</span></span>
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<p>But at the end of January 2011, as Mubarak still clung to power, the Israeli Wikipedian Dror Kamir wrote a startling message to a mailing list about Wikipedia’s role in the Egyptian protests.</p>
<p>Kamir pointed out that the first draft of the article about the Egyptian revolution on English Wikipedia had been published at 3:26pm local time, just hours after the first protests began. An Egyptian democracy activist and Wikipedian with the username The Egyptian Liberal had published this article, apparently to influence public opinion. “It almost seems as if the article preceded the actual events,” he wrote.</p>
<p>To Kamir, this demonstrated that Wikipedia “was losing its encyclopedic characteristics”. Wikipedians pride themselves on neutrality. Neutral point of view (or NPOV), is a core content policy. Editors are called to merely summarise reliable sources rather than offering their own original analysis. Policy determines that Wikipedians should follow public opinion rather than lead it. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://anduraru.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/parallel-online-and-real-world-egyptian-revolutions-or-wikipedias-tahrir-square/">a later blog post</a>, Kamir argued Wikipedia had clearly played a significant role in the events of January 2011, but “who is going to remember…?” </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cop27-shines-light-on-civil-liberties-in-egypt-but-itll-take-work-to-achieve-real-freedom-194407">COP27 shines light on civil liberties in Egypt, but it'll take work to achieve real freedom</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Remembering the history-makers</h2>
<p>In the coming months and years, I tried to do just that: documenting how Wikipedians wrote the story of the Egyptian revolution and whether, in doing so, they influenced the revolution itself.</p>
<p>It has been over a decade since I started studying this <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Egyptian_revolution">single article on English Wikipedia about the 2011 revolution</a>. At the time of writing, it runs to almost 13,000 words and more than 400 citations.</p>
<p>Catalytic events have always been influenced by their mediation. But few had tried to understand Wikipedia’s role in history-making. When they did, they tended to present Wikipedia as hallowed ground where consensus is reached among a myriad alternative views.</p>
<p>The most important thing I have learned over this time is the truly subversive role of Wikipedia. Though the Egyptian revolution sputtered out, what I have gleaned from this example has a bearing on other history-making events playing out on Wikipedia now – from the war in Ukraine to the independence movement of Taiwan.</p>
<p>Wales was right when he gave that prescient speech. Wikipedia tends to be ignored because it is supposedly “neutral”. One of the world’s most popular platforms, maintained by <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/">a nonprofit organisation</a>, its mirage of neutrality is sustained by the idea that individuals may be biased but all crowds are wise.</p>
<p>Wikipedia supposedly reflects “common knowledge” and “collective memory”. But there are many different ways of seeing the world. There will always be an inevitable conflict between those tasked with its representation, especially when the risks and rewards are so great. How, then, did editors of the Egyptian article resolve these differences? What kind of history is the result?</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495573/original/file-20221116-20-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Wikipedia page." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495573/original/file-20221116-20-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495573/original/file-20221116-20-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495573/original/file-20221116-20-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495573/original/file-20221116-20-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495573/original/file-20221116-20-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495573/original/file-20221116-20-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495573/original/file-20221116-20-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Wikipedia supposedly reflects ‘common knowledge’ and ‘collective memory’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>A typical Wikipedia article is put together by Wikipedians – the volunteer editors who are committed to Wikipedia’s long-term maintenance. Anyone can be a Wikipedian, as long as you abide by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelines">the rules of the project</a> (many have a long history with the site). Wikipedians tend to use pseudonyms rather than their real names – there has been no policy requiring them to identify themselves.</p>
<p>As well as Wikipedians, entries are generally open to anyone else to edit. Many Wikipedians volunteer to watch over articles, receiving an alert when changes have been made to assess them.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_crystal_ball">key Wikipedia rule</a> is that Wikipedia is not “a crystal ball”. The rule stipulates that Wikipedians should not write about events until their significance is generally known or before the event has concluded.</p>
<p>Soon after the revolution in 2011, I began analysing countless “talk page” discussions where Wikipedia editors discussed the reliability of sources, how to source free images and how to best summarise these events. (These discussions take place in a tab next to the article labelled “talk”.) </p>
<p>Over the next decade, I reviewed hundreds of edits, and interviewed leading editors. These included The Egyptian Liberal, a university student in his twenties, and Ocaasi, a US-based college graduate in his late twenties. Ocaasi, who suffered from anxiety and agoraphobia, told me he was editing Wikipedia obsessively at the time of the protests <a href="https://wikipedia20.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/k3dp712w/release/17">while sitting in his bathtub in a Philadelphia attic</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495780/original/file-20221117-27-58ojhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Head shot of a man." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495780/original/file-20221117-27-58ojhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495780/original/file-20221117-27-58ojhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495780/original/file-20221117-27-58ojhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495780/original/file-20221117-27-58ojhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=611&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495780/original/file-20221117-27-58ojhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495780/original/file-20221117-27-58ojhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495780/original/file-20221117-27-58ojhi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ocaasi (Jake Orlowitz).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Rather than rational negotiation and broad consensus, I learned that Wikipedia articles about historic events are often the result of passionate struggle over representing what happened to whom and its consequences.</p>
<p>I learned about the importance of Wikipedians themselves in shaping the narrative into which individual facts were made to fit. Wikipedians shaped the representation of the event not by inserting falsities but rather by framing and selecting facts that supported certain narratives rather than others. </p>
<p>The Wikipedians moved quickly to create a new article on English Wikipedia when crowds first swarmed into Tahrir Square on January 25, 2011, defending it from possible attack from sceptics arguing it was too soon to be covering events. They bolstered the article’s authority by quickly adding citations to source the evidence for the unfolding protests. </p>
<p>This first move was successful in determining that the protests were important enough to warrant their own article early on. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mubarak-a-man-who-built-on-his-talent-for-self-promotion-while-stifling-opposition-132565">Mubarak: a man who built on his talent for self-promotion while stifling opposition</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Writing the revolution into being</h2>
<p>After the first 24 hours in the life of the article, it had been edited 130 times. Forty two editors had joined The Egyptian Liberal including two longtime Wikipedians, Dragons flight, a physicist educated at UC Berkeley now living in Switzerland and Heroeswithmetaphors, who has made over 18,000 contributions to articles on multiple topics.</p>
