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Tahrir Square: The July Sit-In

December 12, 2011 | Pulitzer Center
By
Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, for the Pulitzer Center, Cairo, Egypt

Protesters in Tahrir Square hold up a sign that reads: "Retribution against those who shot us with bullets." Image by Sharif Abdel Kouddous. Egypt, 2011.

Protester in Tahrir Square during a mass demonstration on July 8. Image by Sharif Abdel Kouddous. Egypt, 2011.

Tens of thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square during a mass demonstration on July 8. Image by Sharif Abdel Kouddous. Egypt, 2011.

Protester in Tahrir Square holds up a poster depicting Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces, behind bars. Image by Sharif Abdel Kouddous. Egypt, July 2011.

Barber in Tahrir Square provides haircuts and shaves during a three-week sit-in. Image by Sharif Abdel Kouddous. Egypt, July 2011.

Protesters block entrances to the massive government administrative building known as the Mugamma in Tahrir Square during a three-week sit-in. Image by Sharif Abdel Kouddous. Egypt, July 2011.

Protesters block entrances to the massive government administrative building known as the Mugamma in Tahrir Square. The sign reads: "The Mugamma is closed. General civil disobedience." Image by Sharif Abdel Kouddous. Egypt, July 2011.

Children draw in a makeshift school set up in Tahrir Square during the sit-in. Image by Sharif Abdel Kouddous. Egypt, July 2011.

Protesters march from the working-class district of Bulaq to Tahrir Square, calling on people to join them in the sit-in. Image by Sharif Abdel Kouddous. Egypt, July 2011.

Tents set up in Tahrir Square under a large white canopy erected to provide shade from the summer heat. Image by Nicole Salazar. Egypt, July 2011.

A city of tents in Tahrir Square. Image by Nicole Salazar. Egypt, July 2011.

A tent in Tahrir Square with a poster for the "No to Military Trials" campaign. Image by Nicole Salazar. Egypt, July 2011.

Protesters sit by their tents in Tahrir Square during the sit-in. Image by Nicole Salazar. Egypt, July 2011.

Protester reads out a list of demands from a stage set up in Tahrir Square. Image by Nicole Salazar. Egypt, July 2011.

Street graffiti with the words "Bread. Freedom. Social Justice." Image by Nicole Salazar. Egypt, July 2011.

A tree in Tahrir Square is covered with demands and messages from protesters during the three-week long sit-in. Image by Nicole Salazar. Egypt, July 2011.

In July 2011, five months after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak in an 18-day uprising, thousands of protesters staged a three-week sit-in in Tahrir Square — the iconic epicenter of the Egyptian revolution — to call for the basic demands of the revolution to be fulfilled. The sit-in was launched on July 8, when tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across the country in the largest demonstrations since the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces took the reins of power after Mubarak's fall. Demonstrators had a variety of demands, including banning the use of military trials again civilians, holding public trials for members of the ousted regime, the immediate suspension all police officers implicated in the killing of protesters, a plan for the full restructuring of the Interior Ministry, and drawing up a new budget to better respond to the needs of the poor.