SCAF National Salvation
Ten months after the mobilizations in January-February of 2011 that toppled the hated dictator Hosni Mubarak, a third wave of demonstrations and clashes with the security forces struck close to Tahrir square flagship. This new wave of protest began on December 16 when military police tried to violently evict a group of protesters who demanded the resignation of first Minister Kamal Ganzouri and the Government of the Supreme Council of the armed forces (SCAF). During five days a crowd composed of young people, women and control of employees resisted fierce escalating repressive military regime that left a provisional toll of 14 dead and more than 800 wounded. Images of soldiers dragging a woman, tapping it on the floor and stripping the torso, ended up popping the popular anger. December 20, around 10,000 women marched through the streets of Cairo to repudiate the actions of the army and demand the end of the reign of SCAF. According to the Chronicle of the New York Times, the historians consider that this mobilization which joined Islamist and secular women was the biggest demonstration of women in Egyptian modern history, the most significant since a March in 1919 against British colonialism opened women’s activism in the country and a rarity for the Arab world (NYT, 21-12-11).
Undoubtedly, scene of a traditionally depressed sector, women entering is unmistakable expression of the depth of the revolutionary process. Once again, the attempt to crush by military means to cutting-edge sectors that remain in Tahrir square, away from the broad masses, ended up failing. Before the forcefulness of the pictures showing abuses and repressive violence, politics of the army accusing demonstrators infiltrated from Mubarak and counter-revolutionaries is was diluted. The forcefulness of the mobilized women and the message of the Government of the United States, its main ally and BRA, which made them know that through Hillary Clinton they were going through the relationship of forces, led to it mistook coincidentally. SCAF tries to proceed normally with a new phase of the legislative elections, which were restarted on December 21, but according to the local media, with one turnout much lower than the two previous elections. However, this has not been sufficient to close the crisis. A new mass mobilization is convened for Friday 23rd, meanwhile followed clashes and protests. The latest demonstrations broke out only a month that tens of thousands of Egyptians came to the streets against the attempt of the army to perpetuate itself, through supraconstitucionales clauses that guarantee right of veto, as the main institution of the State and the regime, allowing, in the best cases, the establishment of a democracy mentored as cover for military power.