<p>Editors settled into a routine – with American editors handing over to those in Egypt and elsewhere when they went to sleep. For Ocaasi, it was a galvanizing moment. “Everything before that on Wikipedia was just playing around and this was not,” he told me. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was also when my innocence about Wikipedia ended. It wasn’t just a hobby or escape […] There were hundreds of thousands of people reading the article and I knew that. There was a profound sense of responsibility […] I thought the world mattered so much those days and I thought I could play a part – not in an activist sense but by documenting what was happening. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As the violent protests continued, experienced editors resisted attempts by newcomers to continuously change the article’s title from “protests” to “revolution”. A move of this significance requires consensus from editors on the talk page.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495570/original/file-20221116-22-9nhhbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A demonstration in Cairo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495570/original/file-20221116-22-9nhhbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495570/original/file-20221116-22-9nhhbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495570/original/file-20221116-22-9nhhbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495570/original/file-20221116-22-9nhhbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495570/original/file-20221116-22-9nhhbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495570/original/file-20221116-22-9nhhbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495570/original/file-20221116-22-9nhhbn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tank stands amid crowds as protesters gather on Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, 1 February 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hannibal Hanschke/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But within minutes of Mubarak’s resignation at 4pm on February 11, a large crowd of Wikipedia editors again tried to change key facts to reclassify the article to “revolution.” In the hour after Mubarak resigned, the number of readers accessing the page tripled from about 4,000 to 12,500. It was being edited every two minutes in the following hours, as three experienced Wikipedians struggled to hold back the flood of editors attempting to make significant changes before consensus had been reached about the title. </p>
<p>While this was happening, a discussion began on the talk page, with editors asked to weigh in on whether the title of the article should be changed. But an editor, Tariqabjotu, made the change just two hours after Mubarak’s resignation – long before the discussion had run its course. </p>
<p>At this time also, the article on the Tunisian protests, which had unseated long-time President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali the month before, was still merely named as an uprising. Six hours after Mubarek’s resignation, another editor, Knowledgekid87, moved from editing the Egyptian article to the Tunisian one, changing its name to “Tunisian revolution”. This reinforced the Egyptian title change.</p>
<p>On February 11 alone, 125,000 readers accessed the Egyptian article. The number of editors working on it more than tripled from 25 to 84. Many were new editors from the United States, UK, Canada, the Netherlands, Portugal and Singapore, overwhelming those who had been editing it consistently from the beginning.</p>
<p>Other editors in the crowd repeatedly changed the date of the events in the infobox (the small fact box on the right hand side of a Wikipedia article) from “25 January – ongoing” to “25 January – 11 February”. They did this to cement the idea that the protests were over and revolution had been achieved. </p>
<p>In my interviews with Ocaasi, he reflected on how editors surrendered to the momentousness of the occasion. Any effort to resist changes to the article’s title would have been swimming against a tide of editors, one of whom declared that Wikipedia shouldn’t “deny history.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495569/original/file-20221116-20-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C4000%2C2580&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowd in Cairo" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495569/original/file-20221116-20-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C4000%2C2580&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495569/original/file-20221116-20-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495569/original/file-20221116-20-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495569/original/file-20221116-20-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495569/original/file-20221116-20-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495569/original/file-20221116-20-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495569/original/file-20221116-20-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tens of thousands of Egyptians pray and celebrate the fall of the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak on February 18 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben Curtis/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The crowd centred their activity on the infobox and the page name. These elements are the most important parts of a Wikipedia article because they present summarised facts that appear authoritative and stable. These facts have always been prioritised by Google and other search engines’ algorithms, which often place Wikipedia at the top of search results. But the infobox came to matter even more the year after the Egyptian revolution. </p>
<p>In 2012, Google <a href="https://www.blog.google/products/search/introducing-knowledge-graph-things-not/">announced</a> a major new project that would build a massive database of facts built from “public” information sources such as Wikipedia and the CIA World Factbook. </p>
<p>Google’s algorithms selectively extract facts from Wikipedia’s infoboxes, divorcing them from the context in which they originated. Sources and citations are often removed. The facts appear more stable than they are on Wikipedia, where they are flanked by breaking news warnings and “citation needed” tags. Wikipedians have no control over Google’s process. </p>
<p>Over a decade after the 2011 Egyptian revolution, Wikipedia is still the authority for facts about the event. If you ask Google, Bing or Yahoo what happened in Egypt in 2011, they will present facts extracted from the English Wikipedia article. </p>
<p>But Google and other platforms extract them automatically and without understanding or debate. The result is a representation of capitalist logic embedded in the machines that have been programmed not to serve public meaning-making but rather to feed revenue sources. </p>
<p>For the past few years, Google’s knowledge panel about the revolution has contained the words, “Deaths section below” after facts about numbers killed during the revolution. This is material lifted from Wikipedia but not linked to further information – so it becomes a meaningless phrase. It shows how Wikipedians have lost control over some of the information they carefully provide. Yet many more people will view this material now in a search engine rather than on Wikipedia. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/egypt-hopes-for-democratic-future-die-as-al-sisi-marches-country-towards-dictatorship-with-parliaments-blessing-113491">Egypt: hopes for democratic future die as al-Sisi marches country towards dictatorship – with parliament's blessing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A struggle for power</h2>
<p>Popular accounts like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds">The Wisdom of Crowds</a> and <a href="https://www.wired.com/2008/06/pb-theory/">the End of Theory</a> present both crowds and algorithms as sources of truth and neutrality. By such accounts, crowds supposedly smooth out one anothers’ biases or ignorance and Big Data enables accuracy because of our access to huge datasets. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495574/original/file-20221116-16-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495574/original/file-20221116-16-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495574/original/file-20221116-16-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495574/original/file-20221116-16-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495574/original/file-20221116-16-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495574/original/file-20221116-16-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495574/original/file-20221116-16-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495574/original/file-20221116-16-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>But I discovered a passion and feverish anticipation of revolution in Egypt from the very first entry on it, just hours after the protests began on January 25. Rather than rational consensus among dispassionate observers, Wikipedia mirrored the passion, emotion and violence of Tahrir Square. </p>
<p>Did Wikipedia shape the political events at the time, as suggested by Kamir? Ultimately, the story of this Wikipedia entry reiterates how young people (the leading Wikipedia editors) were able to win the information war in Egypt but not transform the government. Most of the article’s editors were people in favour of the revolution.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Wikipedia articles about political events are important battlegrounds for interest groups vying for control over the historical record. Their impact lives on, courtesy of search engines’ algorithms and the global reach of the site itself. And such struggles for power are no doubt happening, elsewhere, in other Wikipedia articles today.</p>
<p><em>Writing the Revolution: Wikipedia and the Survival of Facts in the Digital Age is published by <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262046299/writing-the-revolution/">MIT Press</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192602/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Ford receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>How are Wikipedia pages about contentious events put together? Heather Ford discovered a hotbed of passion, a rotating pack of editors and a struggle for power behind its mirage of neutrality.Heather Ford, Associate Professor, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1111672019-02-12T11:44:15Z2019-02-12T11:44:15ZRussian influence operations extend into Egypt<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257825/original/file-20190207-174851-1n9ubc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=926%2C77%2C2600%2C2162&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The presidents of Russia and Egypt.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Russia-Egypt/7fde04d4846a45b59cdd9811e9343953/8/0">AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, Pool</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the oldest running daily news organizations in the Arab world, Cairo-based <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ahram">Al-Ahram</a>, publishes stories from <a href="https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/sputnik-news/">Sputnik</a>, <a href="https://jamestown.org/program/russia-middle-east-new-front-information/">a propaganda arm of the Russian government</a>.</p>
