Security forces arrested four young women in Tahrir Square after they raised four fingers, the symbol known as “Rabaa”, in reference to the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in in 2013, according to state-run newspaper Al-Ahram.
Some minor demonstrations erupted on Friday in a few governorates, following the call for protests led by Turkey-based Yasser El-Omda through the Ghalaba Movement (“Movement of the Poor”) Facebook page.
Cairo’s Tahrir Square witnessed intensified security presence to curb riots responding to the 11/11 protest calls. The Central Operations Room of Cairo governorate asserted that no groupings were monitored throughout the day and that Cairo’s suburbs are “calm”, according to Al-Ahram.
The governorate of Beni Suef witnessed minor demonstrations consisting of about 30 people, who were allegedly affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood. Protests were dispersed by security apparatuses and five people were arrested, according to Al-Ahram.
On Thursday, the Muslim Brotherhood’s local faction encouraged participation in Friday’s protests, the group’s spokesperson Mohamed Montasser said in an online statement.
“The group calls on its members to participate and promote the protests, or any revolutionary movement which upholds the demands of the Egyptian people for bread, freedom, and social justice,” the statement read.
The group further clarified that it strongly opposes the “catastrophic economic decisions that affect the majority of the people.”
The protest calls erupted in September amid a social media campaign by the Ghalaba Movement’s Facebook page, in order to defend the “poor”. The calls preceded major economic reform policies that raised concerns regarding their effects on classes of lower income, including the government’s decision to liberate the Egyptian pound on 3 November.
