Tahrir Square, Cairo

Friday 1st July.


Tahrir Square, Cairo has become the symbol of the Arab spring, the centre of the protests that lead to the revolution in Egypt in January. Normally no more than a traffic roundabout, bounded on one side by the Nile, a dual carriageway and  to it's north by the Egyptian Museum. The Square is normally home to thousands of tourists on their way to view the embalmed remains of ancient Egyptians,Tahrir Square has now become for many in the West and for countless numbers of Arabs the heart of the revolution against oppressive governments.


The approach to the Square is busy with the usual Egyptian street stalls so common any were in this country where people gather. The air is thick with smoke from braziers roasting sweetcorn, shouts from newspaper sellers, and all around are young boys with mountains of prickly pears for sale, the discarded yellow skins black with flies. The edges of the pavement are lined with the poorest traders of all, usually women clasping sickly looking babies to their black galebea coverings, offering cheap paper hankies for sale, their hands stuck out in that world wide beggars sign, an open palm.


On my last visit to the Square two years ago the buildings around were in Cairo terms relatively prosperous with international travel companies inhabiting them. Now they are all empty and boarded up, and across the Square the burned out remains of a Government building. The only two open businesses are selling fried chicken or broiled hamburgers, both are doing a roaring trade supplying the thousands of people gathered on the square listening intently to the speakers.


Also noticeable by their absence are the huge bill boards that used to surround the Square and Egyptian Museum of the person who used to be regarded as the Father of the Country, Hosni Mubarak, his once omnipresent representation now consigned to the bonfire of history. 


As I make my way through the crowd towards the collection of rickety trestle tables, piled one on top of another and covered by colourful fabric topped with a crowd of people surrounding a man bellowing into a microphone. I notice in the crowd a number of women in Egyptian public society this is a somewhat unusual as large crowds for women normally mean the danger of sexual molestation, and in addition while washing is an important ritual to most Egyptian men the use of deodorant is not. Most Women would never allow themselves to get so close to a strange man let alone thousands of them is this a mark of a change in society? Talking to Egyptian friends the view seems to be in this matriarchal country the women have been organising and it seems they have been a leading force behind the protests across the Middle East.


A Woman is now speaking to the gathered masses. She's telling the story of her son. He was one of the first protesters in January, arrested by the special police, his Father was told to come and collect his sons body two days after his arrest, apparently a healthy 23 year old had had a heart attack and died in custody. When his family prepared the body for burial they discovered that his arms and legs where broken and his ribs had been smashed, one of the ribs had punctuated his heart. As she told her story the crowd became more animated and angry, I heard many people shouting that her story was nothing unusual that the same thing had happened on Tuesday night, when the crowd rioted and the army came to subdue them. 

The people of Egypt are angry and frustrated at the slowness of the reforms, they want elections as soon as possible and they want their living conditions to change. I don't see how this can happen without a revolution within the upper levels of Egyptian society, the same people who let Mubarak run the country for his and their benefit, are still holding the reins of power sheltered by the Army the Americans and European Governments. The vast majority of Egyptians still live on the borderline of poverty and don't have the luxury of political protest. There is a feeling from ordinary people I have spoken to that If major reforms don't start to happen soon the upcoming Ramadan could turn out to be very bloody for Egypt and the rest of the Middle East.