Radius: A Story of Feminist Revolution - Yasmin El-Rifae
Published in 2022 by Verso, London, UK and New York, NY
224 pages
ISBN: 978-1-83976-768-5
LCCN: 2022020544 (print)
LCC: HV6593.E84 E57 2022 (print)
On January 25, 2011, protests erupted in Cairo’s Tahrir Square as hundreds of Egyptian citizens voiced their discontent with President Hosni Mubarak. After eighteen days of demonstrations, clashes with police, and several civilian deaths, Mubarak was forced to resign, ending his 30-year autocratic regime. After a brief period where the military took control of the government, the Muslim Brotherhood took the reigns of power in the summer of 2012 through the election of Mohamed Morsi to the presidency.
In the following months, Morsi attempted to consolidate power and pass Islamist policies despite secular opposition. This led to eruptions of frequent protests against the Morsi regime, such as the January 2013 protests that broke out when those commemorating the second anniversary of the revolution clashed with police forces in Tahrir Square. This pattern of constant violence and political dissatisfaction continued for several months throughout Egypt. This culminated on June 30, 2013 (exactly one year after Morsi took office), as counter-protests once again broke out across the country, leading to Morsi’s deposition via military coup-d'etat only three days later.
In the midst of all of this, Tahrir Square served as a focal point for channeling the discontent of the Egyptian population. Thousands of protestors and counter-protesters gathered in this small area at the heart of Cairo during these years, many of whom were arrested, violently assaulted, or even killed. One group that was particularly affected by violence during these protests was women, who often faced mass sexual assaults. As a result, a feminist group named Opantish (shorthand for Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment) was formed to prevent women from being sexually assaulted and harassed during these protests. In her debut book, Radius: A Story of Feminist Revolution, Yasmine El-Rifae (writer, editor, and co-producer of the Palestine Festival of Literature and a founding member of Opantish) recounts her firsthand experiences on the ground during these tumultuous years in Cairo.
Overview:
Blending firsthand accounts, interviews with volunteers, and her reflections, El-Rifae presents an intimate narrative of Opantish’s work during those chaotic years after the revolution, as well as its legacy nearly a decade later. Founded, organized, and led by women in 2012, Opantish utilized hundreds of volunteers and various methods to prevent sexual assault and intervene in ongoing assaults at protests in Tahrir Square. Too often during these protests, mobs of men would take advantage of the chaos of the moment by singling out and isolating a woman. They would then encircle her, gradually close in on her while an outer circle kept out would-be rescuers, and then begin tearing at her clothes (often snipping away at bras and underwear with knives) and sexually assaulting her. Adding to the chaos of these circles, several of the attackers would pretend to be helping the women, shouting at the assailants while also simultaneously groping and assaulting the women themselves.
Opantish was formed to help prevent and protect these women from sexual assault. Opantish volunteers would form into tactical teams, each with their specific roles. Several of these teams would make their way through the crowds of men that had encircled a woman and would work to pull her to safety, often forming a human chain around her while a female volunteer would work to clothe the woman in the center. In the process, these volunteer members would earn the ire of these men, as they often would be sexually assaulted themselves. Their clothes would be torn off with knives while fingers and hands would find their way to private places. Some men in the crowd would make a performance of trying to help these volunteers while simultaneously assaulting and violating them.
After the women were safely extracted from the scene, Opantish volunteers would then render medical, psychological, or legal aid to the victims, often connecting them to safe houses and other outside resources. By looking after their safety, Opantish hoped to remove a barrier that would otherwise keep these women away from letting their voices be heard at mass protests. El-Rifae weaves together her own experiences with a collection of interviews of those who also volunteered with Opantish, as they all work together to describe the struggles of effectively organizing during the Revolution as well as the trauma they worked through in its aftermath. As El-Rifae summarizes, at its peak, Opantish “positioned itself as a necessary part of the revolution even as it struggled against sexism within revolutionary circles” (4).
