Zeinab Abd El Hamid (Egypt, 1919-2002) A demonstration in the Faculty of Commerce, Cairo University
Provenance : Provenance: Property from the artists estate, Cairo The present work is an extremely historically significant depiction of political unrest at the University of Cairo in 1954. Between July 1952 and October 1954, then-Major Gamal Abd al-Nasser initiated a structured process that altered Egypt's democratic institutions and changed the system from a partial democracy to a military dictatorship. He banned all political parties, dissolved the parliament, arrested political activists, and attempted to stamp out opposition. On February 28, 1954, almost one million Egyptians surrounded Nasser in Abdin Palace. They demanded the return to a civilian rule, the release of all political prisoners, reinstatement of the parliament, and the return of the army to its barracks. Besieged, pressured, and outnumbered, Nasser promised reforms, swore that he would respect them, and declared that he would hold free elections in June 1954. Nasser would backtrack from these promises which led to the imprisonment of the protest movements leader, Mohammad Naguib. 1954 saw contesting protests, strikes and demonstrations between supporters of Naguib and Nasser, with loyalties within the student body of Egypt and the armed forces divided between the two throughout their power struggle.
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