The second wave of the counterrevolution is covered in chapter 7. With the election of Abdel Fattah El-Sisi as president, the level and form of state repression changed again. During the second wave of the counterrevolution, the regime turned against civil society at large, including both groups that played no role in mobilizing for street protests and those who had supported the coup or the first wave of the crackdown. The objective was to silence independent civil society: nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), charities, the media, universities, researchers, and minority groups including the LGBTQ community and the Nubian minority. An NGO law criminalized normal NGO activity, including the work of those organizations that were engaging in apolitical work that supported Egypt’s development goals. As a rule, security forces took action before legislation was issued to justify the action.