Commendations:
In this book, El-Rifae offers an incredibly powerful account of the events surrounding the 2011 Egyptian Revolution and its aftermath. Her writing is immensely beautiful and terse as she paints the scenes vividly and leaves the reader with a haunting account of the events after the revolution. She gives agency to women who feel like they have no other voice, and as such, this brisk volume is written with an immense sense of urgency. While El-Rifae is the primary voice throughout the book, she is careful to decentralize herself from the center of the narrative, always refocusing the locus of attention upon both the victims of assault and those who risked their lives to rescue them.
Even though it often highlights the bravery of many of these volunteers, Radius is not a tale of individual heroes. Rather, El-Rifae is careful to hold nuance and brutal honesty in describing the internal strife that occurs within organizing. She recounts the menial aspects of grassroots organizing, as well as the exciting (and frightening) aspects while also being careful not to create a narrative that demonizes brown men, especially in light of these heinous acts against women. This shows the inherent troubling tension of the text: these horrific acts against women were committed not by the state against which they were protesting, but by fellow revolutionaries in the streets.
As a journalist, El-Rifae does not sugarcoat or downplay the internal antagonisms and difficulties of organizing, and she does not spare us the grisly details of the sexual assaults that occurred, all while keeping the identities of both volunteers and victims private. Even when reflecting on her complicated relationship with her fellow volunteers and organizers, she is vulnerably honest about the mistakes that were made and the internal strife both within the organization and amongst other revolutionary groups. As such, she shows us the messiness of political organizing amid the continuing reverberations of the 2011 revolutions, as well as the physical, psychological, and social repercussions that organizers dealt with in the aftermath of these events.
There is a thematic rhythm to the text, as El-Rifae continually circles around the titular theme of radiuses. In addition to the symbolic circle of Tahrir Square (a roundabout at the heart of Cairo), this motif shows itself in the circles of men who assault women, the circle of trauma, and the inability to adequately put her experience into words (ie. the trauma of the Real). This makes the work all the more impactful and captivating. It would be interesting to analyze the history and dynamics of the group through the philosophical lens of the Event, which cannot be fully integrated into the existing Symbolic Order and is only justified in retrospect. By focusing on the lingering effects of trauma, both at the site of the sexual assault and its aftermath, El-Rifae provides ample space for a fascinating case study at the nexus of political and critical theory.
Critique:
On the other hand, while the book is beautifully written, the narrative is presented non-linearly, which adds to the purposefully disjointed nature of the work. It possesses an almost dreamlike quality, as the author conveys that some portions are a mix of actual events and imagined, reconstructed conversations at points. The only major quibble that I have with this volume is that it is too short. The book seemed to be over shortly after it began, and I occasionally found myself lost in the order of events that El-Rifae describes. It would have been illuminating to get an even more in-depth exploration of several of the themes she raises throughout the book. Yet, I completely understand that the brevity of the work contributes to its immanent sense of urgency.
Finally, even though it is not necessarily a criticism, readers should be warned that this book talks explicitly about instances of sexual assault, which could potentially disturb readers who might be unprepared for such content. Otherwise, I fully endorse El-Rifae’s use of it in order to convey the rawness and brutality of being on the front lines during these events.
Conclusion:
Overall, Radius is a brief and beautifully written account of the volunteers and organizers who worked to keep women safe during the protests in Egypt in the early 2010s. Merging interviews, recollections, and poetic prose, El-Rifae has created an endlessly captivating and engrossing narrative that exposes both the difficulties of organizing around an unprecedented event and the residual aftermath that must be faced in its wake. As such, for political organizers, feminists, and historians, El-Rifae’s short volume is a must-read.
As we’ve seen, the past decade of Egypt’s history has been defined by political instability and civil unrest. Violent clashes between protestors and police forces have resulted in the deaths of hundreds, while political repression of dissent and government corruption remain central issues in Egyptian politics. What began as the hopeful, anti-authoritarian, and revolutionary spirit of the Arab Spring has turned into a series of protracted conflicts and crises that continue to this day. Many still hope and fight for a democratic Egypt, and if we want to fight for that future, it is unquestionably important to learn from the activists and organizers who have firsthand experience on the ground. While they may be weary, and difficulties still abound, the glimmers of hope for a better future still continue to shine.