Egypt

The uprisings of 2011 had anti-policing roots due to the history of police brutality in Egypt. The murder of Khaled Said in 2010, and the terrible photos of his murder as well as the determination of his family went viral on social media, making him an icon of the movement against torture and policing. This following the temporary withdrawal of the police from Tahrir Square in 2011 reinforced the feeling of triumph among protesters, and the challenge to police authority continued through the months following the ousting of Mubarak. In particular, the January revolt stands as a landmark due to the young women leadership present, who then faced virginity tests, arrests, media defaming and organized rape in Tahrir Square and other gatherings. Centers, such as El Nadeem, continue to work for psychological rehabilitation for victims of torture for both poor and marginalized people, as well as political activists. El Nadeem recognized torture as “rampant and used for a variety of reasons beyond forcing confessions- to induce terror, to punish, and to accentuate police power” and finds torture used in police stations, prisons, security kiosks, campuses, metro stations and state security headquarters. As Aida Seif al-Dawla stated, “torture maintains the power of the rulers”. The El Nadeem Centre was closed by police in February 2017.  (Source: Resistance and Persistence: An Interview with Aida Seif al-Dawla of the El Nadeem Center, 2016).