Youth Activism in Egypt ─ Islamism, Political Protest and Revolution

The protests that spread across the Middle East and North Africa in late 2010 and early 2011 took media commentators, academics and the ruling classes of these countries by surprise. In this book, Ahmed Tohamy analyses the often-neglected trajectory that led up to the protests in Egypt that culminated in the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. Tohamy's assertion is that by examining the decade preceding this momentous event, we see that the youth movement—far from being inert—was extremely active. Tohamy uses the Social Movements Theory to argue how Egyptian youth became a new agent of change in the Middle East. By positioning the youth activists as dynamically engaging with their social and political contexts within a framework of opportunities and constraints, his analysis strikes at the heart of the debates concerning the nature and substance of revolution and its effects on state and society.

Ahmed Tohamy lectures at the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University, where he recently received his PhD.