President Obama praised the Egyptians for delivering their historic revolution in his speech broadcast on 12 February 2011: ‘The people of Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard’, he said, ‘for the spirit of peaceful protest and perseverance that the Egyptian people have shown, can serve as a powerful wind at the back of this change’. However, what began as an admirable, peaceful collective action or, as Obama described it: ‘the power of human dignity’, subsequently turned into violent outbreaks, attacks on public facilities and collective sexual harassment inside Tahrir Square; such violence is perhaps what prompted the CNN to ask whether the Arab Spring was worth it (Haddad 2012). The question itself, argues Haddad, reduces the uprising to a spectacle for the developed world to watch and judge whether the Arabs can catch up with the process of adopting democracy after centuries of colonialism. The revolutionary Egyptian voices seem to have missed the pitch, as the nation is literally divided between diverse ideological camps: liberals, Muslim Brotherhood, ultra-conservative Muslims (Salafists), leftists, Black Bloc and Nasserites, to mention but a few; in order to support these camps, a new wave of newspapers and TV stations unleashed immediately after Mubarak's ousting were launched as platforms for both the anti-government and anti-opposition voices.

The Media Production City, where many satellite talk shows are broadcast, was under sporadic sieges and even direct attacks by some Salafist groups opposing what they regarded as pro-Mubarak propaganda. Labour strikes soared to a record high: the number of such strikes, including sit-ins, road blocks and demonstrations reached 1,969 in 2012, compared to only 530 in 2010. Angry citizens who felt victimised by the police forces launched sporadic attacks on police stations and, in March 2013, over sixty police stations across Egypt went on strike to protest against the policies of the Ministry for the Interior. Universities, too, launched demonstrations, calling for a new democratically elected president and broader reforms in the higher education sector (Rashwan 2011). In Port Said, what began as a clash between rival football fans of the Port Said club, al-Masry, and Cairo's Al-Ahly club, ended with seventy-four people dead in the Port Said stadium on 2 February 2012.