<p>As part of a <a href="https://arabic.sputniknews.com/arab_world/201502111013393610/">2015 agreement between Al-Ahram and Rossiya Segodnya</a>, Russia’s <a href="https://www.csis.org/blogs/post-soviet-post/rossiya-segodnya-national-champion-news">government-owned news giant</a>, Sputnik stories appear in <a href="https://archives.cjr.org/feature/reform_interrupted.php">Bawaba</a> Al-Ahram, the paper’s digital site, side-by-side with reporting from legitimate news agencies such as <a href="https://www.afp.com/en">Agence France-Presse</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/">Reuters</a>. </p>
<p>Unlike these news agencies, the Kremlin-controlled outlet posts a fair amount of fluff on Al-Ahram, such as a call by the Syrian Researchers network to <a href="http://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/2083975.aspx">“boycott” the use of makeup</a> or news about the <a href="http://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/2083442.aspx">excavation and restoration</a> of a former Egyptian president’s iconic 1958 Chevy.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257830/original/file-20190207-174861-1ypcmac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257830/original/file-20190207-174861-1ypcmac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257830/original/file-20190207-174861-1ypcmac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257830/original/file-20190207-174861-1ypcmac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257830/original/file-20190207-174861-1ypcmac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257830/original/file-20190207-174861-1ypcmac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257830/original/file-20190207-174861-1ypcmac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257830/original/file-20190207-174861-1ypcmac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">It’s a nice car, but is it news?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/2083442.aspx">Al-Ahram/Sputnik</a></span>
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<p>Those articles help Al-Ahram by boosting the site’s overall online traffic. For Kremlin propagandists their mere presence achieves a major strategic objective: neutralizing the distinction between outlets like Reuters and Sputnik and leveling the playing field between journalism and fake news.</p>
<p>This collaboration is part of a long-running Russian campaign to build influence in Egyptian media and elsewhere around the world – including <a href="https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/FinalRR.pdf">in the U.S.</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=plkOO6sAAAAJ&hl=en">My research</a>, including that <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-how-information-warfare-shaped-the-arab-spring.html">in a forthcoming book</a>, offers more information on Moscow’s efforts to counter democracy-promoting efforts in the Arab world through media. It’s part of Russia’s global campaign to bolster nationalist movements and politicians that are sympathetic to Russian interests.</p>
<h2>Reality makeover</h2>
<p>The prevalence of Russian disinformation in Egypt is not as surprising as it might seem to a Western audience. Since at least 1961, Al-Ahram has served as the government mouthpiece in Egypt. Russia has long sought influence in a key Arab state.</p>
<p>In recent years, Russian <a href="https://theconversation.com/autocracies-that-look-like-democracies-are-a-threat-across-the-globe-110957">corporate and government agencies have invested in</a> Egypt’s <a href="https://jamestown.org/program/tactical-side-russias-arms-sales-middle-east/">military</a>, its <a href="https://thearabweekly.com/russia-draws-closer-egypt">offshore gas reserves</a>, its <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/annaborshchevskaya/2015/02/13/russia-egypt-nuclear-power-plant-deal-why-ignoring-egypts-needs-is-bad-for-the-u-s/">nuclear</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/egypt-russia-industry/egypt-and-russia-sign-50-year-industrial-zone-agreement-idUSL5N1SU5SI">industrial infrastructure</a> and its <a href="https://www.youm7.com/story/2018/8/1/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B9-%D9%8A%D9%83%D8%B4%D9%81-%D8%B7%D8%B1%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%85-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%84%D9%81-%D8%A5%D9%84%D9%89/3887018">educational programming</a>.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, there has been a Russian information campaign that has found a sympathetic audience in the leadership of one of the Arab world’s foremost newspapers. As Al-Ahram’s managing editor said of the agreement with Sputnik: Egyptian-Russian relations are closer than ever and the <a href="http://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/2013679.aspx">new “protocol” for media cooperation “supports that relationship.”</a></p>
<p>The culture at al-Ahram echoes <a href="https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/peter-pomerantsev/nothing-is-true-and-everything-is-possible/9781610396004/">Russia’s state-run media culture</a>. Reality as it appears in the pages of Al-Ahram echoes the government line. When the facts don’t fit the official story, editors may simply alter the image of reality – as in 2010 when Al-Ahram published <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/16/mubarak-doctored-red-carpet-picture">a doctored White House press release photo</a> showing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak walking in front of a group of international leaders, when really he was behind them.</p>
<h2>Diverting the public’s attention</h2>
<p>In 2011, when the anti-government protests known as the Arab Spring spread to Egypt, Al-Ahram began its coverage of events with Russian-style disinformation tactics, including one journalist Peter Pomerantsev called “<a href="https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/peter-pomerantsev/nothing-is-true-and-everything-is-possible/9781610396004/">hook and distract</a>.” </p>
<p>On Jan. 25, 2011 – the day protests were scheduled to begin in Egypt – Al-Ahram’s front page featured an article about the bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria three weeks earlier. It was a big story, but also a distracting one given what was happening that day in Cairo. </p>
<p>By contrast, Al-Shorouk, a prominent opposition paper in Egypt, began its coverage of protests on Jan. 25 with an article highlighting “online demonstrations” between government and opposition forces.</p>
<p>On Jan. 26, Al-Ahram <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-how-information-warfare-shaped-the-arab-spring.html">continued the strategy of misdirection</a> by running an article announcing that protests (“ihtijajat”) and riots (“idtirabat”) had intensified – in Beirut. The <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-how-information-warfare-shaped-the-arab-spring.html">other lead stories</a> that day were a recap of the church-bombing story and plans by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry to reject a major trade agreement with the U.S.</p>
<p>Again in contrast, Al-Shorouk’s Jan. 26 coverage began with the headline “<a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-how-information-warfare-shaped-the-arab-spring.html">A volcano of rage</a> sweeps through the streets of Cairo and explodes in Tahrir Square.”</p>
<h2>A second diversion</h2>
<p>As I observed while <a href="https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/20513">living and researching in Cairo</a> <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/a-peoples-protest-the-view-from-a-cairo-coffeehouse/">at the time</a> and document in my book, various parties from inside and outside the country worked furiously at this time to shape public opinion about the protests. Al-Ahram got a helping hand from WikiLeaks.</p>
<p>On Jan. 28, as news organizations around the world were preparing to cover Egypt’s “Friday of Rage,” a massive demonstration that would feature for the first time the full manpower of the Muslim Brotherhood, WikiLeaks released a string of documents from a cache of U.S. State Department cables stolen the previous year. That batch of leaks provided useful fodder for Al-Ahram’s efforts to counter popular support for the protests.</p>
<p>London’s Daily Telegraph, which had just <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0ff84f8c-2d53-11e0-9b0f-00144feab49a">signed a deal with Julian Assange</a> to publish portions of the leaks, ran a story with the headline “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8289686/Egypt-protests-Americas-secret-backing-for-rebel-leaders-behind-uprising.html">America’s secret backing for rebel leaders</a>” in Egypt. Along with the article, the Telegraph published a “confidential” memo describing a 2009 meeting in Washington at which “<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8289698/Egypt-protests-secret-US-document-discloses-support-for-protesters.html">several opposition forces agreed to support an unwritten plan</a> for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/middleeast/28diplo.html">Other leaked cables</a> in that batch revealed the <a href="https://www.aftenposten.no/verden/i/rAJ4a/Amerikansk-millionstotte-til-Mubarak-motstandere">allocation of millions of dollars</a> by the U.S. State Department for “pro-democracy groups” in Egypt. As American Ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scobey told me, U.S. support for democratic activism in Egypt and elsewhere <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-how-information-warfare-shaped-the-arab-spring.html">was not a secret</a>. </p>
