Egypt

I haven't had anything novel to say about the Egyptian Revolution of 2011...

The 2011 Egyptian revolution was a series of street demonstrations, marches, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, riots, labour strikes, and violent clashes that began in Egypt on 25 January 2011, a day selected to coincide with the National Police Day. The protests were largest in Cairo and Alexandria, with significant activities in other cities of Egypt ... On 11 February, Mubarak resigned from office as a result of determined popular protest...

My one connection to this revolution is I've been reading the Facebook posts of a high school friend. She's been visiting Tahrir square. I hope she stays safe. Egypt has surprised the world, but of course their journey is far from over. They need many more miracles to follow Turkey's path. It is possible; the Berlin Wall proved that humans can exceed expectations.

Surprisingly, I have a remote connection to another Egyptian Revolution -- one from 1919 and the Russian-Ottoman war [1] ...

The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 was a countrywide revolution against the British occupation of Egypt and Sudan. It was carried out by Egyptians and Sudanese from different walks of life in the wake of the British-ordered exile of revolutionary leader Saad Zaghlul and other members of the Wafd Party in 1919. The event led to Britain's unilateral grant of independence to Egypt in 1922, and the implementation of a new constitution in 1923...

... Although the Ottoman Empire retained nominal sovereignty over Egypt, the political connection between the two countries was severed by the British occupation of Egypt in 1882. From 1883 to 1914, actual power in Egypt was exercised by the British Consul-General through the Khedive and his council of ministers. When war broke out between the Russian and Ottoman Empires, Britain declared martial law in Egypt and announced that it would shoulder the entire burden of the war. On December 14, 1914, Egypt became a separate sultanate and was declared a British protectorate, thus completely detaching the country from the Ottoman Empire ..

... Over the course of the war ... dissatisfaction with British rule spread amongst all classes of the population. This was the result of Egypt’s increasing involvement in the war, despite Britain's promise to shoulder the entire burden of the war. During the war, the British poured masses of foreign troops into Egypt, conscripted over one and a half million Egyptians into the Labour Corps, and requisitioned buildings, crops, and animals for the use of the army...

I learned of my connection when discussing Mubarak's fall with my 80 yo mother. She referred to my "Egyptian relatives". Her maternal grandmother's sister, Catherine (Kitty) Maxfield of Manchester England, married an Egyptian around 1909 and moved first to Cairo and then to Alexandria.

I thought I'd never learn more, but when I shared this story on Facebook Emily's sister, Martha, provided some context ...

In those days it was not uncommon yet still very controversial, for Egyptian men to take English brides. It led to a trumped-up "marriage crisis" because the state was worried about how to take care of unmarried Egyptian women ... [and] ....  worried about men not setting up "proper" Egyptian families ...

Basically it was a Nationalism problem.

This is detailed in a journal article "Stolen Husbands, Foreign Wives: Mixed Marriage, Identity Formation, and Gender in Colonial Egypt, 1909-1923" by Hanan Kholoussy. There is also a book by the same author, "For Better, For Worse: The Marriage Crisis that Made Modern Egypt" (Stanford U Press, 2010). [Google Preview]

Kitty may have lived through the Egyptian Revolution of 1919. She had two children, so it's possible that their grandchildren were in Tahrir square.

It's a complicated world.

[1] No, I'd never heard of this either. I added a link from the 1919 article to the Caucasus Campaign article.