Shimaa el-Sabagh remembered in new protest

Egyptian activist Shimaa el-Sabagh was gunned down on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Egypt’s 25 January revolution. The 31-year-old activist was part of a peaceful protest close to Tahrir Square in Cairo when she was killed.

Dramatic photos and videos of the fatal moment when she was shot sparked reactions worldwide, with condemnation from the European Union and even in the Egyptian state-owned newspaper al-Ahram. The furore prompted Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb to call for an investigation.

Feminist activists meanwhile called for a protest today in honour of Sabagh at the exact location where she died. They called it the “vigil for the martyr of flowers”, a reference to the flowers Sabagh was holding when she was shot.

Around 100 protestors gathered carrying signs commemorating the death of Sabagh and others who were killed during demonstrations around the 25 January anniversary in Alexandria and the Cairo suburb of Mataria. Prominent personalities also took part in the protest including liberal television ONTV host and journalist Reem Maged and professor and respected activist Aida Seif al-Dawla.
 

Activists soon reported that security forces were present to control the small crowd.

This did not deter the protestors from chanting ‘Down with military rule’, the slogan used in 2011 and 2012 when the Supreme Council of Armed Forces ruled during the period of political transition after Hosni Mubarak’s fall.

A smaller counter demonstration of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi supporters gathered close to the activists accusing them of disturbing the peace

Prominent legal activist Nazly Hussein tweeted that streets leading to the protest had been blocked by “honourable citizens”, a pejorative term used to describe supporters of the Egyptian state. Police, he wrote, would disperse the crowds.

Tito Tarek, another well-known activist, tweeted that police were trying to intimidate protestors comprised mainly of female activists.

Meanwhile, other journalists noted that the protest reminded them of events before the 2011 revolution where gatherings were small in size and had to endure a heavy security presence.

The small protest lasted only for about an hour but was an important milestone for Egyptian activists to reassert the demands of the revolution and commemorate the deaths of protestors.