<p>Still, Al-Ahram, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DtOr6BBOHg">echoing Mubarak’s famous midnight speech to the nation on Jan. 28</a>, published an article on Jan. 29 <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-how-information-warfare-shaped-the-arab-spring.html">framing the information as evidence</a> of a “plot.” The coverage’s content and timing appeared selected to undercut public support of the protesters, suggesting their funding and ambitions were born of U.S. interests – rather than being motivated by authentic Egyptian concerns.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9DtOr6BBOHg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak addresses his nation on Jan. 28, 2011.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Continuing influence</h2>
<p>WikiLeaks’ and Russian media operations continued to influence public debate in Egypt after Mubarak stepped down. </p>
<p>Independent numbers are hard to come by. <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/russias-arabic-propaganda-what-it-is-why-it-matters">But one recent study</a> shows that traffic to the RT website far outpaces competing news organizations, like Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya or the U.S.-sponsored Al-Hurra. </p>
<p>And since its first story appeared on Bawaba Al-Ahram in April 2016, Sputnik has published nearly 700 articles, far more than other contributing services. These articles often push stories conducive to the Russian narrative that it’s <a href="http://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/1551383.aspx">winning the fight against terrorism</a> in the region and <a href="http://gate.ahram.org.eg/News/1334106.aspx">countering forces of instability</a>.</p>
<p>Egyptian politics are reverting to the days of dictatorship, with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi having just <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20190206-egypt-constitutional-sisi-presidential-term-limits-power-2034">won the right to govern until 2034</a>. This, combined with the increasing prevalence of Russian-controlled information, is likely to pull Egypt, <a href="https://jamestown.org/program/russias-financial-tactics-middle-east/">along with Syria, Libya, the UAE, Saudia Arabia and others</a>, deeper into the geopolitical sphere of Russia and China and farther away from the dream of democratization that was Tahrir Square.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111167/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathaniel Greenberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Russia’s efforts to sow discord, discontent and chaos extend far beyond the US, including into leading media outlets in the Arab world.Nathaniel Greenberg, Assistant Professor of Arabic, George Mason UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1022752018-10-03T20:05:27Z2018-10-03T20:05:27ZHow city squares can be public places of protest or centres of state control<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/238293/original/file-20180927-48631-18r10z2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Seven years after Tahrir Square became the focal point of the Egyptian Revolution, towering metal gates now control access.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tahrir_Square_on_July_29_2011.jpg">Ahmed Abd El-Fatah/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today’s urban public spaces tend to represent governments and cities rather than people and citizens. In the past seven years, disturbing scenes of protests in city squares have been seen across the Arab world and Europe, but these public protests existed long before the 21st century. So how can city squares support or inhibit protests through their spatial characteristics and settings?</p>
<p>Public squares have been considered as places of encounter and exchange since the time of the Greek Agora and the Roman Forum. While often the sites of protest, these spaces also can reflect the idea of power and constrain revolutions and social uprisings. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/neighbourhood-living-rooms-we-can-learn-a-lot-from-european-town-squares-91065">Neighbourhood living rooms – we can learn a lot from European town squares</a>
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<p>Design and scenography can be used to intensify <em><a href="http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141203-blood-on-the-streets">agoraphobia</a></em>, or a fear of public spaces. Thus these spaces of expression can, at times, be silenced, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=hpveCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA47&dq=protest+and+public+spaces&ots=Ne2DSQ2Bcw&sig=FflrBD4EUM6ie0zQUDSLhPwkbrY#v=onepage&q=protest%20and%20public%20spaces&f=false">putting at risk the geography of freedom of speech</a>. </p>
<h2>Reminders of the power of the state</h2>
<p>Public spaces around the world have been not only places for <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=2NKoBQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=protest+and+public+spaces&ots=jZ7BeVqv_0&sig=feUV8YFXHSBH_fE6VDXSlWvGtJg#v=snippet&q=gather&f=false">people to gather and interact</a> but also to demonstrate and, at times, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/20/ukraine-dead-protesters-police">to face their death</a>. </p>
<p>In 2014, Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kiev was at the centre of the Ukrainian Euromaidan Revolution. It was a <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/02/20/ukraine-protests-eu-sanctions_n_4825644.html?utm_hp_ref=uk">deadly revolution</a> of dignity.
Yet the consequences of other protests largely attest to how the design of these spaces can intimidate protesters. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/four-years-after-the-euromaidan-revolution-in-ukraine-key-gains-and-losses-90012">Four years after the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine: key gains and losses</a>
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<p>In 1989, students demonstrated in Beijing during the so-called Tiananmen Square protests, which ended in a <a href="https://www.hongkongfp.com/2017/12/21/declassified-chinese-official-said-least-10000-civilians-died-1989-tiananmen-massacre-documents-show/">massacre</a>. This immense city square of the capital is now known for its “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/05/01/475265075/from-tahrir-to-tiananmen-city-squares-cant-escape-their-history">strange emptiness</a>”, as Evan Osnos described it. Benches and shade trees have been removed to discourage public gatherings.</p>
<p>The monumentality created by the forbidden city and the government buildings, including the Great Hall of People, adds to the feeling of emptiness and intimidation. The 44-hectare public square is now considered “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Uq06DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA115&dq=totalitarian+scale+dwarfs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiq9o_AudrdAhUDZKwKHeTBBjYQ6AEILjAB#v=onepage&q=totalitarian%20scale%20dwarfs&f=false">the opposite of a public space</a>”: </p>
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<p>Its totalitarian scale dwarfs the individual and forces people to feel subservient to the power of the state. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tiananmen-25-years-on-ccp-now-fears-the-masses-gathering-online-27454">Tiananmen 25 years on: CCP now fears the masses gathering online</a>
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<p>One can see striking similarities, in terms of scale and setting, with Red Square in Moscow. Red Square had been the scene of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/25/world/europe/25iht-25russia.4.15605309.html">1968 demonstration</a> against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, a landmark moment in the Soviet dissident movement.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Red Square, Moscow, has been the scene of both public demonstrations and state parades.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In Egypt, seven years after the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak, people tend to be <a href="https://mondediplo.com/2018/03/09egypt-tahrir-square">cautious about expressing their views in public</a>. Tahrir Square, the birthplace of the protests, is at risk. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-barrier/towering-gates-at-cairos-tahrir-square-draw-criticism-idUSBREA191Q920140210">Towering metal gates have been erected</a> around the square to avoid protests. These stand as a reminder of the <a href="http://tuckmagazine.com/2018/01/26/tahrir-square-broken-freedom-trail/">powerful state control</a> that the regime of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has reasserted over public spaces.</p>
<h2>Protest in the Arab world: the case of Tunisia</h2>
