Egyptians Pack Tahrir Square for Anti-Morsi Protest
Egyptians Pack Tahrir Square for Anti-Morsi Protest
Angry chants filled Tahrir Square on Tuesday as thousands of demonstrators filled the iconic center of last year’s revolt, this time to protest a recent decree that grants President Mohammed Morsi sweeping powers.
The protesters, waving Egypt’s red, white and black flags and chanting slogans against Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood, joined several hundred who had been camping out since Friday demanding the decree be revoked.
“I’m against the constitution and the dictatorship of Mr. Morsi,” said Horeya Naguib, whose first name in Arabic means freedom. “He is selling his own country and looks out for the interests of his group, not the people of Egypt.”
Naguib said he had not been to the square to protest since the January 2011 revolution — until Morsi announced the constitutional decree. That decree placed Morsi above any kind of oversight, including that of the courts, until a new constitution is adopted and parliamentary elections are held — a timeline that stretches to mid-2013.
Under the new constitution being written, Naguib believes “we won’t have the right to talk. There will be no women’s rights, children’s rights,” she says.