An Ethnography of Political Engagement in Egypt

BEING A YOUNG ACTIVIST IN THE LATE MUBARAK ERA AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT IN EGYPT Henri.vaitos.final.indd 1 18.5.2015 8.55 Henri.vaitos.final.indd 2 18.5.2015 8.55 Department of Political and Economic Studies (Development Studies) Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki BEING A YOUNG ACTIVIST IN THE LATE MUBARAK ERA AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT IN EGYPT HENRI ONODERA DOCTORAL DISSERTATION To be presented for public examination with the permission of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, in Hall 13, Main Building of the University of Helsinki on June 5, 2015 at 12 noon Henri.vaitos.final.indd 3 18.5.2015 8.55 Publications of the Department of Political and Economic Studies 24 (2015) Development Studies Opponent Dr Linda Herrera, Associate Professor, Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Pre-examiners Professor Markku Lonkila, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä Dr Jessica Winegar, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University Supervisors Professor Jeremy Gould, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä Dr Samuli Schielke, Zentrum Moderner Orientet © Henri Onodera Cover: Riikka Hyypiä Cover photo: Henri Onodera Layout: Teemu Matinpuro Distribution and Sales: Unigrafia Bookstore http://kirjakauppa.unigrafia.fi/ [email protected] PL 4 (Vuorikatu 3 A) 00014 Helsingin yliopisto ISSN-L 2243-3635 ISSN 2243-3635 (Print) ISSN 2243-3643 (Online) ISBN 978-951-51-1009-1 (paperback) ISBN 978-951-51-1010-7 (PDF) Unigrafia, Helsinki 2015 Henri.vaitos.final.indd 4 18.5.2015 8.55 ABSTRACT This is an ethnographic study of the lived experiences of young activists during the last years of Mubarak’s presidency in Egypt. Its general aim is to provide an understanding of what it was like to be involved in opposition politics during a period when the eventual end of Mubarak’s rule in 2011 was little more than a collective aspiration. Drawing on different strands of qualitative social science, including anthropology, sociology and youth research, the study is based on 12 months of fieldwork in Cairo, conducted between 2007 and 2011. It makes use of political engagement as an open analytic that enables the examination of different activities that were ori- ented towards, but not exclusive to, public political processes and formal avenues to political participation. In this vein, the study explores the activities that the young activists regarded as meaningful in terms of challenging the status quo, and how being young in itself shaped their ways of partici- pating in public political life. While it focuses on the experiences of young Cairenes who were predominantly male and aged in their 20s, it is acknowl- edged that important differences existed among them that conditioned their efforts to acquire new visibilities and political roles, including social differences such as class, gender and global connectedness. In order to explore the diversity of their political experiences, the study discusses four principal areas of analysis and related topics: namely, generational consciousness, tactical practice, friendship relations and ethical reflections. It is demonstrated that, firstly, the new forms of youth activism in the 2000s promoted a critical generational consciousness as a disenfranchised social location in the intergenerational order, while also providing reinvig- orated meanings to youth as a subversive political category, and in some ways a privileged experiential realm, ready to conduct public political dissent on its own terms. The new youth movements, such as Youth for Change and April 6 Youth that emerged on the fringes of larger processes of conten- 5 Henri.vaitos.final.indd 5 18.5.2015 8.55 tious politics, assumed new roles in public political life and merged, at least temporarily, young Egyptians from different backgrounds and affiliations into collective actions: forging alliances, largely beyond the formal political institutions. Secondly, the young activists resorted to a number of tactical practices in order to reach out to wider publics via both offline and online avenues. Their operating preferences lay in organizing unlicensed street protests in the popular, lower-class residential areas and tapping into the subversive potential of the new information and communication technologies, including blogs and social media. Although these forms of public dissent expanded their otherwise narrow political opportunities, their adoption was not, however, equally available to everyone. Some either had the necessary social networks in place, including family support, or the available time and the economic means to do so, while those, who were less equipped for public dissent, could nonetheless acquire new combinations of practical skills, knowledge and social connections that enabled them to enact their sense of meaningful political action. At the same time, the efforts to build youth coalitions faced a number of challenges, one of which was