<p>Tunisia’s Habib Bourguiba Avenue was the main stage of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/world/africa/tunis-journal-a-front-row-seat-for-an-uprising.html">the 2011 Tunisian Revolution</a>. This public space, considered the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120311195835/http:/hoffman.foreignpolicy.com/photos/2011/03/02/avenue_habib_bourguiba_tunis_tunisia">historical, political and economic heart of the city</a>, is broad and lined with trees and government buildings, hotels and street cafes. The two paved and heavily trafficked roads on either side of the median strip isolate the pedestrian “island”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234958/original/file-20180905-45158-l9o97y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234958/original/file-20180905-45158-l9o97y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234958/original/file-20180905-45158-l9o97y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234958/original/file-20180905-45158-l9o97y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234958/original/file-20180905-45158-l9o97y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234958/original/file-20180905-45158-l9o97y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234958/original/file-20180905-45158-l9o97y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Habib Bourguiba Avenue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Majdi Faleh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This staging of the avenue reflects the power, control and prohibition of protests during 23 years of dictatorship. Other intimidating landscaping elements add to the obstacles for demonstrators who might wish to use the public space for political debates. </p>
<p>Despite intimidation through design, Tunis’s layout made <em>L'Avenue</em>, as Tunisians like to call it, the perfect place to stage the Arab Spring.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/omWjoDlS0LE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Police and protesters clash in the popular uprising that forced Tunisia’s longtime dictator to flee in 2011.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This avenue, planned in the time of French colonisation (1881-1956) for the <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Arab_World.html?id=l4pZMnQ5axwC&redir_esc=y">city’s elite</a>, resembles the Parisian Avenue of Champs-Élysées. Interestingly, even Haussmann’s celebrated Parisian boulevards, built under Napoleon III in the 1860s, were designed to <a href="https://www.citymetric.com/fabric/paris-barricades-how-haussmann-rebuilt-city-prevent-unrest-3453">help quell the city’s rebellious populace</a>. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-dont-loiter-in-public-space-the-legacy-of-colonial-control-by-design-76979">Australians don't loiter in public space – the legacy of colonial control by design</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Strategically located near the end of Habib Bourguiba Avenue is the Interior Ministry, an icon of dictatorship and control. The “austere” grey facade and black wrought iron windows and gates create a sense of control. Its brutalist architecture, which has architectural similarities with the <a href="http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/08/06/brutalism-architecture">FBI headquarters in Washington DC</a>, participates in shaping the public space. Razor barbed wire fences have surrounded the avenue during the time of protests. Landscaping around the ministry played a role in blocking protesters from getting closer to the monument of control.</p>
<p>Habib Bourguiba Avenue is named after the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/apr/07/guardianobituaries1">first president of Tunisia</a>, a tradition for main avenues in Tunisian cities. A simple Google search produces a list of major and small Tunisian cities forced into this autocratic system of political nomenclature as an instrument of control.</p>
<p>The image of power and control starts with the name of the place. It continues at the end of the avenue intersecting with the previously known <em>Place 7 Novembre</em>, named after the date of former dictator Ben Ali’s ascension to power in a coup d’état. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234959/original/file-20180905-45139-1y2opyq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234959/original/file-20180905-45139-1y2opyq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234959/original/file-20180905-45139-1y2opyq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234959/original/file-20180905-45139-1y2opyq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234959/original/file-20180905-45139-1y2opyq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234959/original/file-20180905-45139-1y2opyq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234959/original/file-20180905-45139-1y2opyq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234959/original/file-20180905-45139-1y2opyq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ibn Khaldun Fenced Garden with a banner of the dictator Ben Ali in the background (2009).
In Arabic, it reads ‘In deed, all my ambition is for Tunisia’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Majdi Faleh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the time of dictatorship, architects did not play an active role in shaping social, cultural and political encounters in public spaces. Contemporary public spaces in Tunisia were designed timidly or <a href="https://www.urbanafrica.net/news/uncertain-urban-future-tunis/">marginally</a>, creating conflicts between architecture, the local people and the oppressive state. Even green spaces were planned but never designed, as per the planning policies. Many <a href="https://www.urbanafrica.net/news/uncertain-urban-future-tunis/">were replaced by commercial centres</a>. </p>
<p>Metal fences are noticeable landscaping features around the Ibn Khaldun Statue, small gardens and public parks. The fences turned these spaces into enclosed and sometimes marginal parks. Large propaganda banners of the former dictator added an element of fear to these public spaces and helped deter protesters. The government gated property creates a sense of intimidation and constraint. </p>
<h2>Designing for protests: an architect’s perspective</h2>
<p>In designing public squares and avenues, architects should learn from these past dilemmas. The public square should not be represented as the city’s gated property or as a walled garden. It should be a space that provides citizens with opportunities to engage in political and social debates. </p>
<p>In the wake of the Arab Spring, rethinking spatial qualities of public spaces is crucial to provide “liberated” citizens with adequate places to communicate their political views and free cultural expression. In Tunisia’s post-revolutionary era, public spaces have increasingly become <a href="https://www.domusweb.it/en/art/2013/05/23/umran.html">places for expression and social engagement</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-tunisias-latest-protests-are-about-more-than-a-hike-in-taxes-90471">Why Tunisia's latest protests are about more than a hike in taxes</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Governments, not only in Tunisia but across all countries, should plan the streets for artists and protesters to create stages for their events and to communicate their ideas. Tunisia still has a long way to go.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102275/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Majdi Faleh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Today’s urban public spaces tend to represent governments and cities rather than people and citizens. Architects and urban designers should contribute to shaping spaces for freedom and interaction.Majdi Faleh, Teaching Assistant, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/534612016-01-25T06:19:38Z2016-01-25T06:19:38ZFive years on, the spirit of Tahrir Square has been all but crushed<p>Five years ago, the chant “El‑sha’ab, yureed, isqat el‑nizam!" ("the people want the fall of the regime!”) resounded through the streets of Cairo, marking the start of a popular uprising that saw one of the region’s longest-standing dictators deposed in just 18 days. </p>
<p>The so-called Egyptian revolution of 2011, part of the wider trend of the Arab Springs or <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/general/2011/04/20114483425914466.html">Arab Awakening</a>, was seen by many as being as significant as the fall of the Berlin Wall because of its potential implications for both the country and the region. However, five years on, it seems as if little has changed in Egypt – and the country’s proud revolutionary spirit has been almost completely wiped out. </p>
<p>The demands made by Tahrir Square’s revolutionaries haven’t been met – and in some cases they have been downright betrayed.</p>
<p>The uprising was only in part triggered by the first spasm of the Arab Awakenings, <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-years-on-tunisias-jasmine-revolution-continues-from-the-ground-up-52848">Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution</a>. Rather, it was an outburst of popular grievances that had been building up for decades in a country with a long history of both military authoritarianism and “street politics”. </p>
<p>Hosni Mubarak’s regime was an exemplary case of durable authoritarianism, allowing its citizens just enough political space to keep direct threats to the regime at bay. But this admittedly very limited space nonetheless made the country’s population extremely competent with the practice of politics and dissent in the street. Essentially, a strong regime was <a href="http://stealthishijab.com/2011/05/31/the-praxis-of-the-egyptian-revolution/">deposed by an even stronger society</a>. </p>
