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“I <3 the State of Emergency”: June 30, 2013 in Egypt as Experience of Revolutionary Subjectivation
Abstract
The demonstrations of June 30, 2013 in Egypt and the following seizing of power by the military appeared to many observers as the end of the revolutionary period which started in 2011. However, for others who supported the overthrow of the Muslim Brothers, June 30, 2013 was a victorious revolution correcting the path of the 2011 uprising and reuniting the Egyptian people around the army, in line with the rhetoric of the official media at that time. These same media insisted particularly on the participation of women to the demonstrations, shown as a marker of the people’s unified will to overthrow the Muslim Brothers. Both critics and supporters of the military tended to put emphasis on the emotional dimension of the involvement of these women, even often presenting them as mostly driven by romantic attraction toward the then general officer 'Abd al-Fattah al-Sissi. In contrast, this contribution proposes to take at its word the claim of women supporting the military that June 30, 2013 was a revolution. Based on collected narratives of women demonstrators, the presentation describes the steps of their engagement against the Muslim Brothers as the polarization between their supporters and opponents was growing. Further, the paper discusses the impact of mass mobilizations for creating a sense of shared history leading eventually to an unrestricted support to the army’s command. “I <3 the state of emergency,” a statement published online by a woman engaged in the “June 30 revolution” in August 2014 despite her previous support of the 2011 movement, reflects such a subjective involvement into the events. On the analytical level, the paper discusses the relevance of studying political engagements in favor of authoritarian regimes as experiences of revolutionary subjectivation. Gilles Deleuze forged the concept of “becoming revolutionary” (devenir-révolutionnaire) to understand the legacy of the May 1968 uprising in France despite its apparent political failure. According to him and to Félix Guattari, it is important to pay a close attention to the open virtualities which shape subjects in moments of uprising to properly assess their impact. Considering 2013 in Egypt, the presentation reflects upon the possibility of apprehending mobilizations leading to a reinforced control on society by state institutions as instants of empowerment carrying along a sense of emancipation for those involved, and the possible legacy of such apparently paradoxical stances.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
Gender/Women's Studies