Removing the Mubarak name from public places

Egypt is gradually entering the post-Mubarak era. Yesterday I photographed this route map on a Cairo subway: the name of Mubarak Station had been scratched out, and someone had scrawled over it the word “martyrs” in green ink.

A Cairo metro route map, with the station named "Mubarak" scratched out

Since the January 25 revolution, this type of defacement has been a common site in Cairo public places that were named for the deposed president and his family. Now it will be official: A Cairo court ruled today that the name of Hosni Mubarak and his wife, Suzanne, must be removed from all public places.

By the way, I took the photo of the subway route map while riding in a carriage reserved for women only. In general, sexual harassment in Egypt is annoying and a bit oppressive, but not nearly as bad as I had expected – and certainly no worse than the harassment I experienced while traveling in India, where I used to travel in the “ladies’ compartment” during long inter-urban train journeys.

It’s remarkably relaxing to travel in a women-only compartment.

Cairo metro carriage reserved for women only

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This article is cross-posted from +972 Magazine.

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This entry was written by Lisa Goldman and posted on April 21, 2011 at 5:16 pm and filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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3 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

The idea of having subway stations and public squares named after a living ruler are the hallmarks of a dictatorship and their removal is a welcome sign. Not so, however, is the jailing of Mubarak and his two sons. No dictator in the Arab world will step down voluntarily after seeing what happened to the Mubarak family: they will bomb the resistance as in Libya, will gun down demonstrators as in Syria, and will fight to the end, with bloody results. I find the arrest of Mubarak’s family, without a trial, very disturbing and think that it bodes ill for the future.
I almost want to sign off with an imitation of Maurice Chevalier “Ah yes, I remember it well”, signed anton and Robespierre, but the situation hardly calls for humour.

1. fiona
on April 23rd, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Fiona – The Mubarak sons are being detained pending investigation into corruption charges. That is the equivalent of detention without bail pending trial. The trial of the Mubarak sons will take place when the investigation is complete. They will be represented by counsel in a civilian court.

2. Lisa Goldman
on April 23rd, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Lisa, I hope this won’t be another year-long silence from you. Is everything okay? You’re leaving us in suspense here!

3. Justin
on June 30th, 2011 at 6:21 am