(Doha Institute)

Article

The Symbolism of Tahrir Square

Aya Nassar

Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies Article Doha, May - 2011

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Contents

THE SYMBOLISM OF TAHRIR SQUARE ...... 1

THE FOUNDATIONAL SCENE: ...... 1

THE CLASH OF IDENTITIES ...... 2

TAHRIR SQUARE ON THE EVE OF JANUARY 25, 2011 ...... 4

THE NEW CHAPTER: SCENES FROM A ...... 5

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS: ...... 7

Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies The Symbolism of Tahrir Square

This paper analyzes “place” as a political symbol, taking as a starting point the case of Tahrir Square in . Between January 25 and February 11, 2011, witnessed one of those moments in which political action gains critical mass and stakes out a position for itself on the map of political and social history. And, while the objective judgment of this period and the change it will bring about in Egypt‟s social and political relations, as well as its influence upon the Arab context, must be left to the future, for those who lived through this period, Tahrir Square and the events associated with it certainly gained new, significant meanings.

This paper attempts – as much as possible – to avoid the pitfall of creating a romantic narrative of the sort so often tied to revolutionary moments, while not pretending to completely separate from that moment. Tahrir Square offered itself as an image of the ideal city, and embodied all the sentiments for a unified Egypt that is not fragmented by class, religious, ideological or age differences; that is not based on type or origin. The place was pre-eminent in the feelings of belonging of the groups that flocked to the square and remained there during the revolution. However, the question remains: will the square continue to embody the ideal space that eliminates differences when the Egyptian people achieve their expected change, or was it was a temporary space at which the various movements met at one historical moment, only to eventually separate?

These questions may be tied up in the conundrum of unity and diversity, and have become extremely pertinent since the period after February 11, 2011, with the multiplicity of demands and visions of what the “New Egypt” should look like. And since the New Egypt is tied to Tahrir Square, this paper returns to that space in order to trace these questions.

The Foundational Scene: Tahrir Square is described as the center of Cairo, and is the southern entrance to the city center, the area that has been at the heart of the political transformations that Cairo has seen since its accession to the status of a modern capital. Initially, the center was not intended to be used for business and administrative purposes, but had been built as a high-class residential neighborhood constructed in the European style, and resembling the image Isma„il Pasha had of modernizing the capital after his visit to Paris in 1867.1

1 Timothy Mitchell, Colonizing Egypt, (University of California Press, 1991), pp. 4, 17, and Mohamed ElShahed, Facades of Modernity: Image, Performance, and Transformation in the Egyptian Metropolis, MA Thesis (MIT: 2007), p. 29. And André Raymond, Cairo: City of History, (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2007), p. 312.

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The Isma„iliyya neighborhood, which later became the city center, is tied in the collective imaginary to Isma„il Pasha, despite the fact that its construction was not completed during his reign. The vast financial resources that the construction project needed prevented the Khedive from seeing his original plan bear fruit and be executed.2 The construction of the neighborhood and its transformation to its present state occurred under the British mandate3.

It is worth noting that the downtown area represented the cosmopolitan, global face of the new Cairo, due to the Western influences on its architecture and the patterns of production, consumption and leisure that were practiced there; this even extended to the clothing worn and the activities carried out in the area. All of these factors transformed the downtown area in the early part of the twentieth century into an elite commercial, financial, and residential center in the European style.4

The Clash of Identities With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, nationalist struggles began to rise to prominence. In 1922, King Fu‟ad became the first modern king of Egypt, and in 1924, Sa„d Zaghloul became the first nationalist prime minster on the heels of political pressures that had culminated in the 1919 revolution, which had wrought obvious changes on the political, social and cultural scenes. In this context, the downtown city center was one of the locations that had been a stage for this cosmopolitan society, and for the changes that transformed it with the rise of a strong nationalist current. During the period between 1930 and 1952, the architectural character of the downtown area, especially the buildings around Isma„il Square (later renamed Tahrir Square) began to acquire a growing nationalist character. This came at a time when the colonial/European/Isma„il Pasha-era buildings were beginning to age, disintegrate, and disappear behind signs for professionals, doctors, engineers, etc., which in turn indicated a change in the identity of the downtown area, towards a more professional and commercial sphere, which was distinct from the neighborhood‟s former residential and leisure identity.5

The years prior to 1952 saw an increase in negative attitudes towards the pace of development and the buildings associated with Isma„il Pasha. Although his architectural plans for Cairo had preceded the British mandate, the traces he had left on the new city were linked to images of

2 For more details about the process of constructing this neighborhood, see: Jean-Luc Arnaud, Cairo: The Creation of a Modern City 1867-1907: From the Khedive to Private Companies, translated by Halim Touson and Fu’ad ad- Dahhan, (Cairo: al-Mashru‘ al-Qawmi li-l-Tarjama, al-Majlis al-A‘la li-l-Thaqafa, 2002). 3 ElShahed, see above, p. 29-31. 4 Ibid, p. 33-34. 5 Ibid, p. 35-39.

