In the Cairo suburb of Maadi on Friday, a few hundred
protesters chanted against Egyptian military rule, many with their hands
in the air.
They gave the now famous Rabaa four-finger
gesture, in reference to Rabaa al-Adawiya Square, where the army cracked
down on supporters of former President Mohammed Morsy.
One of the protesters carried a banner with the
ousted president's picture on it and Arabic slogans that said: "He'll
be back, God willing" and "The price of upholding legitimacy is my
life."
The tactic of most Muslim Brotherhood supporters now seems different though.
Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of ousted
President Mohamed Morsy on November 4, 2013, in Cairo. There has been a
major crackdown on the group's followers since July 3. PHOTO | AFP.
Protesters gather in small numbers
in many different locations rather than holding mass rallies in one
location like that of the Rabaa al-Adawiya or al-Nahda squares.
It's been a little over two months now since
security forces cracked down on those two squares where supporter of
former President Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood gathered in their
thousands.
Since then almost all the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, including its supreme guide, have been arrested.
Crackdown
Many supporters have also been rounded up and
thrown in jail. A recent incident in Alexandria saw more than 20 women
supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood arrested in clashes with residents
of one of the city's most crowded neighbourhoods.
But all of that doesn't seem to deter supporters of the ousted president from taking to the streets.
"It's important to keep the momentum going," said Yomna, a university student in her final year.
Yomna didn't want her last name revealed. She
said that as a Morsy supporter, she had to be careful not to reveal her
identity. That alone shows how different things have become here in
Egypt.
Despite what happened in Rabaa or even because
of it, many Muslim Brotherhood supporters insist that the only way for
them is the street.
"We're tired but we are not defeated, we're
still in the street because people know that this is where they should
be," Yomna said.
"This trial will be a chance for us to regroup and unite again," she added.
"Seeing that they have put our president on trial will make us even more determined."
Despite this determination, Yomna admits that
these past few months have been extremely difficult for her and many
like her who still want Mohammed Morsy to be returned to office.
"Look what happened to those girls," she said, referring to the women who were arrested in Alexandria recently.
"As a Morsy supporter I feel vulnerable to arrest at any time now. I'll keep protesting but I know next time it could be me.
"Sometimes I feel like I no longer live in my own country."
'We don't want another Syria'
The recent arrests of Muslim Brotherhood
leaders have presented the now-banned group and its political wing with
organisational challenges.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a hierarchical entity
where orders are passed from the top down. It's been like this from its
beginnings, and it allowed the group to function and be organised even
when it was driven underground during the Hosni Mubarak era.
Some here say that the leaders' absence has
allowed the younger generation to be more bold and take matters into
their own hands.
"The Muslim Brotherhood is not just the leaders," said Fatima Abdel Hamid, a Morsy and Muslim Brotherhood supporter.
"There's also the youth and they have been
keeping up the action. I think that having the leaders in prison will
give them a chance to take revolutionary actions."
The "revolutionary actions" that Fatima mentioned mostly manifest themselves in more protests and more clashes on the streets.
And in this extremely tense and polarised country, clashes could easily get out of hand.
Fatima said that there had been many calls for
those who take to the streets to keep the demonstrations peaceful, but
that it was impossible to promise that they wouldn't turn violent.
"I don't control it. We try to remind ourselves
and keep saying these have to be peaceful protests. We don't want
another Syria," she said.
SOURCE: AFRICA REVIEW
SOURCE: AFRICA REVIEW
