Protesters opposing Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo June 30, 2013 (Photo: Simon Hanaa)
Ahram Online's multimedia staff pick a selection of ten videos from 2013, which proved to be another eventful and controversial year in Egypt's history.
While the year started on sour note with deadly clashes in Portsaid between the police and protesters rallying against the verdict of the trial on the football massicares that took place a year prior to that, Ahram Online captured Portsaid as a city of resistance across the past decades.
This year saw many developments in the environmentalist movement in Egypt, mainly led by youth collectives. One of the interesting projects featured members of the Ice Cairo collective who trained the local community in Marsa Alam to make their own solar powered heaters to balance out the energy crisis.
In May there was an unprecented incident at the Cairo Opera House. As the curtain was raised for Verdi's iconic opera Aida, the performance team announced a strike against the Muslim Brotherhood's Culture Minister's dismisal of Head of the Opera House, and refused to put on a performance during that evening.
2013 saw an influx of arts in public spaces; among them the performances that took place outside the Culture Ministry sit-in. One of the most memorable was the Cairo Ballet Company's dancers displaying Zorba on the streets. Another project took to the streets of Alexandria bringing independent musicians to play on the streets dubbed itself 'Mini-Mobile Concerts' and put on more than 25 performances.
The year's pivotal period was the lead up to, and eventual ouster of, former President Mohamed Morsi by the military. The popular 'Tamarod' (Rebel) movement culminated in mass protests from 30 June until July 3rd when the Morsi was toppled - the rallies saw unprecendented numbers of demonstrators hit the steets of Cairo.
The ousting of Morsi ultimately lead to the Rabaa al-Adaweya massacre, where hundreds of supports of the deposed president were violently dispersed after a weeks-long sit-in opposing what Muslim Brotherhood members called a military coup. Ahram Online spent a day at the sit-in, giving viewers a glimpse of the life inside the now infamous sit-in.
The conflict between the Muslim Brotherhood and the army would go on to define the rest of the year, leaving opponents of both groups stuck in the middle. The situation lead to the creation of a 'Third Square' movement of Egyptians who wanted their country to be free of both Army and Islamist rule.
The crackdown on dissent against the military rule increased toward the end of 2013. At universities in Cairo, protests against the army became commonplace, and often turned violent. Ahram Online documented one such case with the killing of an engineering student by police on the University of Cairo campus.
The series ends with a piece about the second anniversary of the deadly Mohamed Mahmoud's street clashes of November 2011. This piece features electrician-turned artist Ezzat Hamed, who turned to using recycled material and spent bullets from Mohamed Mahmoud to make models that serve as a creative reminder of the events of two years ago.
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