Nevertheless, they remain just one example of the many artefacts that make urban spheres active spaces of remembrance. In my imagination and maybe to those of others, these slashed posters manifest my own chaotic memory, as if I were looking into an inverted mirror, where the past collapses into the present. They remind me of a desire to tear down, rip away, and over-poster the past.

As debt continues to pile up, the pressure on the poor will continue to rise, as the government continues to cut social spending. This will reduce the level of effective local demand, leading to greater pressure on the private sector.

During her detention, she wrote an open letter titled ‘We shall continue’, vowing to keep on fighting until the controversial Protest Law issued in November 2013 – which effectively annihilated the right to protest – was abolished. She also pointed to class differences that determine one’s treatment even in prison, ending her letter with the call: ‘Down with this classist society’.

Egypt’s current president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has vowed to tackle corruption. However, in September 2019, corruption and slander allegations against him in a series of videos by the relatively unknown actor and contractor Mohamed Ali sparked new unrest.

Initiatives to enhance this progress include Harassmap, which aims to empower people to stand up against harassment, and HerStory. The latter is supported by UN Women and aims “to produce and disseminate knowledge about gender equality issues and women and girls’ lives and contributions in the Arab region.” One of the ways HerStory wants to achieve this is by creating Wikipedia pages on women in the Arab world.

Al-Sisi’s firm grip on the country seems a fait accompli. He has the support of the security bodies, which control the media; the parliament is almost entirely on his side; and since the constitutional amendments, he de facto controls the judiciary. It is hard to imagine how the few opposition politicians and activists left would pose a threat to the regime.

Morsi’s death provoked an outpouring of mourning in Egypt and in countries where the Brotherhood still has a presence, such as Turkey, Qatar and the UK. While much of Egypt looks ready to move on – particularly with many Egyptians focused on the African Cup of Nations which Egypt is hosting – it appears many of the Brotherhood’s supporters had still hoped that Morsi might have one day returned as president.

It has become illegal to issue verdicts of banishment or exile against the Egyptians. Even successive Egyptian constitutions have categorically prohibited exile. It is saddening to see exile de facto being practised against the Egyptians in the present time. Such dangerous transformation has not taken place as a result of constitutional amendments or the enforcement of laws that allowed for what had been prohibited in the past, but rather the outcome of the state’s recent practices with the clear purpose of placing restrictions on the public, confiscating political action and raising the cost of practicing politics.

For decades, the residents of North Sinai have suffered marginalization and the absence of a state presence, resulting in difficult living conditions, widespread unemployment, poverty, disease and an extremist ideology that has found fertile ground.

Egyptians living in poverty had risen to 30.2 per cent compared to 27.8 per cent in 2015. And the poverty line used in the report was set at 800 EGP per month, which is significantly lower than the World Bank’s 950 EGP per month. The poverty rate in 2015 had itself increased since 2011, when poverty stood at 25.2 per cent