PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Reem Abou-El-Fadl is Lecturer in the Comparative Politics of the Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
This book challenges the belief that there is no value added in reading yet another book on Egypt's Tahrir Revolution. The high hopes that this revolution would take Egypt along the path of liberal democracy were dashed with the removal of Muhammad Mursi , Egypt's first freely elected civilian president on July 3, 2013 by the army supported by large masses of Egyptians. Elements of an answer to the question why such hopes were dashed are offered in several chapters in the book; the analysis of the one year experiment of parliamentary democracy, perceptions of revolutionary actors, including the notion of martyrdom, and the difficulties of overhauling the Egyptian economy burdened by so many constraints. Other chapters in the book offer a fresh look at the regional and international implications of a revolution which succeeded in one war of manoeuver but failed in facing up to the challenge of wars of position. Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayyid, Cairo University