<p>This can be seen in the fact that in January 2011, Egyptians were not just calling for the fall of the regime: louder than all the other chants was <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2015/01/25/Freedom-bread-dignity-Has-Egypt-answered-Jan-25-demands-.html">the call</a> for “bread, freedom, and (human) dignity”. It was estimated at the time that about 40% of Egyptians lived below the poverty line; even higher percentages <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110201013309/http://www.france24.com/en/20110125-egypt-braces-nationwide-protests">had to rely on subsidised goods</a> and 2.5m aged 20-24 <a href="http://cliodynamics.ru/download/Korotayev_Zinkina_Egyptian_Revolution_MESOJ_2011.pdf">were unemployed</a>. </p>
<p>But looking at the statistics today, it’s clear that levels of poverty and unemployment have drastically worsened since 2011 – and especially since president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s dictatorial regime took the reins.</p>
<h2>Bread, freedom and dignity</h2>
<p>When the uprising began, the revolutionaries in Tahrir Square were quick to issue an <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/01/egyptian-activists-action-plan-translated/70388/">official statement containing their main demands</a>. They called for the removal of the Mubarak government and the abolition of the notorious Emergency Law, freedom, justice, the formation of a new, non-military government and the constructive administration of all of Egypt’s resources. </p>
<p>The popular struggle for dignity and a removal of an ancient and discriminatory status quo seemed to succeed at first. Mubarak was deposed on February 11 2011, and the square resounded with euphoric chants: “Lift your head up, you are an Egyptian”, and, “We can breathe fresh air, we can feel our freedom”.</p>
<p>But the elation was short lived. Five years on and one <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/world/middleeast/egypt.html">coup d’état</a> later, Egypt is still very much in the grip of a military dictatorship, while most of the six demands put forward by the revolutionaries have yet to be met.</p>
<p>The need for “bread, freedom, and (human) dignity” has arguably never been more urgent. Youth unemployment rates <a href="http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2015/08/11/26-3-of-youth-unemployed-51-2-suffer-poverty/">rose to 26.3%</a> in 2015, while more than a quarter of Egypt’s 85m-odd people still live below the poverty line. </p>
<p>As for “the formation of a new, non-military government with the interest of the Egyptian people at heart”, the regime of al-Sisi is firmly in the country’s tradition of military dictatorships. Most of his cabinet members and ministers <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/egypt-sisi-swears-government-150919132205044.html">hold the same posts they did under Mubarak</a>. Al-Sisi has arguably even succeeded in creating a regime even more repressive and brutal than his predecessor’s. Mubarak’s “deep state” has not only endured, but in fact seems reinvigorated, while Egypt’s former president has also been released from jail despite the fact that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23802342">he is still facing charges of corruption and murder</a>.</p>
<h2>Cracking down</h2>
<p>The saga of the Emergency Law is equally bleak. After it expired on May 31 2012, it was briefly re-imposed by the acting president Adly Mansour; it has since been substituted by the controversial Assembly Law of 2013, which also tightly restricts freedom of all sorts. </p>
<p>It not only heavily limits freedom of assembly, but also gives authorities the power to disperse any meeting of “public nature” of more than ten people in a public space, allows police to forcibly disperse any public meeting or protest, and sets heavy prison sentences for vague offences such as “<a href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/11/26/egypt-deeply-restrictive-new-assembly-law">attempting to influence the course of justice</a>”.</p>
<p>Freedom of speech and expression have never been so tightly policed. In the aftermath of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/verdict-in-al-jazeera-trial-shows-regimes-contempt-for-press-freedom-in-egypt-28349">trial of three al-Jazeera journalists</a>, Egypt was recently named the world’s <a href="http://www.ihrc.org.uk/publications/briefings/11123-the-never-ending-story-of-egypt-al-sisi-and-the-military-legacy">third deadliest country for journalists</a>, just behind Syria and Iraq. The authorities have detained, charged, or sentenced at least 41,000 people between July 2013 and May 2014 alone. Hundreds more have been <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/06/08/egypt-year-abuses-under-al-sisi">sentenced to death</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/im-one-of-hundreds-sentenced-to-death-in-egypt-the-us-is-concerned-thats-not-enough-42561">tried in absentia</a>. </p>
<p>Finally, the demand for better public administration has been left unaddressed; al-Sisi’s celebrated US$6 billion renovation of the Suez Canal has been almost entirely funded with tax payers’ money, <a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/07/egypt-suez-canal-corridor-project-development.html#">redirecting funds</a> originally earmarked for social services and healthcare.</p>
<p>The ultimate result of all the relentless brutality and pressure from the authorities since 2011 is that Egypt’s proud revolutionary spirit has been almost entirely wiped out. The return to military authoritarianism has in fact left many Egyptians apathetic towards the political state of their own country, a sad comedown from the sentiment behind the original Tahrir Square protests. </p>
<p>In December 2015, al-Sisi responded to rumours of another “Day of Rage” on the fifth anniversary of January 25 by saying: “Why am I hearing calls for another revolution? Why do you want to ruin Egypt? I came by your will and your choice and not despite it” – <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/11/fury-egypt-mubarak-refuses-to-leave">an eerie echo of Mubarak’s own words before he was removed in 2011</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the phrase “El‑sha’ab, yureed, isqat el‑nizam!”.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucia Ardovini receives funding from the ESRC.</span></em></p>The demands of the Tahrir Square protests could scarcely have been clearer – and the crackdown since 2011 could hardly have been more galling.Lucia Ardovini, ESRC PhD candidate, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/509972015-11-24T04:30:11Z2015-11-24T04:30:11ZNorth Africa: small glimmers of light in bid to stop violence against women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102810/original/image-20151123-18264-zm66n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tunisian women marking International Women's Day. The country scores poorly when it comes to women's safety.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Mohamed Messara</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>North Africa holds the dubious “honour” of being among the world’s <a href="http://www.afrobarometer.org/press/african-women-lag-behind-men-activism-fear-campaign-violence">worst regions</a> for gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment and violence against women.</p>
<p>In 2012 Moroccan teen Amina Filali’s suicide made international headlines. She killed herself after being forced to marry her <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13629387.2013.858033">rapist</a>. A full 99.3% of Egyptian <a href="http://www.dgvn.de/fileadmin/user_upload/DOKUMENTE/English_Documents/Sexual-Harassment-Study-Egypt-Final-EN.pdf">women</a> have encountered sexual harassment. Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt and Morocco rank 123rd, 126th, 129th, and 133rd out of 142 in the World Economic Forum’s 2014 <a href="http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2014/">Global Gender Gap’s</a> consideration of state resource distribution. And Morocco and Egypt are in the <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/table-4-gender-inequality-index">bottom two-fifths</a> of the United Nations Development Program’s <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/gender-inequality-index-gii">Gender Inequality Index</a>.</p>
<p>The United Nations’ <a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/54/134">International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women</a> calls attention to the continued need for work on its 1993 <a href="http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/48/104">declaration</a>.</p>
<p>The stories and statistics paint a bleak picture, and a great deal is yet to be done. The sad reality is that the world is generally not safe for women. But some local projects in North Africa provide a glimpse of hope and suggest a way forward.</p>
<h2>Harnassing modern and ancient practices</h2>
<p>Many women in water-poor regions travel long distances to fetch water, often in <a href="http://www.unicef.org/esaro/7310_Gender_and_WASH.html">dangerous areas</a> and under <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22325022">threat of violence</a> if the chore is not completed <a href="https://books.google.co.ma/books?id=KMgZBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA116&lpg=PA116&dq=%22increased+the+possibility+of+socially+justified+violence%22&source=bl&ots=1gGFuGwj5_&sig=T0DEDtCMRTpO_nC_fwSvlETJ48g&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22increased%20the%20possibility%20of%20socially%20justified%20violence%22&f=false">satisfactorily</a>. Too frequently, though, programmes seeking to ease this burden for women fail to consider that time away from the house may also be an <em>escape</em> from household labour and domestic abuse. Importantly, it gives women an opportunity to be in women-only spaces. </p>
