Today, it feels like the dream is being stolen again. But I have hope in the people. I think the people will not– whatever gains, whatever steps we have taken towards democracy and human rights, there is no going back. And we might not achieve all what we´ve dreamt for this year or next year, but there will be another wave. And people will not be quiet. Today, we know more. Today, we know we can win. And today, we will not accept being killed or tortured or treated in this manner again, you know.
Where elections– if they happen on the 28th of November [2011] — might take– as you know, elections are usually violent but this one might take a sectarian angle to the violence. We have seen how easy it is to do that, to incite that. And if it does, it will be disastrous. It will be disastrous for Egypt. It´ll be disastrous for the people. There will be many people killed. But also it will mean a military dictatorship possibly.
It is a very scary scenario. And really, the scenarios we´re going ahead– when one looks at it how we move– It all looks towards a possible more military control over the political life in Egypt to our unliking. Egyptians might– maybe at a point of high tension, Egyptians would be more united again, as they were during the Tahrir days.
So, you bet on these things. You bet on– and the battle has to be fought. I mean, we cannot say we won´t run for elections because there will be violence. No. It is our battle, you know. But we need to know who will be responsible. And history needs to mark down if everyone´s going to be silent and give a blind eye to who is responsible for how things go bad, then we just need to mark it down. And there is no fear in today, ten years ago, no one could have talked about the military.
Today I, and many people, would say no to a military regime, would say no to SCAF [Supreme Council of Armed Forces] and do not think that the military is a red line. And the more the military behaves this way, the more it is vulnerable and exposed to the people.
Sally Sami has been a human rights defender for nearly a decade. She was one of the main coordinators of the Front to Defend Egypt’s Protesters (FDEP) during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Sami continues to defend human rights, but has become involved in politics and currently is a leading member of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and has been elected its Secretary General for Civil Society Affairs.
Twitter: @salamander
With a history dating back to the 10th millennium B.C., Egypt has long played a central role in the Middle East. Egypt is the largest Arab nation and has an influential voice in Arabic and Middle Eastern culture. Egypt has a diverse economy, but has struggled to create sustained economic growth and opportunities for its population of 84 million people.
The country has little experience with representative democracy. From 1956 to 1970, President Gamal Abdel Nasser ruled Egypt with a strong hand, nationalizing the Suez Canal and taking the country into conflict with the new state of Israel. Upon his death, Anwar al-Sadat became president. Together with other Arab nations, Sadat launched the October War against Israel in 1973. In 1979, Sadat signed a groundbreaking peace treaty with Israel.
From Sadat’s assassination in 1981 until the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Egypt was governed by President Hosni Mubarak. For all of Mubarak’s time in office, and for much of the time since his resignation, Egypt has been under “Emergency Law,” which allows the government to suspend constitutional rights, including limiting political activity and restricting free speech. Emergency Law also allows the government to use summary arrests against political opponents.
For four successive terms, Mubarak was reelected in referenda without an opponent. In 2005, under domestic and international pressure, Mubarak proposed a constitutional amendment to allow Egypt’s first multicandidate presidential elections. Because the amendment would have imposed severe restrictions on the eligibility of opposition candidates, opposition groups boycotted the vote. Mubarak claimed to have won the September 2005 presidential election with an official 88 percent of the vote, amid widespread allegations of fraud and vote rigging. The main opposition leader, Ayman Nour, was subsequently prosecuted by the government for forging signatures on petitions and was sentenced to five years in prison, provoking protests from the United States and other democratic countries.
Following the example of the Tunisian Revolution, large protests swept Egypt in early 2011. The military, led by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), withdrew its support of Mubarak. On February 11, 2011, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had resigned. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi then assumed power in Egypt. SCAF dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution.
In November 2011, Egypt held parliamentary elections that were reportedly fair and democratic. In June 2012, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi was elected President, in part because liberal and secular forces failed to coalesce around a single candidate. Morsi’s popularity declined as he declared his orders immune from challenge, removed judicial review processes, and was accused of taking steps towards the implementation of Islamist policies. Conflict arose between those supporting Islamist policies and those seeking a more liberal and secular government. Protests occurred throughout his presidency until Morsi was ousted by the military in July 2013. Muslim Brotherhood leaders were arrested and their camps and offices raided. Until new elections are held, a SCAF-installed provisional government led by acting President Adly Mansour is in control.
In its most recent report, the independent watchdog group Freedom House classifies Egypt as “partly free.” On its scale where 1 is the most free and 7is the least free, Egypt earned scores of 5 in both the civil liberties and political rights categories.
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