El Mahalla El Kubra – commonly shortened to El Maḥalla – is the largest city of the Gharbia Governorate and in the Nile Delta, with a population of 535,278 as of 2012. It is a large industrial and agricultural city in Egypt, located in the middle of the Nile Delta on the western bank of the Damietta Branch tributary. The city is known for its textile industry, and hosts the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company which employs c. 27,000 people.
Asmaa Mahfouz is an Egyptian activist and one of the founders of the April 6 Youth Movement. She has been credited by journalist Mona Eltahawy and others with helping to spark a mass uprising through her video blog posted one week before the start of the 2011 Egyptian revolution. She is a prominent member of Egypt's Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution and one of the leaders of the Egyptian revolution.
Wael Ghonim is an Internet activist and computer engineer with an interest in social entrepreneurship.
The Revolutionary Socialists (RS) are a Trotskyist organisation in Egypt originating in the tradition of 'Socialism from Below'. Leading RS members include sociologist Sameh Naguib. The organisation produces a newspaper called The Socialist.
Hossam el-Hamalawy is an Egyptian journalist, blogger, photographer and socialist activist. He is a member of the Revolutionary Socialists and the Center for Socialist Studies.
Gihan Ibrahim, nicknamed Gigi, is an Egyptian journalist, blogger and socialist activist. She has been credited as being a part of a new generation of "citizen journalists" who document news events using social media. For this she was featured on a cover of Time magazine as "one of the leaders" of Tahrir Square during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. Ibrahim however states, that while the internet was important for coordinating people in the ousting of president Hosni Mubarak, "it was the battles on the streets that were crucial ... [i]t was their power that made the revolution."
Kamal Khalil is an Egyptian engineer and labour activist. He is a leading member of the Revolutionary Socialists, a representative of the Workers Democratic Party and the founder and director of the Center for Socialist Studies in Cairo. He is a critic of the social democrats, youth parties and the Muslim Brotherhood in the post-Mubarak Egypt. He advocates more workers' unity, particularly in regions such as El-Mahalla El-Kubra, which has in the past been a center of industrial struggle by textile workers. Khalil has said Egypt's workers must create independent trade unions and a political party to represent them: "No party will represent the workers other than the workers' party itself." Prior to the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, Khalil had been arrested many times. In 2003, he was arrested by the State Security Investigations Service (SSI) and placed in solitary confinement for his role in the anti-war movement, causing the Stop the War Coalition in Britain to demonstrate outside the Egyptian Embassy in London.
Sameh Naguib is an Egyptian sociologist at the American University in Cairo, a socialist activist and a leading member of the Trotskyist organization the Revolutionary Socialists. In 2006 he published a short book analysing the history and growth of the Muslim Brotherhood under the title: “The Muslim Brotherhood- A socialist viewpoint”.
Mona Seif is an Egyptian human rights activist known for her participation in dissident movements during and after the 2011 Egyptian revolution, for her creative use of social media in campaigns, and for her work to end military trials for civilian protesters. She is a biology graduate student, investigating the BRCA1 breast cancer gene.
Kamal Abbas is General Coordinator of the Center for Trade Unions and Workers Services (CTUWS), an activist group for independent unions in Egypt. Involved in activism for over 20 years, Abbas has been active in mobilizing worker support during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and its aftermath. His approach emphasizes peaceful strikes and rallies accompanied by demands for better wages and working conditions, as well as more regular elections for union officials, and an independent union system.
Wael Khalil is an Egyptian political activist known for his criticism of the Mubarak regime, his activity during the 2011 Egyptian revolution, and his blog WaELK.net which covers government, activism and sports.
Khaled Ali is a prominent Egyptian lawyer and activist. He is known for his advocacy for reform of government and private sector corruption and for promoting social justice and labor rights. Ali is the former head of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) and co-founder of the Front for Defending Egypt's Protesters and the Hisham Mubarak Law Center (HMLC). He has been called a "legendary anti-corruption crusader" and "Egypt’s best-known counselor and defender of independent unions and worker protests." He won the “Egyptian Corruption Fighter” award in 2011.
Reem Maged is an Egyptian journalist and former host of the popular Baladna bel Masry talk show on Egyptian ONTV. Maged's popularity and renown have dramatically increased due to her critical coverage of political events since the 2011 Egyptian revolution, as well as her hosting of individuals on her show that are critical of the military Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF, that has ruled Egypt since the resignation of Hosni Mubarak. She has been described as "Egypt’s best and arguably most vocal [female voice] in delivering the true happenings to the country on a nightly basis." Maged stopped presenting the show in 2013 and in 2014 joined a hunger strike campaign in solidarity with political prisoners.
Hosted by Egyptian journalist Reem Maged, Baladna bel Masry is a daily Egyptian talk show broadcast by Egyptian satellite television network ONTV. The show airs Sunday-Thursday at 8:30pm. The ONTV network bills the show as reflecting "all the cultural & entertainment affairs that occur in Egypt," while at the same time offering in-depth analysis on events that accurately represents public views on current affairs.
Following the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt became one of the main forces contending for political power in Egypt against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and other established centers of the former Hosni Mubarak regime.
The following chronological summary of major events took place during the 2011 Egyptian revolution right up to Hosni Mubarak's resignation as the fourth President of Egypt on 11 February 2011.
The Misr Spinning and Weaving Company, also known as Misr Helwan or the El-Ghazl factory, is a large, publicly owned textile company located in El-Mahalla El-Kubra within the Nile Delta of Egypt, approximately 80 kilometers north of Cairo. The company's current board chairman is Mohamed Moheb Salah Elden. Egypt's largest industrial facility, Misr Helwan employs over 25,000 workers, many of whom have played an active role in Egyptian labor struggles. Large protests and strikes at Misr Helwan since 2006 contributed to the collapse of the Mubarak government, the 2011 Egyptian revolution, and the Arab Spring more generally.
Ahmed Ragab Seada a human rights activist, a labor leader in the petroleum sector, and occupies the Executive Directorof the National Organization of modern human rights and human development in Egypt.
The Road of the Revolution Front – Revolutionaries, also translated as Way of the Revolution Front and Revolution Path Front, is an Egyptian political movement created in September 2013 by leftist and liberal activists in order to achieve the goals of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 of bread, freedom and social justice.
