After the Revolution: Five months after the president’s resignation in February, Egypt struggles to turn the page on the Mubarak era.
July 12, 2011
Cairo, Egypt—Five months ago, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was forced from power following 18 days of nationwide protest that claimed the lives of more than 800 Egyptians.
“Hold your head high; you’re Egyptian,” protesters chanted in the streets after Vice President Omar Suleiman announced Mubarak’s resignation. In the Middle East’s most populous nation, the moment’s jubilation then seemed capable of wiping away decades’ worth of humiliation under the U.S.-supported despot.
Since that historic February evening, however, Egypt’s political constituencies have been locked in a battle over how to turn the page on the Mubarak era and set the nation on a path toward representational democracy. The protesters who filled the streets and public squares in January and February brought with them years of grievances: from pervasive corruption and police brutality to yawning economic inequality and government collusion in Israeli’s blockade of Gaza. But Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), to which Mubarak relinquished power, and the former regime officials who remain in ministry-level positions throughout the government have been slow to respond, if at all, to demands for change.
Egypt is entering another period of political turmoil. The summer sun burns very hot above this North African nation, and the politics are again beginning to boil.