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corruption, occupation, and reliance on the outside world.6 As Samir Raafat points out, Isma„il Pasha‟s name was all over the new Cairo (Isma„ili Cairo, the Isma„il Bridge, Isma„il Palace, Isma„il Square and so forth) in such a concentrated fashion that it would have been impossible to erase them except through a revolution, which is precisely what happened.7

The square and the downtown city center were the stage for events prior to the 1952 revolution. On January 25, 1952, (the same day and month on which the 2011 revolution began), British troops killed a number of policemen in Isma„iliyya. The following day, fires were set off in the downtown area, targeting the most important architectural symbols tied to the colonial regime, in what became known simply as the .8

Mohammad al-Shahed points out that this fire represented the end of an era, and marked a revolution against colonial architecture with a commercial and leisure purpose, since this was seen as a distraction from nationalist feelings.9 The revolution was linked to a sentiment of resentment against the square and the neighborhood, in which the revolutionaries burned down the symbols of occupation, which was symbolically repeated with the burning of the National Democratic Party (NDP) headquarters near the in 2011.10

After 1952, the renaming of ‟s streets and squares was a priority of Abdel Nasser‟s, and in 1954 fifteen streets and squares were re-named, including Isma„iliyya Square, which became Tahrir Square, after the Qasr al-Nil barracks were demolished in 195211 so that the square would symbolically be liberated12..

With „Abdel-Nasser‟s proclivities and tendency to look eastwards, the architectural nature of the square became more influenced by Soviet architecture, the most prominent example of which is

6 Ibid, p. 40. 7 Samir Raafat, “Midan Al-Tahrir ”, Cairo Times, December 10, 1998 available at http://www.egy.com/landmarks/98-12-10.php. 8 Khaled Adham, “Cairo’s Urban Déjà vu: Globalization and Urban Fantasies” in El Sheshtawy, Yasser (ed.), Planning Middle Eastern Cities: An Urban Kaleidoscope in a Globalizing World, (London and New York: Routledge, 2004), p. 163. 9 Elshahed, p. 41. 10 In both cases, there are no accurate accounts about who began the Cairo fire of 1952, or who set fire to the NDP headquarters in 2011 along with offices in other Egyptian cities, as well as police headquarters. However, intelligence reports usually indicated that “protesters” committed the arson. For example, see, “The burning of the Ruling Party Offices and Police Stations in Egyptian Cities”, On Islam, 28-1-2011, http://www.onislam.net/arabic/newsanalysis/newsreports/islamic-world/128236-28-01-2011.html 11 Samir Raafat, op.cit. 12 ElShahed, p.43.

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the enormous “Mujamma‘” complex. 13 During this period, the square and the surrounding neighborhood became a part of the everyday popular life of the city, whereas before they had been elitist, with a cosmopolitan nature that was alien to the masses‟ populism.14 „Abdel Nasser opened up the square and surrounding areas to modern hotels, like the Hilton, which were intended to replace colonial-era hotels like the Shepherd15, which was burned, but the Nile Hilton eventually came to play the same role, as a place for the rich elite to gather in a power center16.

Although the Nile Hilton is a private building, it played the role of a symbol of „Abdel Nasser‟s vision of modernity, and an embodiment of his Egypt‟s opening to the world. This role stemmed from the re-production of Pharaonic symbols in its interior, the distinction of its exterior from the classical, Isma„il-era architecture that characterizes the Egyptian National Museum and the bureaucratic, institutional architecture of the Mujamma‘, and the fact that it was built in the location of the former British army barracks.17

With the era of infitah (opening), Cairo began to expand to the extent that it lost a single, unifying center,18 especially with the spread of private residential areas that were not tied to the city center.19 Subsequently, Tahrir Square lost its centrality and its unifying nature, and signs of globalization began to appear, with the rise of consumer symbolism in advertising billboards and fast food chains, and the increasing numbers of tourists.20

Tahrir Square on the Eve of January 25, 2011 Tahrir Square played more than one role in the period preceding January 25, 2011. It had been a site of protest and congregation since the British colonial era, and was the site of the murder of thirty protesters at Qasr al-Nil, prior to the British troops‟ withdrawal from Qasr al-Nil and the handover of the barracks to the Egyptian authorities between 1946 and 1947.21 And although the

