Qualla: 2011 Egyptian Revolution

2011 Egyptian Revolution: Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mona, CC BY 2.0. On the morning of January 25, 2011 -- National Police Day, of all dates -- twenty-six-year-old Asmaa Mahfouz posted a video blog daring fellow Egyptians to meet her in Tahrir Square. The Facebook event she helped promote attracted 80,000 pledges. What arrived was something larger: a nation's accumulated fury at three decades of emergency law, rigged elections, and police brutality channeled into the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, and Mansoura. By nightfall, the chants had crystallized into four words that would define the uprising -- bread, freedom, social justice, and human dignity.

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Image: Mona | CC BY 2.0

2011 Egyptian Revolution: The Spark and the Kindling

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LeCaire, CC0. Egypt had been under a continuous state of emergency since Anwar Sadat's assassination in 1981. Police powers expanded, habeas corpus vanished, and the security apparatus operated with near-total impunity. The Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights documented 567 cases of torture...

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Image: LeCaire | CC0

2011 Egyptian Revolution: Eighteen Days That Shook Cairo

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Al Jazeera English, CC BY-SA 2.0. The first three days brought running battles with Central Security Forces. On January 28, the "Friday of Anger," hundreds of thousands marched after prayers while the government cut internet and mobile service across the country. Prisons were opened -- allegedly on orders from In...

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Image: Al Jazeera English | CC BY-SA 2.0

2011 Egyptian Revolution: A Revolution Unfinished

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sherif9282, CC BY-SA 3.0. The jubilation was genuine but brief. Power passed to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament. Protesters cleaned and repainted Tahrir Square as a gesture of new beginnings, yet many pledged to stay until all demands were...

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Image: Sherif9282 | CC BY-SA 3.0

2011 Egyptian Revolution: The Second Wave

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathan Rashad, CC BY 3.0. Morsi's November 2012 declaration immunizing his decrees from judicial review united an unlikely coalition against him. Mohamed ElBaradei called him "Egypt's new pharaoh." A youth campaign called Tamarod gathered millions of signatures demanding early elections. On June 30, 2013,...

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Image: Jonathan Rashad | CC BY 3.0

2011 Egyptian Revolution: What Tahrir Means Now

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit محمد عبد الغني, Public domain. At least 846 people died and over 6,000 were injured during the initial eighteen days. The dead included Emad Effat, a senior cleric at Al-Azhar, shot in front of the cabinet building on December 16, 2011, whose funeral drew hundreds chanting "Down with military rule." Several wo...

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Image: محمد عبد الغني | Public domain