The openMovements series invites leading social scientists to share their research results and perspectives on contemporary social struggles.
I.
There is hardly any revolution in history which has not elicited a fierce counter-revolutionary retort: “We are punished for having made the revolution”. This is a sentence repeatedly heard in Cairo since the military take-over of 2013. The resigned collective response that has come to dominate Egyptian political life is highly revealing of the paradox of the “incomplete revolution”. Particularly concerning has been the recent issuing of two draconian laws. One law is related to protests in the form of a retaliation to the violent demonstrations of the Muslim Brotherhood after the ousting of former president Morsi. And a second law curtails the activities of NGOs and human rights organizations. These two laws together have had an assuredly negative impact on the political and cultural spheres. A large number of young activists, who protested against the anti-protest law, have been arrested.
