On the Spatiality of Square Occupations: Lessons from Syntagma and Tahrir

In this article, I rethink the spatiality of square occupations. I will first reflect on how space, place, presence, and territoriality are constituent conceptual notions of square occupations’ spatiality. Building on de Certeau’s notion of “Making Do”, and drawing heavily from Syntagma and Tahrir as examples, what follows then is an elaboration on the role of policing strategies and protest tactics as means of tabulating and imposing, or diverting and manipulating space. The cases of the 2011 occupations of Syntagma Square in Athens, and Tahrir Square in Cairo will serve the purpose of anecdotal evidence to exemplify the aforementioned concepts empirically.

A revolutionary monument: Reclaiming the Naṣb al-Ḥurrīyya in Baghdad

The monument that stands in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, known as Naṣb al-Ḥurrīyya (the Freedom Monument), is a site-specific work. Spatial in its conception from the very start, this monument came to exceed both primary historical event and iconographic representation to become the heart of the identity of the protest movement in the city of Baghdad, and to define its terrain. And it has now come to signify people’s rights across all of Iraq today. Commissioned soon after the 1958 revolution that overthrew the Hashemite Dynastic house, the Hurriyya monument has to do with the Event of revolution in the sense of event as defined in the philosophical writings of Alain Badiou, as a moment which emerges outside of, and changes the conditions and the frame of existence of its appearance. Thus, the Hurriyya monument commemorated historically the 14 July 1958 revolution in Iraq (the 14 Tammuz Revolution), yet it exceeded historical commemoration to signify the Evental character of a people’s revolution and its reclaiming of the city space.

The Rise and Fall of the Tahrir Repertoire: Theorizing Temporality, Trajectory, and Failure

This article examines how and why the strategy of occupying Tahrir Square went from being the central mode of action and defining image of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 to an ineffective strategy read by many as symbolic of the revolution’s ultimate failure during the transitional period of 2011–2012. This question speaks to a lacuna in the literature on repertoires, specifically a lack of attention to their temporality and the lessons to be learned from their failure. I propose a framework that examines the trajectory of repertoires and traces their 1) meaning; 2) internal composition; 3) relationality vis-à-vis the regime in relation to which the repertoire is practiced; and 4) temporal momentum. Using this framework, I chart the rise and fall of the Tahrir repertoire in a very short period: from February 12, 2011, to December 5, 2012. The article draws on ethnographic, qualitative, and historical data collected over three research trips taken between February 4, 2011, and January 7, 2015.

My Revolution!

This chapter offers an account of Dina Wahba’s personal experience as someone who participated actively in the 25th January Egyptian revolution and its subsequent events in Tahrir Square. She was inspired by the idea that the “personal is political” to insert a personal story in the heart of the heated political debates. Her account stems from the realization that it is imperative to populate the debates with local voices and to personalize the struggles.