internal faction- alism, which, coupled with the growing use of social media, diversified the scope of youth activism in the run-up period to the 2011 uprisings. Thirdly, being a young activist in the late 2000s provided much more varied everyday experiences than merely the acts of public political dissent. It also involved absorbing pre-existing oppositional culture and adopting dissident lifestyles that were filled with shared moments of being and doing things with others on a daily basis. In the absence of representative political institutions, the experiences of having friends and being a friend to others offered intimate avenues to public political life that stretched beyond kin ties and formal organizations. Although oppositional youth activism was divided along lines of class, gender and political affiliation, the young could forge mutual grounds for friendship relations on the basis of their shared experiences and stories of contention, while frequenting downtown Cairo as the main hub of their everyday trajectories. Although friendship relations were at times volatile in the contested field of politics, safeguard- ing the bonds of trust, belonging and everyday solidarity represented highly relevant everyday activities. Fourthly, the young Cairenes were faced with a number of ethical reflections on the meaningfulness of their own dissent practices, not the least due to the personals risks that opposition politics involved in authoritarian settings. While the prospect of impoverishment did not generally motivate 6 Henri.vaitos.final.indd 6 18.5.2015 8.55 their political engagements, they shared a sense of injured patriotism that prevailed in the wider prodemocracy movement, and aspired to greater rec- ognition as rightful citizens. At the same time, they operated on an ambiva- lent moral terrain that required positioning one’s self and others in relation to normative claims to the common good; furthermore, they had to contend with popular suspicion about the impact of their public political dissent and about possible motives for their activism, such as the pursuit of social status and personal wellbeing. Despite the differences that existed among the activist youth in terms of class and gender, however, they could in part chal- lenge these types of speculations by enacting the prevailing ideals of per- sonhood in terms of bravery, righteousness and self-sacrifice. Meanwhile, although the young Cairenes were embedded in the moral worlds of prodemocracy mobilization, they were also compelled to balance their political engagements in terms of multiple life transitions, especially in terms of bal- ancing their activism with the requirements of gaining a livelihood. While there were multiple ways of being or becoming an activist in the late Mubarak era, the young Cairenes’ political engagements were con- nected to their collective pursuit of playing a meaningful role in what happened in the present, while acknowledging that Egypt’s future was inti- mately tied to their own life trajectories. 7 Henri.vaitos.final.indd 7 18.5.2015 8.55 Henri.vaitos.final.indd 8 18.5.2015 8.55 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Conducting this study amounted to a tremendous learning experience in so many ways. I feel privileged to have been surrounded by so many inspir- ing and devoted fellow human beings along the way, and to have witnessed at close range one of the historical changes taking place in Egypt and the Middle East. In as much as the final stages of this research proved at times quite a lone rollercoaster ride, it would have never materialized without the support, company and encouragement of numerous people over the years, including colleagues, scholars, friends and family members. I am especially indebted to my tutors Professor Jeremy Gould and Dr Samuli Schielke. Without their advice, recommendations and guidance this thesis would have not taken its present form. Jeremy was my tutor from the beginning, encouraging me to explore the experiential realm of everyday life and reflect on the knowledge practices that underpin this study in order to dig more deeply into the research topic. Thank you! Samuli took on the role of supervisor at a later stage, and has generously devoted his time, friendship and in depth knowledge of today’s Egypt to the work in progress. Samuli, your advice has been invaluable in so many ways, not least by vir- tue of the trust you demonstrated in the research process. I feel privileged to have shared with you a diverse array of academic (and not so academic) musings and experiences along the way, and I am looking forward to con- tinuing them in the future. My warmest thanks also go to the pre-examiners, Professor Markku Lonkila and Associate Professor Jessica Winegar, for their constructive comments based on a careful reading of the manuscript. I am indebted to both their insightful advice on the current project, and for their suggestions for potential research areas and theoretical approaches that could be consid- ered in the future.

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