13 Despite the fact that the mujamma‘ had been completed before the revolution in 1951. See above, p. 43. See also, Maria Golia, Cairo: City of Sand, (reaktion books, 2004), pp. 83-84. 14 ElShahed, p. 44. 15 Khaled Adham argues that the reconstruction of the Shepherd Hotel was either a sign of the end of the Orientalist colonial era, or the rise of a historical, post-colonial Cairo. See Khaled Adham, op.cit., p. 152. 16 ElShahed, pp. 44-45. 17 Ibid, p. 45. 18 Raymond, p. 361. 19 Adham, p. 160. 20 For more details, see Hiba Ra’uf ‘Izzat, “A Balcony Overlooking Tahrir Square is a Mirror for National Changes…and a Center of Consciousness and Memories”, al-Mustaqbal, 2011, Issue 3940. http://www.almustaqbal.com/stories.aspx?StoryID=457468. 21 ElShahed, p. 40.

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expansion of the city provided several alternatives for the popular protest movements to gather in22, Tahrir Square maintained its status as a symbol of gatherings and protests; in the 1970s, the square saw million-person marches at the funerals of „Abdel Nasser and Um Qulthum; and in 2003, the square held crowded protests against the American invasion of Iraq, in which the number of protesters was estimated to be around 30,000.23

The square, as a solid historical and architectural unit, saw several changes to its architectural and cultural symbols. Its buildings did not become artifacts and icons of bygone eras: some, like the British army barracks in Qasr al-Nil, were torn down, and new buildings, such as the modern hotels and the Arab League headquarters, were erected in their place. Other structures were renovated and re-used, such as the Foreign Ministry building. Furthermore, in the square, classical buildings like the Egyptian Museum and enormous modernist projects like the Mujamma‘ stood side-by-side, as did the old American University in Cairo building with the „Umar Makram mosque. It is worth noting that, recently, some of these landmarks have begun to be moved or otherwise altered, which affects the symbolic contents of the square. For example, the American University is now in New Cairo, the Egyptian Museum and the Mujamma‘ are also moving outside the square,24 and the Nile Hilton has been sold to another company.

Tahrir Square has remained central to passers-by and transportation25, since it is close to the bus stations and the central subway station. It is the square that connects colonial Cairo to metropolitan Cairo, with its huge buildings that block off views of the Nile. 26 Perhaps the location and role of the square aided it in maintaining its vitality as a vibrant, dynamic place, rather than merely a static, historical district.

The New Chapter: Scenes from a Revolution Several protests preceded the revolution. These included workers‟ protests and calls for civil disobedience by what was known as the April 6 movement, as well as protests by the Egyptian Movement for Change – Kifaya. Then, protests followed the death of Khaled Sa„id and the

22 Raymond, p. 365. 23 Golia, pp. 85, 150, 167, 196-197. “Top 10 Famous Protest Plazas”, Time, 9-2-2011 http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2047066_2047070_2047071,00.ht ml 24 “Government Minister: The Mujamma‘ and 16 Ministries will be Moved outside the Capital”, ad-Dustour, 24-1- 2010. http://dostor.org/politics/egypt/10/january/23/3983 25 Yasser El sheshtawy, “Tahrir Square”,Alrroya.com, 15-2-2011 http://english.alrroya.com/content/tahrir-square 26 Raymond, p. 368.

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explosion outside the Saints‟ Church in at the start of 2011, leading to more allegations of torture and murder, including the death of Said al-Bilal. Following these protests, some Egyptian civilians set fire to themselves in front of the People‟s Assembly building facing Tahrir Square in the wake of the revolution in Tunisia.27 All of these events, as well as others, varied in importance and influence, but they all worked to prepare Tahrir Square for the period of January 25-February 11, 2011.

The square played a pivotal role in the first days of the revolution because it became the site of contention between the symbols of the state (the ) and the protesters. Since the first day of protests, the square had been the principal site of protests; in fact, the main struggle on January 25 was between protesters trying to reach the square and security forces attempting to stop them from doing so. The day ended violently, when the police used all their force to clear the square. The same is true of the “Camel Battle” day, when the square was transformed into a battleground between the regime (after the police withdrew) and the protesters28. After that, it can be said that the revolution symbolically fought to „liberate‟ Tahrir [Liberation] Square.

The torching of the NDP building, in addition to the fires set at other party facilities and police stations29, were a repeat of a scenario that had already occurred in Tahrir Square, which 59 years earlier to the month had seen the burning of buildings perceived to be symbols of occupation and corruption. Now, as normal movement is gradually returning to the crowded square, the burned- out NDP building remains a monument to the prominent political changes the country and its capital have undergone. The fate of the NDP headquarters is now the subject of an ongoing debate over proposals to build a garden in its place, or a museum of the revolution30, just as the fate of the other party offices remains undetermined31.

