Legitimizing child martyrdom? The emergence of a new political subjectivity in revolutionary Egypt

ABSTRACT

The 25 January 2011 revolution in Egypt was the stage upon which both the people and new political subjectivities made their appearance, under the slogan ‘we, the people’. Regardless of social class, gender, or age, the Egyptian people were affected by the revolutionary events as they experienced a revolution of the self. Using the theoretical framework of childhood studies and adapting a macro-structural approach, this paper explores how the process of memorialization of children killed during the protests and clashes of 2011–2012 ascribes them the status of martyrs of the revolution, like adults. In so doing, the paper intends to demonstrate that the recognized child martyrdom proves that children represent a new political subjectivity group which has emerged in the Egyptian revolutionary context.

KEYWORDS:

• Martyrs
• children
• people
• political subjectivity
• 25 January 2011 revolution
• Egypt

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. These ideas about childhood and categories of children have ended up shaping policies and practices in the international arena as well as development interventions in both Western and non-Western countries. The main corroboration of childhood standardization and universalization is represented by the adoption of universally recognized treaties, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Like most countries around the world, Egypt followed this mainstream universalization and protection of childhood with the ratification of the CRC in 1990, the implementation of social reforms aiming at the protection and education of childhood, the promulgation of a Child Law in 1996, and its amendments in 2008 (Diana, 2015).

2. ‘Être affectif, centré sur lui-même, soucieux de se réaliser lui-même’; ‘Sujet qui n’est pas souci de soi, mais défense de la capacité d’être acteur, c’est-à-dire de modifier son environnement social contre l’emprise des appareils et des formes d’organization sociale à travers lesquelles se construit le Soi’ (my own translation from French).

3. For more details, see Alexander 2011.

4. In Egypt, there are five Ultra groups: Ultras Ahlawy, Zamalek (White Knights), Alexandria (Ultras 300), Tanta (Ultras Devils), Ismaeli (Ultras Yellow Dragons), and Masri of Port Said (Green Eagles). The Ultras have four main principles: to not stop singing during a game; to not sit down; to attend all games no matter how expensive or how far; and to be located at the curve in the stadium, which is away from other classical fans and has cheaper, third-class tickets (Hamzeh & Sykes, 2014).

5. 1000Memories is a San Francisco-based start-up founded in 2010. Defined as a virtual shoebox, 1000Memories allows people to store, organize, and share old photos and memories with family members and friends.

6. The integral version of Mahmoud Hashim’s message addressed to 1000Memories co-founders can be found in Tsotsis (2011) ‘Egyptian Protester Memorial Goes Viral on 1000Memories’. Available online: https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/09/1000memories/(Accessed 10 October 2018).

7. The shared Google document is available here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16eWESATszzip98VWEpFD6oHJPnWDTg-hacLiiGupkrg/edit?authkey=CLT_xkU&hl=en&authkey=CLT_xkU&hl=en&toomany=true&ndplr=1#gid=0 (Accessed 10 October 2018).

8. http://ourmartyrs.blogspot.pt/2011/03/muhammed-ehab-al-naggar-8-kafr-al-dawar.html (Accessed 10 October 2018).

9. Balel Salem, 10 years old; Mahmoud Said Hedya, 14 years old; Seif Allah Mustafa 16 years old; Mustafa Abu-Zaid, 17 years old; Youssed Anwar El-Mekkawy, 17 years old. http://www.shoah.org.uk/2011/02/13/egypt-remembers/; http://ourmartyrs.blogspot.pt/2011/03/16-28-1.html; https://www.scribd.com/doc/48368985/martyrs; https://www.scribd.com/document/48552782/Egypt-Remembers (Accessed 10 October 2018).

10. During the uprising, the artist painted several similar portraits of the revolution’s victims around the central Cairene downtown area to commemorate and honour them as martyrs of the 2011 revolution. His martyr murals project can be seen here: http://www.ganzeer.com/post/158030041274/title-martyr-murals-date-2011-description-a (Accessed 10 October 2018).

11. The most shocking reminder of the gratuitous violence of these events was that of the prone body of one protester thrown onto a garbage heap (Hussein, 2012b; Ryzova, 2011).

12. Political implications of those clashes are tackled in Hamzeh and Sykes 2014.

13. On the controversial debate about martyr status for the victims of the Port Said massacre and of the Egyptian revolution, see Ghannam 2015 and Mittermaier 2015.

14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpHB9V2QlHA&feature=related (Accessed 10 October 2018).

15. http://today.almasryalyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=332259 (Accessed 10 October 2018).

16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MzrVz5_sjs&NR=1&feature=endscreen; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPGjeJgNDqk (Accessed 10 October 2018).

17. https://www.facebook.com/Kolena.ANAS In July 2016, the Facebook page KolenaAnas had around 25,000 followers and in 2018 it had more than 26,000 followers (Accessed 10 October 2018).

18. https://www.egyptindependent.com/remembering-jika-martyr-mohamed-mahmoud-anniversary-clashes/(Accessed 15 October 2018).

19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_ywo_XZh1s (Accessed 15 October 2018).

20. https://egyptindependent.com/court-recognizes-two-morsy-era-killed-protesters-january-25-uprising-martyrs/(Accessed 15 October 2018).

21. ‘Support the Protesters and Save the Nation’, document n°3, Tahrir Documents Archives. https://www.tahrirdocuments.org/(Accessed 15 October 2018).