 |
| President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi |
Today is the sixth anniversary of the 2011 revolution in Egypt, but celebrations will be muted because the Egyptian military dictatorship has clamped down on dissent. Five years after euphoric crowds celebrated the fall of President Hosni Mubarak, the hopes that the '25 January Revolution' would herald a new era of reforms and
respect for human rights have been truly shattered. Archaeologists in Egypt are "
keeping a safe distance",
not wanting to upset their cosy relationship with the repressive regime. In
Sissi's Egypt the death penalty is meted out to those who insult the
State (Peter Tompa, "
Climate of Fear" Cultural Property Observer, January 24, 2016). As John Howland from England notes:
The Sissi regime, whom so many archaeologists (and those posing as such) find so sexy has tortured over 600 people in police cells, roughed-up journalists, and kept its hangman in overtime.
[....] I wonder how many archaeologists, especially those in the
excavation permit racket, will boycott Egypt as an excavation
destination in protest?
[....] I wonder too whether UNESCO, unusually, will have anything
meaningful to say for once? Don't hold y[ou]r breath!
Egyptians have been made to watch as
their country reverts back to a police state. Tens of thousands have been arrested and the country's
prisons are now overflowing, with widespread reports of torture and
hundreds held without charge or trial.
Rights
groups say out of hundreds of cases of "forced disappearances" many
have reappeared in prisons days or months later. Others' whereabouts
remain unknown.
No comments:
Post a Comment