27 “A Second citizen Sets Himself on Fire in front of Parliament, and a Third is Caught before Doing the Same”, ad- Dustour, 18-1-2011, http://dostor.org/politics/egypt/11/january/18/35245. 28 “18 Days That Shook the World, From the first protest to Mubarak's fall, the Egyptian revolution in photos,” 11- 2-2011 http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/11/the_18_days_that_shook_the_world?page=0 %2C0 29 “The burning of the Ruling Party Offices and Police Stations in Egyptian Cities”, On Islam, 28-1-2011, http://www.onislam.net/arabic/newsanalysis/newsreports/islamic-world/128236-28-01-2011.html 30 Mohammad al-Mahdi, “A Revolutionary Museum”, 11-3-2011, http://www.eldostor.net/society-and- people/variety/11/march/11/37924?quicktabs_1=1 31 For example, “A Legal Case to Regain NDP offices”, Ash-Shorouk, 25-2-2011, http://www.shorouknews.com/ContentData.aspx?id=397028

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The dynamic nature of the square and its role were contributing factors in lending an exceptional nature to the events, because it is such an ingrained part of the everyday lives of so many Egyptians. Those opposed to suggestions to turn it into a permanent protest site, along the lines of Britain‟s Hyde Park, warn that to do would risk making political demonstrations a routine part of daily life, thereby robbing future protests of their spontaneity and exceptionality.

As previously explained, Tahrir Square has always been at the center of change, and of renewals of national identity resulting from events that affect the political, cultural and civic life of Cairo‟s citizens. Perhaps the period between January 25 and February 11, 2011, represented a true liberation moment by providing a particular, realistic experience to a revolutionary generation that will re-interpret the meaning of liberation and transform it into a true practice, rather than a shifting historical symbol.32

Concluding Observations: - This paper‟s focus on Tahrir Square should not be taken to suggest that the author takes the reductionist approach that only considers Cairo in Egypt, and only sees central Cairo in discussions of Cairo. Cairo‟s current identity has in a fundamental way arisen from its lack of a center, due to the various expansion projects and new residential neighborhoods. One of the consequences of the revolution for Tahrir Square, in fact, could be a reassertion of its status as a symbolic urban center, after the city had almost been broken down into disparate, dissociated residential areas, and after the downtown area had lost its place in the spotlight as a cultural, political and social core, save for a few minor exceptions.33.

- Any scene that joins different groups into one unit inevitably also tacitly excludes others. The centrality of Tahrir Square perhaps excluded a margin, and the cosmopolitan nature of the revolution did not include rural participation. In fact, the absence of violence and political families and leadership from the events in Tahrir – one of the positive, unexpected facets of the revolution – does not mean that they have disappeared from political life outside the square. This interaction with political players and agents outside Tahrir is one of the challenges facing the longevity of the square as a symbol of unity, peaceful change, and gathering around shared nationalist goals.

32 See, for example, the following blog, which proposes the creation of an alternative, lived memory instead of dredging up the past: Naseem Tarawnah , “How Egypt Inspired a Generation of Young Arabs”, The Black Iris, 13-2- 2011 http://www.black-iris.com/2011/02/13/how-egypt-inspired-a-generation-of-young-arabs/ 33 ElShahed, p. 20.

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- Place and architecture are nothing but the visual manifestations of a society‟s identity and presence; their relationship to it is not simple; sometimes, they reflect what society would like to be, and at others, they are symbols of power, which must be fought or liberated.34

Finally, any place gains its political symbolism from the possibility of action that is possessed or embodied by political actors. In the case of Tahrir Square, what is both interesting and unique is that for 18 days, popular, political unified action rose to the forefront, characterized by values and morals that later were given the name “Tahrir values”.35 This is an exceptional event in the world of politics, which defines itself as the art of struggle and warfare. However, one must also admit that this state of exceptionalism will also witness the passing of time, and then Tahrir Square will become a place and a symbol of all the meanings it has now acquired, and become the site of a struggle between political, social and cultural forces. This struggle should not be cause for despair, as is the case for many; but in fact, it is this struggle over Tahrir Square and who best represents it that makes it a true political symbol.

34 El Shahed, p. 40. 35 For personal accounts of being in the Square, see, among others: Amira Noshokaty, “Eyewitness Accounts: People in the Egyptian Revolution”, Ahram online, 20-2-2011. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/5973.aspx

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