Dispatches From Cairo: Morsi’s First 100 Days

Posted on Oct 16, 2012

AP/ David Karp

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, above delivering a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York last month, faces protests back at home.

By Lauren Unger-Geoffroy

We asked Lauren Unger-Geoffroy, an international artist who lives in Cairo, to share her perspective of life in Egypt after the revolution. In this entry, she writes about protests in Tahrir Square over Egypt’s newly elected president.

CAIRO—I had an agreement with my friends Amr and Mohamed that they would take me to the protest in Tahrir Square on Friday but I would wear a hijab and glasses and not take pictures, and we would leave at the first sign of violence or mention by anyone of the word “spy.”

There were a few thousand people in the square when we got there after Friday noon prayers. Earlier, we had seen some small groups of marchers from my neighborhood heading there and chanting “down with the regime!” Another group later was chanting “bread, freedom and no justice! Morsi has us behind him.”

The air in Tahrir Square was bristling as men with beards and Muslim Brotherhood T-shirts glared at the single stage where chants against the group and its leader, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, were being led.

“Morsi, your 100 days are judged guilty!” the anti-Muslim Brotherhood protesters shouted. “Justice for our martyrs! Morsi you betrayed them! Clean out the judiciary! Out with the general prosecutor! Morsi’s boss is Muslim Brotherhood, not Egypt! Egypt for all, not only Islamists!”

In return, Muslim Brotherhood supporters chanted, “Allah is great! Long live the Islamist Revolution! Support your God and the Shariah! Morsi! Morsi! We stand behind you!”

Oddly, from both sides we heard some of the same refrains: “Freedom, bread and no justice! Out, Out, the Judicial Council! Say it loud, don’t be afraid, the general prosecutor must go! Justice for our martyrs or die like them!”

At the entrance to the square, we passed buses where some women were staying back while their men went inside to protest. “Are you MB [Muslim Brotherhood]?” I asked one woman, who replied yes.

She wanted the eviction of General Prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, she said. The woman and the other demonstrators were not happy about the acquittal Wednesday of 24 suspects accused of ordering the “camel battle” of February 2011 when men on camels and horses attacked and killed nearly a dozen protesters in Tahrir Square who were calling for the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. The verdicts shocked and disappointed those who awaited a sentencing as testimony of the new government’s solidarity with the revolution. Morsi backers felt betrayed by the Supreme Judicial Council, an autonomous entity, and the opposition felt betrayed by Morsi.

But on Friday, the woman told me, she was at the square to support the president.

The women were staying outside with the buses because their husbands feared it might get violent in the square, she explained. “The opposition think we are here to take over the square but that is not true,” she insisted as she turned her attention to a newly arrived text on her cellphone. “Now there is some trouble. They are keeping our men out,” she read aloud as four or five young bearded guys came running back from the square to the buses.

Seeing the unwelcoming expressions on the men’s faces, my friend Mohamed pulled my arm and we walked away.

Friday’s demonstration was originally called by the revolution coalition to protest Morsi’s failure to fulfill his promises for his first 100 days in office as well as to criticize the Constituent Assembly, the panel that is drafting Egypt’s new constitution.

Morsi’s “100 days of judgment” have ended with only five of the president’s 64 promises accomplished. From his campaign slogan of “Freedom, bread and justice,” only bread has been provided so far.

Morsi had attempted to appease the people’s anger at the camel battle acquittal by removing Mahmoud from office and transferring him to the cushy post of ambassador to the Vatican, but the step was rejected by a committee of judges from the Mubarak era. Apparently, this group had the sole power over a decision that is outside of the president’s jurisdiction, according to the constitution that has yet to be rewritten to anyone’s satisfaction.

At Friday’s protest at the square, I went looking for PF, a French journalist I was helping. I saw him next to the Kentucky Fried Chicken with his Egyptian cameraman Hassan. We talked for a while as he explained what he wanted: a dramatic monologue. I hurriedly wrote on my notepad as I kept an eye on a nearby group of shouting anti-Muslim Brotherhood supporters who looked like they wanted to fight. Amr held onto my arm. The cameraman shot some footage of the crowd and then someone pushed someone.

“We will keep on defending the free revolution! Down with rule by Supreme Guide [Mohammed] Badie [leader of the Muslim Brotherhood],” one group yelled. Another responded, “Morsi! Morsi! We are behind you! Allah is great!”

PF wanted to move closer to the action. My friends said it wasn’t a good idea. We moved slightly inward, where it was not crowded but the people were agitated.

“They are taking our stage apart!” someone came up and told us excitedly. We heard yelling. There were no police officers around.

Two clean-shaven men approached us. “What are you doing here?” one asked aggressively. Amr told him we were OK, that we were visitors in Egypt and weren’t staying. His friend told him to leave us alone and let us show the world how Muslim Brotherhood supporters are stealing the revolution and think they own Tahrir Square. Soon, the pair moved on.

“That’s it. We have to go. This will get bad,” Mohamed said as he chain smoked.

“Just a minute, I am almost finished,” I insisted. PF and Hassan said they were going to go up to the balcony of Hassan’s friend and film PF giving his report.

Some of the crowd’s chants became shouted insults: “Fuck Morsi! We evicted the general prosecutor! Where were you to support us? Brotherhood get out! Morsi has us behind him! Who has you? It’s the people’s square, not the brotherhood’s square!”

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