Tahrir, Gaza, and beyond: revolution, liberation, and praxis

Middle East Centre Booktalk

Researcher and writer, Rusha Latif, gives a talk based on her new book ‘Tahrir’s Youth: Leaders of a Leaderless Revolution’ Abstract: In this talk based on her new book ‘Tahrir’s Youth: Leaders of a Leaderless Revolution’, Rusha Latif will challenge the commonly held belief that the 2011 Egyptian revolution was spontaneous and leaderless, through a provocative new account of the revolutionaries—one that foregrounds their solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation as a key catalyst behind their revolt. In fact, much like the war on Gaza is radicalizing legions of young people around the world today, it was the Second Palestinian Intifada in 2000 that first radicalized many of the Egyptian youth who drove the uprising ten years later, in the hope of emancipating themselves as well as their neighbours. Speaking to these interconnections, the presentation will follow the trajectory of the movement through its successes and defeats from the perspective of the Revolutionary Youth Coalition (RYC), the first and arguably most significant front born of the nationwide revolt. Timely and necessary, this talk will not only illuminate the Egyptian uprising’s leadership and organizing dynamics but also impart urgent lessons from the protagonists behind this historic movement—lessons for everyone hoping to achieve liberation and revolutionary change in the 21st century. Bio: Rusha Latif is a researcher and writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. A first-generation Egyptian American, she travelled to Cairo in 2011 to conduct ethnographic research on the uprising. Her interests include social movements and revolutions; the study of gender, class, and race/ethnicity; Islamic studies; and Middle Eastern studies. She is the author of ‘Tahrir’s Youth: Leaders of a Leaderless Revolution’ (AUC Press, 2022), an activist ethnography that explores the themes of leadership and organization in the Egyptian revolution.