<p>And being resource gatekeepers is a source of power. <a href="http://www.unwater.org/downloads/unwpolbrief230606.pdf">Managing</a> food, water, and other natural resources is one of the few ways women may be able to materially exert their agency.</p>
<p>One local non-governmental organisation in Morocco is building women’s empowerment into their development projects by considering these issues from the very start. Dar Si Hmad’s <a href="http://www.darsihmad.org/fog-harvesting/">fog project</a> combines <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3357847/">modern technology</a> and an <a href="http://www.aeclim.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=249%3Ala-captacion-del-agua-de-la-niebla-en-la-isla-de-tenerife-2005&catid=32%3Alibros-cientificos-y-de-divulgacion&Itemid=70&lang=es">ancient practice</a> to harvest potable water from the fog that drifts over the Anti-Atlas Mountains. Recognising women’s privileged ancestral role as water guardians, the project has also enhanced women’s technology <a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002343/234325E.pdf">capabilities</a> so they can report data and monitor their water <a href="http://gradworks.umi.com/36/21/3621317.html">system</a> via SMS message.</p>
<p>Reliable taps have been installed which means that women in Amazigh villages now no longer have to walk five kilometres at 4am to fill containers of water. To ensure the women are able to continue having conversations that used to occur near the wells, Dar Si Hmad is pursuing other avenues. In female-focused spaces with local facilitators, rural women explore projects such as <a href="http://thearganproject.com/">argan co-ops</a> as routes to economic empowerment and personal satisfaction.</p>
<h2>Cartoons for commuters</h2>
<p>The bustling streets of Cairo are at first glance a polar opposite to rural Morocco. Yet the daily dilemmas faced by women in both areas are eerily familiar: the constant critique of clothing, the fear of leaving the house alone, the likelihood of being catcalled, even in groups.</p>
<p>In Cairo, Nihal Saad Zaghloul founded <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Imprint.Movement.eg"><em>Bassma</em>, The Imprint Movement</a>, three years ago in an effort to rebuild the city as a safe space free of discrimination and violence. She was spurred into action after watching helplessly while her friend was sexually assaulted in the middle of Egypt’s Tahrir Square. This was something <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/05/egypt-women-rape-sexual-assault-tahrir-square">all too common</a> in the iconic home of the 2011 uprisings. </p>
<p>The initiative’s most recent project uses cartoons to challenge commuters in Cairo’s busiest metro stations. Artist Ahmed Nady’s scenes depict the everyday moments of sexual harassment against Egyptian women. The cartoons force people to see and consider what these seemingly small acts actually mean.</p>
<p>The storytelling power of drawing is used to make people stop and think rather than shrug off a tagline or statistic. The colourful panels are intended to make people in the heart of their commute – one of the most likely times for harassment and assault – see how their behaviour impedes women’s right to do something as simple as shopping for food.</p>
<p>The comic campaign asks commuters a question: <a href="http://us11.campaign-archive2.com/?u=79bc10c84cbc653c94614345f&id=5ac8b631de">“What Will You Do?”</a>. This is a direct call to action.</p>
<p>Locally initiated and informed projects such as these are vital to the prevention of violence against women through sustained education, empowerment and security.</p>
<p>These local efforts are supported by global initiatives like the UN’s UNiTE to End Violence against <a href="http://www.un.org/en/women/endviolence/">Women</a> campaign, which calls for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/16days">#16days</a> of attention to violence against women. During this period scholars, activists, policymakers, and communities will work toward a world free from violence against women. </p>
<p>As <em>Bassma</em> says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sexual harassment doesn’t harm her alone, it harms us all.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Violence against women is everybody’s problem. It will take everybody to solve it. Together, local projects and global attention can make violence against women a thing of the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca L. Farnum is a PhD Candidate at King's College London funded through an EPA Marshall Scholarship. She has spent months studying and researching in Morocco and Egypt, including participant ethnography with Dar Si Hmad. She is connected with The Imprint Movement through her participation in the American Middle Eastern Network for Dialogue at Stanford (AMENDS), a network of young social change activists across the Middle East and North Africa.</span></em></p>The world is generally not safe for women. But some projects in North Africa provide a glimpse of hope as the world marks the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.Rebecca L. Farnum, PhD Researcher in Environmental Peacebuilding, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/72292012-06-27T01:57:06Z2012-06-27T01:57:06ZEgypt’s challenge: will Morsi deliver bread, freedom and social justice?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/12227/original/b9yvd5b3-1340754411.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C8%2C2977%2C2020&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Supporters of president-elect Mohammed Morsi celebrate his victory in Tahrir Square.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Andre Pain</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the first time perhaps in all of Egyptian history, its citizens have chosen their own leader. The <a href="http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/islamist-morsi-wins-egyptian-presidency-20120625-20wx8.html">election</a> of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammad Morsi as the president of Egypt is a major historical moment. </p>
<p>In a tough election, Morsi beat former air force general <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Shafik">Ahmed Shafik</a> by <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/06/201262412445190400.html">a narrow margin</a>, around 51% to Shafik’s 49%. His presidency too will not be easy, as he attempts to deal with a stagnant economy and a powerful military establishment that is not willing to cede power easily.</p>
<p>During last year’s uprising, the leading chant was “<em>e’eish, horreya, a’adala’h ijtima’iya!</em>” or “bread, freedom, social justice!”. This simple yet ingenious chant captures in a few words the revolution’s unmet economic, political and social demands. </p>
<p>It is these three challenges that president-elect Morsi will need to overcome if he is to realise the aspirations of millions of Egyptians.</p>
<h2>Bread</h2>
<p>While the uprising has empowered Egyptians politically, undeniably it has had a devastating economic effect. In its immediate aftermath, the Egyptian economy shrunk, slipping into recession earlier this year.</p>
<p>It has now <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/42368/Business/Economy/Egypt-economy-shrinks--pct-last-quarter-despite-ye.aspx">partially recovered</a> but foreign reserves have more than halved to <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/36048/Business/Economy/Beltone-Erosion-of-Egypt-forex-reserves-slows-in-.aspx">$15.6 billion</a> USD, and tourism, an economic lifeline, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/19/egypt-tourism-visitor-numbers-collapse">has dropped 32%</a>. The official unemployment rate is a staggering 12.4%, unofficially, it will be much <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/34852/Business/Economy/Egypt-unemployment-climbs-to--pct-Q.aspx">higher</a>.</p>
<p>But the current economic conditions cannot be blamed solely on the uprising. The structure of the Egyptian economy itself under Mubarak, his crony capitalism and economic mismanagement, as well as the legacy of previous presidents have been the major factors. It is clear that if a Morsi administration is to achieve an economic breakthrough, some painful decisions have to be made. </p>
<p>The issue of subsidies is high on the agenda; they currently eat up an average of 8% of GDP and absorb 28% of government expenditures, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204059804577228984285910816.html">two-thirds of it on fuel and energy</a>, the rest are mainly food subsidies, predominantly wheat. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/12233/original/vjj8tm9w-1340757285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/12233/original/vjj8tm9w-1340757285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12233/original/vjj8tm9w-1340757285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12233/original/vjj8tm9w-1340757285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12233/original/vjj8tm9w-1340757285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12233/original/vjj8tm9w-1340757285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/12233/original/vjj8tm9w-1340757285.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Egyptian president-elect Mohamed Morsi at his first televised speech.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/STR</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is no coincidence that <em>eei’sh</em> (bread) was the first demand of the revolution; it is the daily staple of millions of Egyptians. Egypt is the largest per capita wheat consumer and its largest importer in the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204059804577228984285910816.html">world</a>.</p>
<p>While food subsidies will be very tricky to touch for any political leader, fuel subsidies will have to be partially eliminated in order for the economy to survive in the long term.</p>
