Eight Years After Egypt’s Uprising, a New Autocrat Is Determined Not to Permit a Sequel
As the country marks the anniversary of the Tahrir Square protests, President Sisi is jailing dissidents, expanding censorship and perhaps looking to remain in power indefinitely
Eight years ago this week, protests erupted in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, with throngs of Egyptians demanding an end to autocratic rule and chanting the slogan, “Bread, freedom, social justice.” A fierce and joyful revolution soon followed, pushing out Egypt’s longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak and briefly making the country a global symbol of popular rebellion. But for many Egyptians, it is a bitter anniversary. President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, the former general who became Egypt’s president after a 2013 coup, vows that such protests will never happen again and has pushed the country into the vanguard of resurgent authoritarian...