10 years since Egypt’s Friday of Rage

It is ten years since the Friday of Rage, 28 January 2011, which many revolutionaries have described as the most important day in Egypt’s Arab Spring uprising.

Demonstrations against Hosni Mubarak’s regime started on 25 January as people took to the streets to protest police brutality and call for democracy and an end to corruption.

On the Day of Rage, protesters were asked to leave their home towns where they had been protesting until this day and join hundreds of thousands of others in Tahrir Square.

Police fired tear gas, shot at protesters, and used water cannons against the crowds. The first protester to be shot dead was killed that day in the city of Suez.

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As the numbers grew the regime grew increasingly nervous. On 28 January then-President Hosni Mubarak shut down internet services and communication lines in an attempt to stop protesters gathering.

It had the opposite effect. As family and friends struggled to get hold of their loved ones, they themselves headed down to the square to check on them which swelled the numbers.

A 6pm curfew was totally disregarded by protesters who continued to camp out in the square.

The regime made another last push at deterring protesters on 2 February when it sent tourist workers from the village of Nazlet El-Semman into the square on camel and horseback to attack the people there.

However, demonstrators were able to fend them off and again, the attack had the opposite effect – more people than ever turned up in the square the next day.

On 11 February 2011 Hosni Mubarak stood down.

READ: 18 days