Confronting Gerontocracy: The Youthful Character of the Egyptian Revolution

Abstract

From day one, the Egyptian uprising in 2011 has been called a “youth revolution”. While young educated Egyptians indeed were at the forefront of the protests on January 25, an exclusively agecentred perspective is insufficient for grasping the meaning of the events. Rather than focusing purely on a specific age group I conceive of “youthfulness” as a broader social construct. In this paper, I explore in what way we can consider the Egyptian revolution to be a youthful revolution, and argue that a focus on both youth and youthfulness offers an important conceptual access point to understanding the ongoing social, political and cultural transformations in Egypt. In order to make sense of the developments, we need to be aware of the most important youthrelated (structural) causes, triggers, and demands. The gerontocratic regime and its symbolism explain why youth advanced to a category of political conflict. Finally, also the largely negative image of youth that prevailed in Egypt, as well as young people‘s role and situation need be taken into account for analysing not only the dynamics of the 18 days in Tahrir but also the ongoing struggle for power and identity in Egypt.