A Tahrir Square protest in 2011

Five years ago, the people of Egypt took to the streets, to rebel against oppression, economic injustice, police brutality and military rule. 

The aesthetics of it all appeared romantic, organic, powerful and liberating– enthused women and men facing Mubarak’s camel-riding-thugs with tweets and flash drives. We, young Arabs, fell in love. 

To quote rapper Omar Offendum, we thought, “We’ve been inspired to speak, and though the future is uncertain, at least it isn’t bleak.”

Cairo’s Tahrir Square became a global symbol of the fight against oppression. 

But the revolutions were stolen. It was destroyed and lost in the geopolitics of imperialism, sectarianism and absurdity. The power of the peoples of the Arab World, which they appeared to briefly reclaim, was overpowered by the West, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Iran, Russia and religious fanatics.

The Arab Spring became an ailing season, more dreadful and heartbreaking than the harshest winters. From Syrian refugees drowning off capsized boats in the Mediterranean, to the destroyed Pearl Roundabout in Manama, to the desolate reality of the old order that returned to Egypt.

The hope became a toxic tragedy. The enticing future became despair. 

On Jan. 25, the fifth anniversary of the revolution, the people in Tahrir Square were replaced by soldiers and barbed wires. 

It was naive to think that regime and power structures that date back into colonial times could turn into democracies after brief mass revolts. 

The political systems of the Middle East are set up to protect the government from the people. For example, in Egypt, the army controls the economy, media and judiciary. The military used pundits to mobilize against the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamad Morsi, Egypt’s only democratically elected president. When Morsi was ousted, the army unleashed its mouthpieces on TV and hand picked judges to demonize and jail secular activists, who protested against the Brotherhood.

Egypt was also a field for the proxy wars that have treated Arab people as chess pieces over the past five years. Saudi Arabia sponsored the coup against Morsi to deal a blow to Turkey and Qatar, which support the Muslim Brotherhood. 

The future now looks bleak. 

But I refuse to accept that it is all lost. I reject the notion that the uprisings were a conspiracy. The people screamed and opression responded viciously. But that’s not the final chapter. As Syrian playwright Saadallah Wanus once said, “We are destined to hope. This cannot possibly be the end of history.”