On the Eve of the Authoritarian Turn: Mourning the Lives of the “Terrorists”

Abstract

ABSTRACT On 14 August 2013, Egyptian security forces killed hundreds of supporters and sympathizers of the Muslim Brotherhood in two squares of Egypt's capital Cairo: Rab‘a al-‘Adawiyya and al-Nahda. Those killed had protested against the military coup that ousted President Mohamed Morsi. The state's propaganda machine and the media connected to Egypt's influential business people designated those killed as terrorists. Human rights organizations paint a grim picture of the decade of authoritarian rule. In the regime's rhetoric, the fight against terrorism justifies the continued crackdown on Egyptian civil society movements and opposition. Again this year, the anniversary of the Rab‘a al-‘Adawiyya and al-Nahda massacres is likely to receive little coverage in the country's mainstream media. While the voices of those opposing the military coup in 2013 in Egypt are long silenced, on the massacre's tenth anniversary, it is time to recall an alternative to the narrative of the Egyptian state. Participants of a women's Quran reading group in one of Cairo’s impoverished neighborhoods questioned the military coup in 2013 and anticipated what was to come.