The massive Egyptian protests in Tahrir Square in 2011, argues Hamid Dabashi (2012: 12), marked the end of post-colonialism. In an interview with Al Jadaliyya (2012), Dabashi states his thesis as follows:

The post-independence era was marked by a variety of ideologies, such as socialism, Islamism and nationalism; the post-revolution regimes cannot be identified with the same ideologies, thereby marking new regimes of knowledge where the previous binary of East and West have finally collapsed (Al-Jadaliyya 2012). The end of post-colonialism therefore means the death of the concept of the ‘West’ as a powerful construct and a dualistic opposition to the East; on the other hand, post-colonialism ‘stands for a transformational politics, for a politics dedicated to the removal of inequality’ (Young 2003: 114). It aims to bring to the fore the views of those outside the hegemonic power structure, whether this exclusion is caused by their economic deprivation, ethnicity or gender. Post-colonialism then is concerned with the issue of identity: of that of subaltern or marginalised vis-à-vis those in power. The question here is whether the ‘Egyptian Spring’ has empowered the subaltern, freeing them from authoritarian regimes following years of colonial political order.

One argument in this book is that Egyptians have not yet managed to free themselves from the shackles of hegemonic ideologies, and that since its political independence, the new ruling elites have sought to re-instate a similar political order, suppressing not only the political rights of citizens, but also any attempt to construct a true national identity or Egyptian-ness. It is true that the 25 January Revolution was depicted in Anglo-American media as an inevitable action against tyranny (similar to the French Revolution).