/l-
Photo by Jorja Smith - Staff Photographer
A crowd gathered to hear Samer Traboulsi, UNCA associate professor of history, discuss the changing climate in Egypt following the resignation of their presi
dent two years ago.
Academic addresses political landscape of post-revolution Egypt
ShaneeSimhoni_
ssimhoni@unca.edu - Staff Writer
Although Monday marked the second anniversary of
the official resignation of former Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak, Egypt remains in a state of turmoil,
with many opposing parties claiming a role in its con-
changing political scene, according to Samer
SouS associate professor of history at UNC
^¥rln flux like many places in the Middle East
right now,” said Linda Cornett, chair of the political
Sence department at UNCA. “It’s a changing time,
and it creates lots of opportunities and lots of anxieties
‘^Traboulsi who conducts research on the history of
nre modem Middle East, spoke about post-revolution
Pavnt on Feb 5 at UNCA’s Osher Lifelong Learning
Site at the Reuter Center. The Western North Car
dona World Affairs Council, OLLI and the department
of political science co-sponsored a series of talks that
wta"'"ou,.~ com... ..id “I.-a a
lively audience with a lot of experience, and it keeps
*TrabOTlTiiold the audience about Egyptian police of-
ficTik who beat young Khaled Saeed to death on June
f 2010 after he filmed a police officer engaging m a
drug dil Wael Ghonim, another Egyptmn, created a
Facebook page to bring attention to the situation.
is really unique,” said George Peery, president
of the Western North Carolina World Affairs Council.
“™ilmvTnTlhrv^oknTp“S Sacks in 2010 an am
Photo by Jorja Smith - Staff Photographer
Samer Traboulsi talks about the state of knowl
edge of the Middle East within the last two years
at the Reuter Center last Wednesday.
to which police forces retaliated violently, Traboulsi
said.
“Youth movements are important often as instigators
to political change, but they have less staying power
than some more established institutions that also are
often in the forefront of these movements but then stay
there,” said Cornett, a board member of the World Af
fairs Council.
Responding to the protests in Cairo, Mubarak gave
the first of three speeches on Jan. 28, 2011, to which
citizens angrily showed the bottom of their shoes, a sign
of disrespect. In an attempt to regain control following
his second unsuccessful speech on Feb. 1, police offi
cials riding on camels and horses attacked protestors in
Tahrir Square in what became the Battle of the Camel
on Feb. 2, until Mubarak officially resigned on Mon
day, following the third speech, Traboulsi said.
“Since then, of course, there’s been this whole kind
of Arab Spring, Arab Awakening,” said Peery, a for
mer political science professor at Mars Hill College.
“What it will take is some kind of recognition that op
position voices are OK, but that somebody has to have
enough power and enough agency and enough support
to make decisions.”
After Mubarak’s resignation, a series of the first un
rigged democratic votes in decades occurred. Voters
passed constitutional amendments limiting presiden
tial authority, including a ban on declaring a state of
emergency, and participated in parliamentary elec
tions. The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s well-orga
nized non-radical Islamists, took 47 percent of the par
liamentary seats. The Al-Nur, or Light Party, Egypt’s
radical Islamists, took 25 percent, and the remaining
seats went to independents, as dictated by Egyptian
law, Traboulsi said.
“There is more support for seculars in the cities, but
outside the city, there’s a lot more support for the Mus
lim Brotherhood,” said Calvin Oppenheim,a resident
of Weaverville who attended TVaboulsi’s speech.
Although the secular youths instigated the protests
that led to Mubarak’s resignation, they only won two
see EGYPT on page 5