Dina El-Sharnouby is a doctoral Candidate at the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, at the Freie Universität Berlin in political and social sciences. Her topic concerns “What Happened to Revolutionary Youth after the 2011 Revolution in Egypt?”. Having been actively involved in the protests movements in Egypt since 2011 she tries to conceptualize and understand the surfacing phenomenon of youth politics, youth movements, and a rising youth subjectivity. She obtained her Master Degree in Sociology /Anthropology from the American University in Cairo with a thesis entitled “Youth and the 25th Revolution in Egypt: Agents of Change and its Multiple Meanings” in which she tried to understand the talk on youth before, during the 18 days, and after that from youth perspectives, national discourse, and public talk.

Dina El-Sharnouby’s project:

What happened to the Revolutionary Youth after the January 25th Revolution? – A Comparative Study on Egyptian Youth Groups

A revolution is more than an overturn of the existing legal and political system. With the Egyptian revolution important taboos and ways of thinking have been challenged and are in the process of being redefined. It is not the revolution that creates new ideas or ways of being per say but rather surfacing ideas and ways of communication while allowing for new spaces of interaction. The Egyptian revolution in that respect has surfaced an existing youth culture that is affected by and is affecting youth politics. While an active youth political participation started before the revolution it was still dominated by the few and remained largely unchallenged. With the revolution youth became visible to Egypt’s process of transformation who have been celebrated as the “makers of the Egyptian revolution” by the public. What was referred to among national and international media as the “Egyptian Youth Revolution” implies the important role of young Egyptians during the eighteen days of the uprising .  With the substantial youth contribution both in numbers of people taking to the streets during the eighteen days and their management of  the most visible revolutionary space, Tahrir square,  in securing entrances, distributing food and water, and setting up field hospitals to treat the wounded has given an unforgettable experience to the Egyptian population at large. The uprising on the 25th of January 2011 has sparked a different youth involvement affecting and changing their social and political behaviors in fundamental ways. However, after more than three years later that was filled with much violence and continuous changes in the political leadership with mainly the old political guards rising and falling on the political sphere, young people are within the process of defining and redefining the notion of politics through an emerging youth politics. To understand this better this research asks what happened to Revolutionary Youth in Egypt since 25th of January 2011? With the revolution important transformations have happened that makes the study on youth particularly interesting. That is so because Egyptian youth have transformed and sharpened their political logic, their conceptualization of political players, their target groups, and forms of doing politics while most importantly crystalizing their ideas and visions for a better Egypt, making them substantial actors in the political sphere and hence contributing to political frictions in demanding new ways of governance. To understand this better this research aims in studying (1) changes in political opinions, practices, and tactics of action among revolutionary youth, (2) the effects on youth’s political participation during rapidly changing political events since 2011, and finally (3) venues and ways of youth’s political interaction that makes them substantial actors in the political sphere. The research will focus on four youth groups namely the 6th of April Youth movement, the youth wing of the Constitution Party, the Bread and Freedom party under development, and finally the youth wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Barbara Bishay

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