<p>Externally, Arab and international Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) will have to resume. But investors will need a stable political environment, amiable business-labour relations, and for the state to adhere to its contractual obligations. Unfortunately, confidence in all three has been deeply shaken and will take time to return. </p>
<p>Should these economic conditions not be addressed, the Egyptian economy will risk further social upheaval.</p>
<h2>Freedom</h2>
<p>Economic reform should go hand-in-hand with political reform. The 2011 parliamentary election has seen the rise of the Islamists, personified by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and the Salafists. The first round of the 2012 presidential elections cemented the view that there are two major powers at play: the army and the Islamists. </p>
<p>Under a Morsi administration, there must be a development of the political values of Egyptians, who after years of apathy, are now forced to think about what kind of state they would like to live in.</p>
<p>With continued political reform, the coming years will have to bring a new social contract that organises the relationship between the state and the individual in a way that has never been done before in any Arab country. If achieved, it will be considered as a breakthrough locally and regionally. </p>
<p>In his book, Egypt and the Politics of Change in the Arab Middle East, former Australian Ambassador to Egypt Robert Bowker argues that for political reform to occur there needs to be “competitive, inclusive, secular political movements, capable of contesting effectively the Islamists’ claim to have a monopoly on social justice in all its forms.”</p>
<h2>Social justice</h2>
<p>Social justice is another one of the demands of the revolution that remains unfulfilled. To this day, the disparity in wealth continues to increase. The Mubarak regime did attempt to reform the economy from the 1990s, but this was at the expense of the lowest echelons of society. </p>
<p>Toby Dodge from the London School of Economics <a href="http://www2.lse.ac.uk/IDEAS/publications/reports/pdf/SR011/FINAL_LSE_IDEAS__ConclusionsTheMiddleEastAfterTheArabSpring_Dodge.pdf">writes</a> that across the countries of the Arab revolutions:</p>
<p>“Neoliberal reforms produced a politically connected but small nouveau riche, with the majority of the population excluded and increasingly resentful. The transitional governments need to reformulate economic policies in a way that delivers meaningful growth to this previously alienated majority.”</p>
<p>Since last year’s revolution, conditions have not gotten any better. There are demands that are yet to be fulfilled, chief among them, raising the minimum wage and universal health cover. Clean water, education and sanitation are also issues that occupy the minds of the average Egyptian. </p>
<p>Social justice issues will be high on the agenda for President Morsi. Government subsidies must be redirected to the segments of the population that need it most. </p>
<p>If some of these social justice demands are not met, this could mean further unrest in the coming years under the Muslim Brotherhood’s leadership.</p>
<h2>The future</h2>
<p>The uprising is a rare opportunity for Egyptians to shape the kind of Egypt they would like to live in. However, this opportunity carries immense risk with local, regional and international forces not in favour of change. </p>
<p>The one clear gain of the uprising is that, for the first time in several millennia, Egyptians are no longer afraid to challenge their leader. </p>
<p>Governing Egypt will not be an easy task for Mohammed Morsi, as he navigates the multitude of demands and needs. Should the demands highlighted here not be heeded, there will be instability in the years to come. </p>
<p>The coming days will show if Morsi will be able to deliver.</p>
<p><em>This is based on an article later published in the Canberra Times.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/7229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adel Abdel Ghafar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For the first time perhaps in all of Egyptian history, its citizens have chosen their own leader. The election of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammad Morsi as the president of Egypt is a major historical…Adel Abdel Ghafar, PhD Scholar, Centre for Arab & Islamic Studies , Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/44332011-11-23T03:42:41Z2011-11-23T03:42:41ZEgypt: the Arab Spring 2.0<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/5787/original/PIC_-_Tahrir_Square.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protestor in Cairo's Tahrir Square behind a flaming barricade.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Mohamed Omar</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent days have seen a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15848602">return to Cairo’s Tahrir Square</a> by thousands of Egyptians concerned by what they see as a delay by the ruling military council in implement full democracy in Egypt.</p>
<p>With reports of dozens of people killed by the security forces during the protests, are we seeing a new more violent uprising by the Egyptian people, or is this the inevitable second phase of the revolution that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak in February this year.</p>
<p>The Conversation spoke with Middle East expert Mat Hardy of Deakin University to discover why Egyptians are back on the streets and what this might mean in the longer term.</p>
<h2>Is what is happening in Egypt now simply the second phase of a revolution that began in February?</h2>
<p>It is definitely the second phase of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/world/middleeast/vestiges-of-hosni-mubaraks-order-stifle-birth-of-new-egypt.html">revolution</a> because Egyptians have the feeling that their revolution wasn’t completed properly and that nothing was going to change because it seemed to them that old ruling class and the same old cronies were going to be back in control perhaps with a military president as well.</p>
<p>It is definitely not a separate revolution, it is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/arab-spring">Arab Spring</a> 2.0.</p>
<h2>Is there a danger the “peaceful” protest that marked the start of the uprising has morphed into more violent protests as seen in Syria and Libya?</h2>
<p>The difference this time around is that the government are using force in a greater fashion than they were the first time round. The first Tahrir Square revolution was predominantly peaceful because the government didn’t crack down very hard on it.</p>
<p>But we are seeing a greater use of the security services this time which is giving the protestors less choice about whether they want to do things peacefully or not.</p>
<h2>Are the Egyptian military absolutely beholden to the US? If told to back off will they?</h2>
<p>Who knows whether they will do what they are told. I certainly think they are smart enough to know that they shouldn’t really be angering the US because it was the US’ very rapid withdrawal of support for (former President) Hosni Mubarak that left him much further out on a limb than he was probably thinking he would be.</p>
<p>I would say that the interim government, the military council, angers the US at its peril.</p>
<h2>Being brutally honest, do Israel and the US want genuine democracy in the Egypt? Is it in their interest?</h2>
<p>From the US point of view, a stable democratic Egypt is very much in their interest. Israel may be a little more reluctant to see a full blown democracy next door because their natural fear would be that the democracy would end up under the control of parties and people with an anti-Israeli ideology.</p>
<h2>It isn’t the <a href="http://www.ikhwanweb.com/">Muslim Brotherhood</a> on the streets though is it? This is normal Egyptians who want the sort of democracy we take for granted in Australia.</h2>
<p>That is right. This isn’t a fundamentalist inspired movement. I think it is really important to say that the reason these protests are happening indicates the kind of emphasis in Egypt and other Arab states on the presidency.</p>
<p>We know they are having <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/22/egypt-protesters-tahrir-square-tantawi">parliamentary elections</a> starting next week however in these countries they are very much used to being controlled by a single figure and that is why they are very much more interested in the presidential elections and when they are going to happen than the parliamentary elections.</p>
<p>It isn’t that conceivable for them that you could have a parliament that would overrule the president. They don’t care so much about the parliamentary elections.</p>
<h2>In that regard, the trope about the Arab need for a “strongman”, even if it is a democratically elected one, is still present in the Arab body politic?</h2>
<p>They don’t know any different. Egypt has never had a democracy, most of the Arab states have ever had any sort of democracy that it has been able to be sustained. We have the assumption that parliaments are free and fair, people in the Arab countries don’t have that, they are used to the parliaments being a rubber stamp for the ruling party and the presidency.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/4433/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mat Hardy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recent days have seen a return to Cairo’s Tahrir Square by thousands of Egyptians concerned by what they see as a delay by the ruling military council in implement full democracy in Egypt. With reports…Mat Hardy, Lecturer in Middle East Studies , Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.