Securing the centre of Cairo since 2011
p. 70-71
Texte intégral
| 1867 | 1871 | 26 January 1952 | January-February 2011 | 24 November 2011 |
| Beginning of the new city centre development | Qasr el-Nil bridge completed | Cairo fire of “Black Saturday” | Occupation of Tahrir Square | First wall erected on Mohamed Mahmoud Street |
A "façade à l’Européenne" (A. Raymond)
1The downtown area of Cairo (Wust el-Balad) was developed at the end of the 19th century at the initiative of Khedive Ismail. On his return from France where he had met Baron Haussmann, the khedive set about transforming Cairo into a modern city. A new central district emerged next to old Islamic Cairo whose squares, layout and overall geometry were inspired by Paris. Symbols of economic and political power dot the urban space. The legendary Windsor Hotel, Talaat Harb Square (named for the founder of Bank Misr) still coexisted in 2018 with Abdeen Palace, the Ministry of the Interior, the former headquarters of Mubarak’s National Democratic Party, the Majlis el-Shura and the famous administrative complex, the Muggamaa. This downtown area was burnt during demonstrations against the British on 26 January 1952, just shortly before the Free Officers’ coup d’état in July of the same year.
The stage of the revolution (2011-2013)
2The demonstrations against Mubarak and the occupation of Tahrir Square over 18 days in 2011 marked the politicisation of the public space and its reappropriation by the citizen body which expressed a strong sense of nation and of ownership of the city. This act of reclaiming did not happen without conflict or violence, but involved clashes between a variety of actors (revolutionaries, pro-regime supporters, the army, police and baltageyya-s*). The demonstrations that brought together members of the Muslim Brotherhood and young liberals were, from the outset, hemmed in and restricted by police and military cordons.
3After clashes between activists and security forces on Mohamed Mahmoud Street (November 2011), a wall of large cement blocks was built by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. In 2012 eight similar walls were constructed in the centre of town in order to separate the security forces from militant activists, and to protect government buildings such as the Ministry of Interior. Other walls were added near the American and British embassies in the Garden City district following anti-American demonstrations in 2013.
Development and permanency of security infrastructure
4While some walls have been dismantled either by the militants or by the security forces, for example the wall covered with graffiti on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, roughly ten others were still standing in 2015 under Sisi’s regime.
5These structures have a highly militarised aspect given their aggressive physical presence and their strategic and symbolic value, recalling in the local imagination a period of revolutionary confrontations. Since 2014 some of the walls have been replaced by metal gates painted in the colours of the Egyptian flag, or by heavy sliding doors. These gates are more flexible and allow for a dynamic control of the population and its movement: they usually remain open but are closed during commemorations of the uprisings and occasionally at night. The partitioning of the urban space is coupled with a filtering of movement by means of checkpoints where the security forces check the identity of drivers, and by a fortification of buildings with barbed wire and concrete blocks.
6The militarisation of the downtown area is underscored by the noticeable presence of soldiers and tanks alongside police personnel, and the central security forces with their armoured vehicles. This military/security arrangement has fragmented the centre of the city into different spaces where the activities of the citizens can be monitored.
4.2 A partition wall on Mansour Street in 2014

© Laura Monfleur
The town centre under surveillance
7Districts close to governmental institutions have been ring-fenced and everyday movement is regulated if not prohibited. In neighbouring areas, especially Falaky and Qasr el-Aini Streets, which are major traffic thoroughfares, movement can be blocked at any moment by the gates. While everyday circulation was restricted by security arrangements, this has increasingly been re-established by the installation of the gates to replace the walls. This reopening of everyday traffic has been accompanied with reinforced surveillance: cameras have been mounted on traffic lights, parking is prohibited in streets running into Tahrir Square, and a parking lot that was built in the square in 2015 is now managed by a private security company.
8Such spatial and physical arrangements are set within a context of increasing suppression of the regime’s opponents and greater monitoring of activists, especially since the election of Sisi in 2014. Certain cafés, venues for meeting and discussing politics, were closed after 2015, as were some bookshops and cinemas. The walls, the gates and the checkpoints prevent demonstrations and sit-ins. The partitioning was backed up by an anti-demonstration law in 2013, which prohibits all gatherings without authorisation.
9Control has also been exerted on the informal reclaiming of central public areas. Street vendors took advantage of the confusion of the uprisings, and their number and visibility increased during and after the period. A policy of expulsion was directed at the vendors and they were ejected from Talaat Harb Square in 2014, and then from around Ramses Station in 2015
10The Sisi regime aims to prevent any reoccurrence of political protest in public spaces, to monitor activities in the downtown area, and to erase any traces of the uprising. The New Capital project, which envisages a governmental district on the edges of Cairo encompassing the presidential palace, embassies and a Mugammaa, is in line with the same logic of security. Distancing the institutions from the central spaces, as well as increased security and surveillance in this district, are designed to prevent the emergence of any protest.
4.3 Security and monitoring arrangements in Cairo downtown area in 2015

Auteur
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Laura Monfleur
Laura Monfleur, PhD student in geography, University of Tours François-Rabelais, CITERES-EMAM
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Licence OpenEdition Books. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
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