From Great Expectations to Bitter Disappointment: Egypt’s Youth, After Three Years of al-Sisi's Presidency

Five years have passed since hundreds of thousands of youth first flooded Cairo’s Tahrir Square with the unequivocal and uncompromising demand: “Irhal!” (Get out! Leave!) Their actions resulted in the deposition of two presidents — Husni Mubarak and Mohamed Morsi — in successive revolutionary upheavals on January 25, 2011 and June 30, 2013. President ʿAbd al-Fattah al-Sisi understands that Egypt’s revolutionary youth are looking for more than fiery speeches and empty promises; they expect creative solutions to the youth crisis (azmat al-shabab). However, the Sisi regime has been forced to invest most of its efforts in the continuing battle against Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (the Islamic State-aligned organization) in the Sinai. Sisi is also searching desperately for solutions to Egypt’s economic crisis, pursuing huge public projects such as the expansion of the Suez Canal. A real solution to the youth crisis is not yet in sight—particularly for the educated and unemployed, who, because of the difficult economic situation, are unable to marry and establish families. A 2013 report by the African Development Bank shows a direct link between youth unemployment and political and socio-economic instability.

Three fraught years have passed since Sisi was elected president. The 730 days of grace that he requested to implement his socio-economic road map have expired, and the hopes that the Egyptian youth had pinned on it have faded. On September 11, 2016, students burned their diplomas during a public demonstration in protest of the regime’s failure to provide them with jobs that matched their skills. The statistics are not encouraging either. For example, the percentage of unemployed youth between the ages of 15 and 29 is 30 percent, and the number of unemployed youth with higher education is even higher - 34 percent. As a result, a growing number of young people are immigrating to various European countries, many of them illegally, in search of a brighter future. 

Naela Gabr, the Chairwoman of the National Coordinating Committee for Combating and Preventing Illegal Migration (NCCPIM), noted that the Egyptian border police detained 3,720 illegal migrants over three months (between mid-March and the beginning of June 2016), most of whom were on their way to Europe. Moreover, the total number of youth illegally leaving Egypt in 2015 was 80,000-90,000 in comparison to 15,000 in 2009. Gabr’s organization embarked on a public relations campaign — in both Arabic and English — whose slogan, “Egypt is your future,” and whose goal is to warn young people of the dangers of illegal immigration. It also drafted a law, which now waits for formal parliamentary approval, defining illegal immigration and the penalties to be imposed for violation.

For the past two years, and particularly since January 2016, Sisi has wielded an iron-fist against individuals or groups critical of his policies. New laws have been adopted that greatly restrict opportunities to protest in public spaces. Sisi’s former supporters among the revolutionary youth have now been branded “enemies of the nation” and even “traitors” (khawana). Some have been arrested and others have fled the country in fear.

Some media outlets and prominent intellectuals have spoken out against the regime’s hostility towards youth activists. Egyptian author, Alaa al-Aswany, a Sisi supporter in 2013, said:

"Among the leaders the regime and security services’ leaders, some see the youth of the revolution as enemies…[but] if it were not for the courage shown by the demonstrators, dedicated to the country and the revolution, Sisi would not have been elected president…they are the ones who paid the price for change and let not their compensation be to be discarded in prisons, subject to inhumane laws that are contrary to the Constitution approved by the majority of the Egyptian people. What am I supposed to feel for the current regime …[when] my son is serving four years in prison for carrying a sign in front of the journalist’s association?”[1]

Aswany’s son had been arrested at a demonstration protesting the regime’s raid on the journalist’s association in May 2016, ironically on UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day. Armed with pens and cameras, the demonstrators marched on the Attorney General’s office waving signs declaring that “journalism is not a crime.” In response to a wave of arrests of young protesters, Sisi declared that “the regime was not opposed to protests, but the protests must be conducted legally,” and emphasized “that 90 percent of the arrested young people were criminals.”[2]

The state apparatus is also silencing youth on university campuses. In the latter half of December 2015, the minister of education’s involvement in the elections for the National Student Association created a rift between the regime and Egypt’s students. The association was established in 2011 and comprised of two important blocs: “The Voice of Egyptian Students” (Sawt al-Tulab al-Misri), which was aligned with supporters of the Sisi regime; and, the second, “January 25 Revolution (Thawrat-25 Yanir), which was known for its opposition to the regime. When members of the “January 25 Revolution” bloc were elected chairman and vice-chairman of the association, the Egyptian minister of education disbanded the organization, claiming election irregularities.

Seeing this as a blow to their freedom of expression and freedom of organization, students began to protest on social media. One message noted that “the Egyptian student has become a danger to state security.” The government’s blatant interference in student affairs created a yawning credibility gap between the educated youth and the regime. Aware of the problem, Sisi sought to verbally mollify his youthful critics, stressing the importance of youth in building a new Egypt, and the role of universities in instilling the fundamental values of science and the Enlightenment. Speaking at a Cairo University graduation ceremony, he called on young people to participate in national projects and declared that, “I want Egypt's youth to be by my side. I love Egypt's youth and consider them my children.”[3] Nevertheless, the regime’s interference in the National Student Association’s elections was perceived as return to the practices of the Mubarak regime, deepening young people’s alienation.

Sisi’s decision in April 2016 to hand over the Gulf of Aqaba’s islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia in exchange for economic aid in grants and loans, sparked new protests in Cairo and Alexandria. 

The new protests were déjà vu in miniature. Paraphrasing the iconic 2011 revolutionary slogan, “bread, freedom, and social justice,” the youthful protesters chanted, “Bread, Freedom, and the islands are Egyptian.” They also shouted “Irhal!,” directed at President Sisi.  They even dared to question his patriotism, labeling him with the absurd nickname, “Awad,” which refers to an Egyptian folk tale, in which “Awad” sells his land in exchange for money and brings shame on his family. Protesters called on young people to wake from their coma and look the stark Egyptian reality straight in the eyes. One message that was widely distributed through social media contained the following text: