Today we see Mubarak, the Egyptian ruler facing his country revolting against him. We see the people who have been silenced and led into an era of poverty and deprivation for much too long, leading themselves on the streets of Egypt, retaliating and protesting for what was always denied to them- their right. Look closely, and perhaps you’ll think “Has this happened before? Does this not remind us of what happened during the 1970’s? The public defying its leader cum “puppeteer”, coming on the streets and saying that they will not take it anymore?” Right you are. Easily, one can draw the similarities between what is happening today in Egypt to what happened in Iran in 1979.
Let’s look back to the causes of the Iranian revolt at first. During that time, the Shah was a well-known puppet of the United States; Iran and the US being best of friends. Iran would support whatever US would say, and it was the most powerful Middle-Eastern country. If their power had something to do with the US backing, it’s actually pretty obvious to see. The Shah's regime was seen as oppressive, brutal, corrupt, and extravagant, it also suffered from basic functional failures — an over-ambitious economic program that brought economic bottlenecks, shortages and inflation. The poorer were getting poorer; the rich were too rich to care. Sounds similar already, doesn’t it? Because in Egypt today, we see the exact same history repeating.
The difference perhaps is that the Iranian revolt was much more structured and had a leader backing them, Ayatollah Khomeni. The Egyptians revolution might not be so structured, as they don’t have a leader helping them and backing them up, but the essence of both the revolts remain the same- throw down these lines of capitalism (which is perhaps nothing more than planned dictatorship), give the rights to the poor who are tired of inflation, stop supporting policies which end up actually creating problems within your own nation in the long run- people were not happy in 1979, and people are not happy today. The rest does not matter. People are tired of doing what is being told just for the sake of the richer few getting what they want. And perhaps it’s time for the US to think what it really wants. Because sooner or later, all these countries, who see the examples of Iran and Egypt, the countries who have been working under the US policies for “betterment”, realize what’s going on as well and take down their puppet leaders. Countries like Yemen and Algeria might are already cueing to be next. So perhaps, it’s time for America to relook at its policies and truly decide who it’s friends and enemies are.
Tehreem Fatima Rajani
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