Egyptian Revolution of 2011: Tahrir Square and Mubarak's Fall

The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 was a mass popular uprising that forced President Hosni Mubarak to resign on 11 February 2011, after 18 days of protest centred on Tahrir Square in Cairo. Part of the wave of uprisings known as the Arab Spring, it ended almost 30 years of rule by one man in the Arab world’s most populous country. The hopes it raised were followed by a turbulent transition that ended with a military takeover in July 2013.

Background: thirty years of Mubarak

Hosni Mubarak, a former air force commander, became president in October 1981 after the assassination of Anwar Sadat. He ruled under a state of emergency that allowed detention without trial and banned most demonstrations. His National Democratic Party dominated parliament through elections widely seen as manipulated, and the security services, especially the police and State Security, had broad powers.

By 2010 Egypt had more than 80 million people, many of them young. Economic reforms had produced growth but also visible inequality and corruption, and youth unemployment was high. Many Egyptians believed Mubarak, then in his 80s, was preparing his son Gamal to succeed him.

Anger had been building for years. Labour strikes spread in the late 2000s, and activist groups such as Kefaya (“Enough”) and the April 6 Youth Movement organised small protests. In June 2010 a young man named Khaled Said was beaten to death by police in Alexandria; photographs of his body circulated online, and a Facebook page called “We Are All Khaled Said” attracted hundreds of thousands of followers. Parliamentary elections in late 2010, in which the ruling party won an overwhelming majority of seats amid widespread allegations of fraud, left little hope of change through the ballot box.

The 18 days

The trigger came from Tunisia, where President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country on 14 January 2011 after weeks of protest. Egyptian activists called for demonstrations on 25 January, National Police Day. Tens of thousands of people marched in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and other cities, far more than organisers expected.

On 28 January, the “Friday of Anger”, the government shut down the internet and most mobile phone networks across the country, an almost unprecedented step. Huge crowds clashed with riot police after Friday prayers; police stations and the ruling party’s headquarters in Cairo were set on fire, and by evening the police had withdrawn from the streets. The army was deployed but did not move against the protesters, who occupied Tahrir Square.

Mubarak dismissed his government and, on 29 January, appointed intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as his first-ever vice-president. On 1 February he announced that he would not stand for re-election in September. The next day, in what became known as the “Battle of the Camel”, supporters of the regime, some on horses and camels, attacked the square; fighting with stones and petrol bombs went on into the night, but the protesters held their ground.

Strikes spread across the country in the following days. On the evening of 10 February, expectations that Mubarak would resign were disappointed when he gave a televised speech delegating some powers to Suleiman but refusing to step down. The next day, 11 February, Suleiman announced in a brief statement that Mubarak had resigned and handed power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. Celebrations filled the streets.

An official fact-finding commission later reported that about 846 people had been killed and more than 6,000 injured during the 18 days.

The transition under military rule

The SCAF suspended the constitution, dissolved parliament and promised elections. A referendum on constitutional amendments passed in March 2011. But military rule quickly became contested. Thousands of civilians were tried in military courts, and protests met with violence: on 9 October 2011 at least 25 people, most of them Coptic Christians, were killed near the Maspero state television building, and dozens died in clashes on Mohamed Mahmoud Street near Tahrir Square in November.

Parliamentary elections from November 2011 to January 2012 gave Islamist parties about two-thirds of the seats, led by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist Nour Party. In June 2012 the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi narrowly defeated Ahmed Shafik, Mubarak’s last prime minister, in a presidential run-off, winning about 51.7 percent of the vote. He took office on 30 June 2012 as Egypt’s first freely elected civilian president.

From Morsi to el-Sisi

Morsi’s presidency was short and polarising. In November 2012 he issued a decree placing his decisions beyond judicial review, and a new constitution drafted by an Islamist-dominated assembly was rushed to a referendum in December. Opponents accused the Brotherhood of monopolising power, while fuel shortages, power cuts and a weak economy fed discontent.

A petition campaign called Tamarod (“Rebellion”) culminated in very large demonstrations on 30 June 2013. On 3 July the army, led by Defence Minister Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, removed Morsi and suspended the constitution. Supporters of Morsi set up sit-ins in Cairo; on 14 August 2013 security forces broke them up, killing at least 817 people at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square alone according to Human Rights Watch, one of the deadliest single days in Egypt’s modern history. The Muslim Brotherhood was banned, and el-Sisi was elected president in May 2014.

Mubarak was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012 for failing to prevent the killing of protesters, but the verdict was overturned and he was acquitted of those charges in 2017. He died in 2020. Morsi died after collapsing in court in June 2019.

Legacy

The 18 days in Tahrir Square became one of the defining images of the Arab Spring: a largely peaceful, cross-class movement that brought down a seemingly permanent ruler, organised partly through social media. The square itself became a model for protest movements around the world in 2011. Protesters organised field hospitals, food distribution and security checks at the entrances, and Muslims and Christians were widely photographed protecting each other during prayers, images that many Egyptians remember as the high point of national unity.

Yet the revolution did not produce a lasting democracy. The army, which had been the core of the Egyptian state since the revolution of 1952, emerged stronger than before, and political freedoms became more restricted after 2013 than under Mubarak. Historians continue to debate whether the events of 2011-2013 are best seen as a failed revolution, an interrupted one, or a military reshuffle of power.

Timeline

• 2010, 6 June: Khaled Said is killed by police in Alexandria.
• 2011, 14 January: Tunisia’s President Ben Ali flees, inspiring protest calls in Egypt.
• 2011, 25 January: Mass protests begin on National Police Day.
• 2011, 28 January: The “Friday of Anger”; internet shut down, police withdraw, army deployed.
• 2011, 2 February: The “Battle of the Camel” in Tahrir Square.
• 2011, 11 February: Mubarak resigns; the military council takes power.
• 2012, 30 June: Mohamed Morsi is sworn in as president.
• 2013, 3 July: The army removes Morsi from power.
• 2013, 14 August: Security forces violently disperse pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo.

Why it matters

The Egyptian Revolution showed that mass peaceful protest could topple a long-entrenched Arab ruler, and it inspired movements across the region and beyond. Its aftermath also showed how difficult it is to build democratic institutions when the army, rather than elected civilians, holds the decisive power.