#generation revolution

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Since the Arab Spring, Egypt has gone from democratic elections to the return of military rule. With a median age under 24 years, the country has left its youth feeling betrayed about the past and disillusioned about the present and future. World Policy Journal spoke with Rachel Aspden, author of Generation Revolution: On the Front Line Between Tradition and Change in the Middle East. Aspden discusses following a diverse group of young Egyptians as they grapple with their lives in a time of revolution and repression, as well as her experiences as a Western woman living in Egypt.

WORLD POLICY JOURNAL: In your book, you write about a diverse group of youth—before, during, and after the revolution in Egypt—and it seems no matter their background, the youth you spoke to were disillusioned with the status quo in the country. What do the think the major reason, or reasons, that galvanized this heterogeneous group of young people to act?

RACHEL ASPDEN: One of the things I talk about in the book is the generational shift that took place before the revolution. These young people's parents—whatever their circumstances really—had managed to reach an accommodation with the state, so the status quo kind of worked for them. There was this implicit deal with the state, whereby they would not get involved in politics and in return the state would make sure there was enough work, they could maintain a decent standard of living, and life could go on more or less as normal, as long they didn't cross those red lines or meddle in political matters. What started to happen in the 2000s was that deal started to break down in a very obvious way for young people. The population was growing and the state was no longer able to keep up, so unemployment became a massive issue. There were a lot of university graduates and there just weren't enough jobs to go around. Corruption was rampant and then there were day-to-day issues, like the failing infrastructure, which would mean that if you tried to go to a hospital you were going to have a horrible experience, if you wanted to get anywhere you were going to be sitting in traffic for hours and hours at a time, and you were going to be living in a very polluted environment.

These things started to mount up and at the same time people started to become more politically literate. I would trace that back to the protests over the second intifada in Palestine. That's really when this generation started to get politicized, and the universities were really the breeding ground for that dissent. So people stated to protest. Those protests carried on over the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and were brutally repressed by the government, and as the 2000s continued, people began to be much more aware of the impact of the tools of repression that the state was using. Police brutality was a really big issue and it started to spread, so that while some people could rationalize it before by saying this is only going to affect people who are political dissidents and religious extremists, it started to come closer and closer to these previously comfortable middle classes.

“Once you see the injustice in the world, you can’t do anything else.”

Looking forward to this exciting documentary on the new generation of black and brown activists in London. 

Yo so these guys are making a documentary about black and brown activists in Britain.