Tahrir lies at the heart of the Egyptian revolution; this square epitomizes change and hope, yet it is also the place where the fiercest riots between civil society and the regime took place. It is a square where for two years two anonymous armies have been fighting, acting as the unaware actors, day after day, of a deeply historic role, where the people embodied progress and the regimes the preservation of a status quo. The former leveraged new technologies and modern values to take inspiration and mobilize the masses, while the latter resorted to brutality to repress and discredit them. This exploited and, if need be, manipulated microcosm is a small mirror on the heart of the most densely populated capital in the Arab world, reflecting the myriad of contradictions and inner struggles that have scarred this part of the world to this day.
The struggle of Egyptian women, for instance, saw them as the protagonists in a revolution that is still unfolding and that, by nature, searched the deepest recesses of political and social life to renew it.
Still, it hasn’t given justice to tens of women who, as they were protesting in Tahrir, were the victims of unspeakable violence, rape and abuse orchestrated by the regime to scare them and force them into silence.
The memories of these crimes are still sharp and vivid in these women’s minds; in some instances the evidence against the police is clear.
Moreover, the way these crimes were perpetrated casts shadows on the regime, which would appear to have resorted to criminals and plain-clothes police agents to terrorize and hit political opponents, much like under Mubarak’s regime.