From Nasser to al-Sīsī

Abstract

After the events of June 30 and July 3, 2013, that brought the Muslim Brotherhood rule to an end, Egyptian President ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ al-Sīsī has been carried aloft on waves of adulation of most of the Egyptian people. This phenomenon was reflected in popular expressions and in the Egyptian media, and any criticism of it was minimal. Interestingly, it was the portrayal of al-Sīsī in a children’s magazine, Samīr (February 1, 2014), that generated vocal public debate on issues of the exposure of children to political content and their indoctrination. This article examines why this case provoked such harsh criticism even though political content and indoctrination in children’s magazines are not a new phenomenon in Egypt but rather a continuation of past traditions, and discusses what insights can be gleaned from the affair with regard to Egyptian society today.