Egyptians don’t call it the Yom Kippur War, they call it the 6th of October. On this day in 1973, the Egyptian Army, supported by the Air Force under the leadership of General Hosni Mubarak, pushed across the Suez Canal and dislodged the Israelis who had been occupying the Sinai Pensinsula, on the other side, since 1967. It was the only time in four Arab-Israeli wars that the Egyptians had the better of the Israelis. Tactically, the crossing was bold and ingenious (dissolving giant defensive sand berms with high-pressure water hoses; erecting pontoon bridges; commandos crossing the canal in exposed rubber dinghies), but the offensive surprise afforded by attacking on the eve of a Jewish holiday didn’t last long. After three days, the Israelis counterattacked. They divided the Egyptian Third Army, recrossed the canal, and came within a hundred kilometers of Cairo. Ceasefire and Camp David followed, with Israel ceding Sinai back, and the Egyptians were able to pretend that they had won the war and overturned decades of Arab humiliation.
This victory named a bridge, the 6th of October over the Nile, and a new Cairene suburb, the 6th of October, and provided the foundation for the Army’s valedictory status in Egypt. Last night, I was out walking amid evening promenaders and Coptic Christians protesting yet another church burning and beating by the military police. (One pulled up his sleeve to reveal a raised red welt from a long baton, laid over a tattoo of St. George slaying the dragon.) Across the street, a couple of hundred riot police and military police were massed. By the river, I saw an old man, who seemed to be mad, railing in the dusk. “Nasser took everything!” he said, “and left us this trash!” He pointed at a heap of flotsam garbage, and then to his chest: “I am a hero of October 6th!”
Continue Reading >>
Before the revolution, political expression in Egypt was stifled…
…but the anger broke through after the example of the Tunisian revolution of January.
The fist symbol of the April 6th opposition movement, founded in the wake of the violent crackdown on striking textile workers in 2008.
Rage of the oppressed, painted on a wall near the Fine Arts faculty of Cairo University
Notice the S.M.S. message in his hand—the tools of social networking, especially Facebook and Twitter, were useful for massing people and outwitting the police during the revolution.
The police were defeated on the Day of Rage, January 28th, when protesters fought tear gas and rubber bullets to take Tahrir Square.
Nearly a thousand people are estimated to have died during the eighteen days of demonstrations that brought down Mubarak, and many stencils commemorate the martyrs. This portrait, by Ganzeer, is of Islam Rafat, who was run over by a car during protests on January 28th. At one point authorities painted over the image; an outcry went up on Twitter and Ganzeer repainted it. Ganzeer is hoping eventually to make portraits all of the martyrs.
The White House equivocation during the first days of protests in January, and its long-term support of Mubarak, caused a lot of dismay on the street. This image comes from a larger picture, in which a pipe connects Obama’s head to a shower that drips blood.
Notice that the king has been toppled in this game of chess.
There are plenty of fists of defiance; this one is inscribed with a crescent and cross, the symbol of religious unity that was one of the features of Tahrir Square, when Coptic priests and Muslim Imams held hands and demonstrated together.
Fist and victory sign painted on a school wall.
The stylized hand, used most often as a symbol to ward off the evil eye, flips the bird. Underneath is written: Take that!
All over Cairo and Egypt, ordinary people have painted stripes of the Egyptian flag across walls, fences, and tree trunks in revolutionary and patriotic celebration.
Mubarak shows up in a number of guises on Cairene walls. Here he is eyeless, behind bars.
Here Mubarak is shown in a noose.
This is an image from a famous classic movie. The man is a drug dealer and he’s rolling a joint. His celebrated quote is written underneath: “I am the people!”
Recently the street-art stencils have moved toward satire and subversion in the manner of Banksy.
Here the Statue of Liberty wears a full veil. Underneath is written, “You’re not free!”—a quote taken from a Salafi song, advising women that they must remain submissive.
Che Guevara is depicted with a prayer cap and long beard.
And Snow White becomes a gun-toting revolutionary.
The recent retaking of Tahrir Square by protesters has prompted a new rash of graffiti. More and more, they explicitly denounce the rule of SCAF, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Here, its leader, Field Marshal Tantawi, has been put behind bars.
Tantawi’s underpants?
The red beret of the military police sits atop a pair of handcuffs. It is estimated that ten thousand civilians have been put through military tribunals over the past six months.
In recent clashes between police and youth on the square, a few Molotov cocktails were thrown amid a hail of stones. I watched one kid drop his and set fire to the hem of his trousers.
As activists have now settled into Tahrir for a long-term sit-in, they decry the “couch party” of people who prefer to sit at home and complain about the ongoing disruption. 
