In the past week the hashtag “It’s your turn, Dictator” appeared across Egyptian social media sites, taking aim at President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and his now almost 11-year-old brutal reign as president of the Arabic-speaking world’s largest country.
The author of the hashtag, which has gained traction among normal Egyptian social media users, is Ahmad Al-Mansour, an Egyptian fighter within the ranks of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
HTS is the Syrian rebel group that led the lighting offensive that saw the overthrow of dictator Bashar al-Assad, with their leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, now the de facto leader of the country.
Though HTS and associated militias are overwhelmingly comprised of local Syrians, they contain a significant numbers of foreign fighters, mostly from other Arabic-speaking countries.
Al-Mansour is one of these fighters, joining the ranks of Syrian rebels in 2013, the same year Sisi enacted a brutal coup against the democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi in his own country.
It is believed that Al-Mansour, who is a graduate of Al-Azhar University, was part of the sit-in at Rabaa Square when Egyptian security forces, on Sisi’s orders, carried out a massacre that killed over 1000 people in a matter of hours.
It has been reported that the brutality of the massacre directly influenced Al-Mansour’s decision to go to Syria and join the rebellion.
Call to arms against Sisi
Al-Mansour has posted explicit calls for the Egyptian people to rise up and overthrow Sisi on an almost daily basis since the fall of Assad.
The militant has mainly used social media site X to post content accompanied by the previously mentioned “It’s your turn, Dictator” hashtag – a slogan inspired by “It’s your turn, Doctor”, which was a popular rallying cry among Syrians against Assad in 2011.
“The state of terror that Sisi has us living in requires our initiative to reignite the revolution,” Mansour said in a video posted to X.
Al-Mansour has also demanded Sisi’s immediate resignation and has warned it’s just a matter of time before his regime falls.
In a recent post, Mansour wrote that Egyptians should unite around “[O)verthrowing the head of the coup regime, Sisi himself … The army’s complete withdrawal from the political scene … The release of all detainees.”
Mansour’s campaign has gathered momentum, with numerous accounts reposting the hashtag and accusing Sisi of crimes against humanity and criticising the stifling oppression and repression under his rule.
‘A political reckoning’
As the hashtag campaign gained traction, Egypt’s Minister of Interior Mahmoud Tawfik met with top security officials to elevate the nation’s security alert to its highest level, as reported by the Egyptian opposition news outlet Rassd News Network.
Since the fall of the Assad regime, Sisi has seemed particularly concerned that there could be a knock on effect on his regime. Speaking a week after his former ally’s fall, Sisi said “My hands are not stained with anyone’s blood, nor have I stolen anyone’s money.”
In the weeks since Assad’s ouster, Egyptian authorities have also essentially banned Syrians from entering the country. When Syrian refugees took to the streets of Giza to celebrate Assad’s fall, security forces arrested them for holding a protest without a permit. Three of the Syrians now face deportation.
“The regime is anxious, the army is on high alert, security forces are deployed, and something is brewing behind the scenes,” Mansoor wrote on X, warning Sisi to “step down with dignity to prevent bloodshed.”
There is little doubt that Sisi’s regime is much stronger than Assad’s crumbling rump state. However, while there is genuine support for Sisi among Egyptians, there are also significant cracks in such support. The strength of his regime has largely been built on extreme authoritarianism and violence.
Under Sisi’s rule, human rights groups within and without the country have documented the massacre of peaceful political opponents, mass executions, arrests, with at least 60,000 political prisoners languishing in Egyptian jails, torture, forced disappearances and the total stifling of free speech and dissent.
Economic conditions are also worsening for most Egyptians, with the Sisi regime implementing austerity reforms, cutting much-needed subsidies and increasing tax rates. The Egyptian working and middle classes are now often unable to afford basic costs of living.
Al-Mansour certainly believes the time is now for Egyptians to rise up against Sisi. In a post earlier this week, he appealed to Egyptians in the country and “the opposition abroad”:
“I ask you to form a shadow government … This is a time of political reckoning. Egypt needs every loyal and honest person to fill the void that will result after the fall of Sisi.”
