The great rebellion of Mahalla-el-Kubra

Mahalla-el-Kubra was not on the itenary of hundreds of thousands of tourists who came to Egypt in April this year to see the majesty of the mysterious Sphinx or the overwhelming wonder of the world - the pyramids of Giza. However, the impress of Mahalla-el-Kubra, a small industrial town located not very far from the Egyptian capital, Cairo, was visible all over the ancient capital. Black dungaree clad security men lazily moving around with their Kalashnikovs, could be seen all over the city trying to neuter any attempts to repeat the violent uprising that took place in Mahalla in the first week of April. The rioting saw two dead and scores injured.
Textile workers in this town were demanding better wages and improvement in their lives, which the authorities had been ignoring for a while. Thousands of people turned up on the streets of Mahalla, burnt police cars and tore the posters and hoardings of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has been ruling the country for 27 years. The government feared copy-cat labour strikes, the kind that overthrew the government in 1952 - hence the overbearing security.
The government machinery went on overdrive and doubled the wages of the striking textile workers. Cleverly, they tried to show the incident as an aberration rather than a manifestation of a deeply infected body politic. In a matter of few days, the happenings in Mahalla were shown away as "food riots" - the kind that hit parts of Egypt in the early part of the year. A google-search classified the Mahalla violence as "food riots".
Images of the earlier food riots had been flashed all over the world where poor people were shown fighting at the Egyptian bread distribution centers. Government spin doctors realised that it was better to show the Mahalla violence as a clamour for food rather than a rebellion against the government, which, through its policies, was perpetuating the divide between the rich and the poor. Food riots, they strategised, could be explained as part of a 'global phenomenon'; this would also allow them to initiate policies that would have been difficult to push through otherwise.

Besides allowing for wheat imports, which always raise a big stink of corruption, the government struck a deal to grow wheat in a neighbouring country. Independent newspapers wondered whether the riots would really force the government to clean up their act. Some commentators even wondered whether a repetition of the happenings in far-flung Haiti, where street protests over food had forced the government to resign and go, could happen in Egypt. "This is unlikely to happen in Cairo," wrote a commentator in a local daily.
Quite evidently, many Egyptians are angry over the way their country is being run. After the 2005 elections, Mubarak had eased his control a bit, but the country remains under a state of emergency. His policy to befriend Israel has not endeared him to the masses. The bombing of Sharm-el-Sheikh some years ago gave legitimacy to the armed forces to pick up anyone who in their reckoning constituted a threat to the State.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which has a sizable support in the countryside and among the middle classes, was brutally suppressed. The government's chariness to ungrudgingly vacate democratic space for liberal parties combined with their repressive acts against the Muslim Brotherhood has multiplied the influence of extremist forces.
Cairo, which was so liberal some years ago, now has majority of women either wearing veils or hijab to cover their head. Those who do not cover the head are accosted by local shopkeepers and people walking on the road. "I keep hearing men passing remarks that I should cover my head when I walk in the city markets," remarked a young woman who refuses to wear a hijab. Unfazed, many women are seen driving cars and coming to sheesha (hookah bars) to sit and chat with their friends. People close to Mubarak's ruling circles are quick to point out that this freedom that women enjoy would go away if this government is forced out and Muslim extremists come to power. Indeed, Mubarak should allow free and fair elections to test this thesis.