The Egyptian revolution saw a resurgence of the phenomenon of martyrdom, which led in particular to the creation in December 2011 of the National Council of Care for the Martyrs’ Families and Injured (NCMI). Martyr figures convey values and reveal identities (Middleton, 2014). They are generally ambivalent as they can be seen as heroes or as traitors (Sei, 2017), and divergences over the qualification of martyr then mark lines of political and identity divisions. The martyrs of the revolution, although they were claimed by different political entities competing at the time, were mainly a citizen production (Buckner, Khatib, 2014), and celebrated with a view to challenging the authority of the State and the regime in power - whatever it may be. The July 2013 military coup put an end to the expression of this political polarization, and the counter-revolutionary regime currently in power oscillates between an invisibilization of revolutionary narratives and a recovery of symbols embodying a national dimension (Bildt, 2015). Still active today, the NCMI reveals this ambivalence. It takes care of the families of the State’s new martyrs, which are mainly soldiers, police officers and Copts killed in the "war on terrorism ». But it also supports families of revolutionary martyrs. The NCMI attempts to control and frame the martyr-making process, creating official categories of martyrs and rights for their families. In this paper, I will tackle this ambivalence by questioning the social and political effects of the NCMI’s martyr-making process on families. Firstly, what are the consequences of this institution’s support on the material living conditions of families and thus how does their official qualification as “families of martyrs” influence or transform their personal and professional relationships? Secondly, how does this official recognition change the way in which these families survive the loss of their “martyrs” ? How does this loss transform their expectations - political, economic and social – and their perceptions of life possibilities? Thirdly, what are by contrast the material and moral repercussions of the non-recognition of this status among certain families of revolutionary martyrs? This communication is based on an on-going fieldwork conducted in Cairo, and consisting in observations and interviews with NCMI’s actors and martyrs’ families.