Presentation of the second edition of “I Ragazzi di Piazza Tahrir”

On Thursday 28 January at 6 p.m., the WIIS Italy Book Club will present the second edition of “I ragazzi di Piazza Tahrir”!
The panel will be introduced by WIIS Italy’s President Irene Fellin and will be attended by:
Alessia Melcangi, professor and researcher at the University of Rome La Sapienza;
Arturo Varvelli, Director of the European Council of Foreign Relations in Rome;
and the author Azzurra Meringolo, Radio Rai journalist and co-founder of WIIS Italy.
“In those past months, when I was writing this book, the hitherto paranoidly white walls of Sharia
Mohamed Mahmoud exploded with colour. First the graffiti of the martyrs of the revolution
turned into angels, then the fallen Copts and Muslims shaking hands amidst the passport photos of other martyrs brought here by their mothers. The police brutality towards the victims of the violent transition is also immortalised on these walls. From the child who was accidentally killed while selling sweet potatoes in the crowd, to the girl in the blue brassiere, who became an
unnamed icon after television channels around the world aired the scene in which police dragged
her to the ground, beating her in Midan al-Tahrir, while she remained in her brassiere. She is just
one of the many women who have appeared in this open-air gallery where carrels of female faces
– from the Pharaonic era to the revolutionary one – is a constant.”
Ten years after that betrayed revolution in which Azzurra Meringolo witnessed while preparing
her doctorate in Cairo in 2011, a reflection is necessary. What became of those young people who turned off their computers in January 2011 to take their protest from the virtual spaces of social
networks to the streets of Egyptian cities? The second edition of the book picks up the threads of
the stories (and lives) of the Tahrir Square youth: “bloggers, internet users, technology lovers. Women, with and without veils. Faithful, Copts and Muslims..” Boys who ignited a revolution, men and women who suffered a restoration, and who now see their country, often from afar, withering away under the military regime in the authoritarian hands of Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
The event will be broadcast live on our Facebook page. WIIS Italy members will have the
opportunity to actively participate by connecting via Zoom (max 15), after filling out the form.