In this paper we examine the fluctuating fate of public space in Egypt since June 30, 2013. We argue that although young men and women succeeded in reclaiming the public space from the apparatuses of the post-colonial state in 2011, this turned out to be a temporary phenomenon. Following the toppling of Mubarak regime the public space was first colonized by the sectarian forces, which led to contentious fragmentation and polarization in the fledgling national political community. However, millions of citizens, led by progressive groups, once again took to the streets, holding massive demonstrations, calling for early presidential elections and resignation of President Morsi. In an ironical turn of events this opened the opportunity for the public space to be re-colonized by the military on the pretext of creating a liberal democracy. The popular participation in the massive protests in Tahir Square and other urban spaces that had become a symbol of hope for the country, since 2011, were co-opted by the military in the name of “confronting terrorism.” We argue that the ideas, ideals, and the tenacity of the protesters that had created the hope for a constitutional democracy today lie in ruins because of internal contradiction among the progressive forces. In addition, we show that both the sectarian forces and the military had appropriated symbols and images of democratic uprising in their quest to colonize the public space. Through a semiotic and discourse analysis of the symbols, slogans and images collected from a series of protests we examine the process of re-colonization of the public space by sectarian forces and the military. We conclude that despite the current state of affairs the prospects for an expansionary public space and liberal democracy in Egypt looks hopeful, in the long run, because ideas and ideals driving social mobilization in the country has redefined and reconstructed the civil society, which is here to stay.

Walking through Mohammad Mahmoud Street in Cairo—the artery between Tahrir Square and the presidential palace—is like walking through the halls of a contemporary art museum. The visitor walks slowly contemplating this public and outdoor exhibition space that showcases numerous artists' graffiti and mural art. The exhibition is busy with color, overlapping works, and messages of dissent, pain, and encouragement. At times, the feeling can get overwhelming as the viewer begins to feel small amongst the vastness and complexity of layers of conversations that have taken place on these walls over the past three years. In this paper, I argue that the art on the walls of Mohammad Mahmoud Street produce alternative narratives of the Egyptian Arab Spring that make visible the experiences, contributions, and critiques of minoritarian subjects left out of dominant accounts. These walls are sites where artists negotiate their intersecting social geographies through conversations they have with the city and each other by leaving their marks on these public spaces. The works are the artists' ways of interrupting local patriarchal systems of governance, and of shifting transnational politics of race, gender, and sexuality. Researching this work is significant to understand and articulate Cairo's artists' affective forms of claiming and reforming their citizenship in a moment of social and political change. In order to unpack the arguments above, I focus on the works of two Egyptian graffiti groups, Graffiti Harimi and Women on Walls, as well as the artist Bahia Shehab. I ask: What kind of public archive are these artists creating? How does it differ from other narratives and records of the Spring? How do these artists' works gender and class the revolution? And how does their graffiti, as acts of historicizing and imagining the revolution, shape the social geography of Cairo at this moment of political transition? I historicize the artists’ work from the beginning of the Arab Spring in Egypt until today and contextualize the narratives through close-readings of the art works and relating them to events in the revolution. Finally, I theorize the work by reflecting on it through feminist theories of centering the subaltern subject and writing history from that vantage point, which reveals a process of artists' negotiating their subjectivity as citizens during a moment of transition.

This paper focuses on the visibility and participation of urban Palestinian women in urban public spaces during the British Mandate. Traditionally, the patriarchal structure of the Arab society tended to preserve gender separation between the private sphere, seen as the 'natural' place for women, and the public sphere which was identified with men. Most of the studies written to date on Mandatory Palestine have adopted this distinction and have replicated the image of the Palestinian woman as isolated in the private sphere, and, as such having nothing to contribute to the research of this period. Even though this image does reflect some aspects of Palestinian women's life, it ignores their various histories, experiences, activities and achievements. Relying on a variety of sources such as Arabic newspapers, archival material, personal interviews and memoirs, this paper will describe a historical process of women's enhanced presence in urban public arenas, in spite of the patriarchal limitations. This paper will shed light on their participation in the emerging modern leisure and recreational sites, in the cultural clubs and associations, in theater, radio, press and more. This expansion and change of the public sphere will be examined as an important factor in the entrance of Palestinian women to public life. Furthermore, this paper will discuss the social implications of these processes, which were accompanied by gender, family, and generational tensions which influenced the familiar traditional order. It will be argued that it was a dynamic, bidirectional process whereby, on the one hand the transformation of public space has enabled the participation of Palestinian women in public life, and, on the other hand, their presence reshaped the public space by blurring the strict separation between the public and private spheres and by undermining the sexual segregation rules of the public space.

Jabal Mohsen in War and Pieces: the Urban Geopolitics of Lebanon’s Alawi Enclave This paper examines the embattled existence and contested identities of Tripoli’s Alawi community. It focuses on the entrenched hilltop enclave of Jabal Mohsen, perched above its historic Sunni rival, Bab al-Tabbaneh, in the valley below. Economically marginalised and religiously mistrusted, the social and urban fractures of Jabal Mohsen have been exacerbated by reliance and support on Syria’s Alawi-led Asad dynasty. Political and military complicity with Syrian forces during the Lebanese civil war (1975-90) and more recent support for Bashar al-Asad in Syria’s ongoing civil war (2011-2014) continues to enflame historic grievances and contemporary animosities. For almost four decades, Tripoli has witnessed intermittent violence between Salafist militias and Alawi fighters from these rival neighbourhoods. Open conflict has transformed and distorted daily lives and everyday urban encounters. Curfews, anti-sniper street curtains, informal barricades, tank lined streets, flying checkpoints intensify battle lines. This territorial conflict within Tripoli reflects and is fuelled by a number of broader struggles: the battle for Lebanese sovereignty and army control; the role and influence of Tripoli’s political elites and the intensification of geo-political rivalries - Syria-Iran-Hizbullah and Saudi-Qatar-Sunni ‘Future party’. The latter ‘external drivers’ explanation continues to dominate the limited scholarship on Jabal Mohsen (Mazis and Sarlis, 2012; Khashan, 2010). This paper seeks to challenge this view, arguing that Jabal Mohsen is a not merely an extension of the Syrian conflict but its own historic battlefield imbued with local grievances, political power-rivalries and internal tensions. Based on interviews and ethnographic observations within Jabal Mohsen, the paper seeks to examine the ongoing and complex negotiation of identity, social memory and everyday survival. It seeks to analyse Jabal Mohsen as a both a physical site of urban conflict and an imagined space of communal solidarities (national, religious, political, victimhood) and geo-political rivalries.