George Orwell frightens Al-Sisi's regime

Egypt is living a black comedy. Every day a new play is shown and it displays the farce and illogical incidents occurring in the country. The most recent of these farcical plays show the coup leader Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi’s security forces arresting a student carrying famous British writer George Orwell’s novel 1984, which was published in 1949. The student was imprisoned and tortured for committing an unforgivable crime.

A day before this serious crime was committed a 22-year-old Egyptian woman named Rabaa was prohibited from appointment by the Ministry of Education because her parents named her Rabaa years before the Rabaa Al-Adawiya massacre. Have you seen anything more farcical and absurd than this?

We have been reduced to arresting a 12-year-old student for holding a ruler with the Rabaa sign on it and arresting a doctor who wore a Rabaa badge on her jacket; we have reached an unimaginable level of insanity!

We are witnessing such absurdity and security obsession due to the government’s constant state of fear and panic. It is as if God instilled constant fear in them and insecurity despite the fact that they possess the authority and its means of armed power and security forces known for their oppression and torture.

Imagine an entire regime that is afraid and shivers at the sight of a paper sign. This must mean that this regime and its officials must be made out of paper too, and of course they are, along with all the other oppressive and tyrannical regimes in the world, despite the fact that they possess weapons which they use to maintain their positions. The pillars and foundations of their authority should be the people, but they use weapons instead and have turned the military forces into an occupation force that aims to seize the country, oppress the people, and control its resources and wealth.

This is what the fascist regime in Egypt is doing now because it has no foundations other than brute force. However, it will not be able to survive very long because the people will revolt against it and history has taught us that the fate of such dictatorships is destruction. They are placed in the dumpster of history and the people always triumph in the end due to the sacrifices they make. Blood has and always will triumph over the sword. In the novel that frightened Al-Sisi’s regime, Orwell wrote: “If you can feel that staying human is worthwhile, even when it can’t have any result whatever, you’ve beaten them.” Dictatorships and fascist regimes subjugate people and torture them, but citizens must continue to love their country even after torture and death.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.