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Egyptian riot police beat a protestor as they run through the street in downtown Tahrir
Photo credit: Khalil Hamra/AP (see the rest of the photos here) |
Over the past few days there have been continuous protests in Tahrir square and in the surrounding governates such as
Alexandria. The source of the violence can be traced back to a peaceful demonstration that began on Friday, not too much unlike the protests that occur every Friday after prayers in Tahrir Square, however there was more excitement surrounding this particular protest and the number of participants was much higher.
Due to the size of Friday's protest, people remained in the square until the next day when in the afternoon, riot police arrive to clear them out. Since Saturday, the violence has escalated at an alarming rate as tear gas fills the air, rubber bullets are shot and rocks are thrown from both sides. The number of people dead is hard to determine amongst the chaos. I most recently read 24, but I have heard as high as 100, and thousands are injured.
Unfortunately for those of you reading, a poetic, on-the-scene, eye witness post is not to follow. While I spend a vast majority of my day at AUC's campus in New Cairo (45 minutes to 1 hour outside of town), even when I am at my apartment in Zamalek (10 minutes away from Tahrir) it has been eerily quiet the past few days. The state-broadcasted news has been consistently on the big screen tv in the lobby and maybe only four or five people are sitting down watching it. Crazy how minutes away from the deadly clashes people can go about their days like nothing has changed. Is this the case in every country?
As much as the most recent violence, i.e. current violence, is unprecedented since the "revolution" in terms of protesters vs. police clashes in Tahrir, it does not reflect the opinions of all Egyptians. Speaking to my co-workers today afterwork, they were frustrated at the timing of the violence, now six days before the first round of elections, and seemed to fault the protesters equally as much as the riot police. According to them, it is important for Egyptians to see the parliamentary elections through even though they won't be perfect--that is a given when trying to reestablish a government from scratch.
Furthermore they expressed frustration at the lack of a cohesive approach of the protestors. What do they want exactly? Of course they want SCAF (Supreme Council of Armed Forced) to ceed to civilian rule, but isn't that what the parliamentary elections was working towards?
I am not saying anything against the protestors. They have a right and a reason (many reasons) to be frustrated and fed up with SCAF in power. But I think it is important to highlight the spectrum of opinions in the country when the news tends to be dominated by headlining violence. I like the way my one co-worker put it, "They all seem to be singing the same song and if you're not singing it, well..." My other co-worker agreed, "If you ever write anything against the protests on Facebook you are immediately attacked. So no one writes anything against them."
One thing for sure is these protests are the worst it has been since protests prior to Mubarak's ousting. Previously, protests and violence was predominately in Cairo, but these clashes are echoed
throughout the country. It is possible this might lead to a mass evacuation of foreigners, similar to the one following the January 25th protests.
On campus, a group of students responded to the arrest of Ahmed Rahim, an AUC undergraduate, by
protesting outside the Administration Building yesterday, demanding the AUC administration to intervene to help free him. At the same time just a five minute walk away on campus, four parliamentary hopefuls and AUC alumni spoke outside to a small crowd of people about how the elections will work in Egypt. This scene in itself makes me wonder whether parliamentary elections will happen in six days. The process is complicated and new, and Egyptians have 41 political parties to choose from, literally all over the map.
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Now imagine that you are the one in every four Egyptians that are illiterate.
Map by Jacopo Carbonari as posted on arabist.net. |
As for me, I am glued to the news, specifically twitter. As much as twitter is a platform of self-importance to many in the United States, it is an important and impressively effective news source in Cairo. There is practically no delay between the time something happens and my ability to read it online from one of the Egyptian activists or journalists I follow. It is incredible.
I am also safe. Granted, I did have to go to the hospital on Saturday after severely cutting my pinky finger when the glass I was washing broke. After panicking for 10 minutes at the massive amount of blood, I called a friend and we decided it would be best to bandage it up ourselves and wait for the clinic to open in my building four hours later. The woman at the clinic sent me right to the hospital. Seven stitches! I tried to get away with not getting any (I was for some reason under the impression that they do not numb your finger) but the nurse insisted, "You are a lady, you can't have a big scar on your finger!" Well, if it means I'm choosing between a scar and a husband, I guess I'll get the stitches.
More updates to come as the protests continue.
