The Egyptian Revolution 01: On Battlegrounds and Utopias

I will not talk much about the politics of the recent Egyptian revolution, but I will document a number of architectural notes that I made during the past 18 days.

One cannot avoid discussing the place where all these events took place. Tahrir, liberation, or even now called martyrs, square has been the focus of the whole world for the last 18 days (for a complete review of the square check this post by Ahmed Zaazaa http://cairomsc.blogspot.com/2009/11/el-tahrir-square-multi-layered-history.html ). Whether it was in the foreground or the background of these events, it remains a crucial element in the equation of defining the results.

-          “when we took tahrir square 2 days ago, we did not…

-          “I’m sorry, you ‘took’?”

-          “yes… we ‘took’  tahrir square… we control it… we own it”

The words from this tv interview with one of the protestors made me wonder about the importance of controlling this space in the process of protesting. Since the 25^th of January, there was a continuous battle to control it. And with the famous 'camel charge', suddenly tahrir square became the battleground, and both parties symbolized their control of the country in the control of an urban space. Tahrir square had exceeded its reputation as just the downtown center for major political protests into a completely new identity. Perhaps because of the vital institutions overlooking the square, it now became the negotitated-upon instead of the negotiated-from.

But tahrir square did not stop there. As days passed by, the symbol became stronger and stronger, and with the need to organize and manage the protests tahrir square became the message itself. Committees for cleanliness, security, medical aid, media… among others took on the challenge and turned tahrir square into a small republic of its own. When the VP told ABC that Egyptians were not ready for democracy, tahrir square was the response. And while the most common comment about the square during the protests was “it is exactly the Egypt we dream of having”, I did not believe it till I visited. It was young, fresh, creative, organized, safe, and most importantly democratic and liberated. Protestors turned tahrir square to a more meaningful entity than just a symbol. They turned it into a dream. Everybody wanted to be part of that dream, everybody wanted a role. And when a dream turns to reality, it was useless to fight, the battle was already won, and sooner or later Egyptians would have their utopia.

A great map of Tahrir http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12434787