24 January, 2015, Cairo, Egypt. A woman lies in the street, unconscious. A colleague from her political party tries to make her stand up, but he cannot. A policeman has shot her with a buckshot bullet, shortly after the start of a ceremony commemorating the victims of the Egyptian Revolution. These people died four years ago, just like her: fighting for their right to protest. Her name was Shaimaa al-Sabbagh. She was 33 years old, and the mother of a five-year-old child.
Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, egyptian activist, murdered by the police on the 24th of January in Cairo. l Youm Al Saabi/Reuters
Along with Shaima, about thirty people had gathered to commemorate the 800 victims murdered during the revolution that began in Tahrir Square four years ago and unleashed the end of Mubarak’s regime. Shaima and her colleagues from the Socialist Popular Alliance placed a few bouquets of flowers in the square. Shortly after they started their non-violent protest, the police appeared, shooting and chasing the activists. Shaimaa, who was just eight metres away, was shot in the head. She died upon her arrival at the hospital.
Who is responsible for this crime? As the pictures that flooded social media on Saturday night demonstrate, the answer is clear. In one of these photographs, a policeman is pointing at the activists – Shaima among them – with his gun. Other photos show what happened next: the protester lying on the ground, wounded. In spite of this, The Ministry of Internal Affairs has denied any police responsibility for this crime and stated that only tear gas was used. What’s more, they attribute the shooting to a group of ‘infiltrators’ – most likely ‘terrorists’ – and recommend that activists do not attend events where their safety is endangered because of these people. Similar stories have been relayed by some TV programmes, who point the finger at the Muslim Brotherhood.
Shaima was one of the first victims of the commemoration day, but she was not the only one: on 25 January, 18 fatalities and 50 injured people were reported. As Shaima said two years ago via her Twitter account: “History will say that our generation knew more martyrs than living people.” Now barbed wire corrals Tahrir Square, a reminder of the permanent danger of protesting in Egypt. Surveillance cameras were installed last week on every set of traffic lights. These things, along with the murder of Shaima and 18 other people, reflect the reality of the country today; a reality that is not very different from that of four years ago. What is happening in Egypt at this very moment is exactly what the revolution wanted to stop in 2011.
