The June 30th Popular Uprising in Egypt and its Aftermath

Egyptian artist Adham Hafez analyzes Egypt's historical June 30th rebellion against the Morsi government and the Muslim Brotherhood

by Lillian Boctor

On June 30th, 2013, in an unprecedented popular movement, after 22 million Egyptians signed the Tamarod (Rebel) petition, and a year after Mohamed Morsi started his presidency, millions of Egyptians took to the streets calling for the ouster of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government, protesting against the tyranny of the Morsi government and with the same demands of the January 25th Revolution: Bread, Freedom and Social Justice. The military stepped in, and removed Morsi from power.

Currently, a transitional government is being formed, which has as its first task the rewriting of the Egyptian constitution. Amid concerns of military abuse, the ongoing violence on the Egyptian streets, as the Muslim Brotherhood refuse to accept the voice of millions of Egyptians against their political Islam project, and the convoluted messages coming from the United States and Western governments as they try to protect their interests in the region, Egyptians within the country and in the diaspora continue to take to the streets to voice their support for the popular uprising.

Adham Al Hafez is a Cairo-based artist working in the field of contemporary dance and music and the director of HaRaKa dance development and research platform, which is establishing ARC.HIVE, an archive on Arab contemporary performing arts. He has been a steadfast actor in the ongoing Egyptian Revolution, and he spoke with me from Cairo on July 6, 2013 about his reaction to the June 30th uprising, popular democracy, the reasons why people demanded the end of the Morsi government, why what happened was due to a popular people’s movement and not a military coup, and the need for political sobriety and context.

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