page_title: Women on Walls
section_title: Political graffiti and the Arab Spring
hierarchical_section_title: Women on Walls / Historical background / Political graffiti and the Arab Spring
caption_attribution_description: العربية: جرافيتي للاعتراض على حكم العسكر English: Graffiti criticizing the military rule of Egypt مصرى: جرافيتى للاعتراض على حكم العسكر
context_page_description: Women on Walls is a public art project in Egypt aimed at empowering women through the use of street art, by encouraging the portrayal of strong Egyptian female figures in street art and empowering female street artists themselves to participate in the political space of graffiti. Building on the popularity of street art as a form of political expression during the January 25 revolution, the aim of this project is to increase awareness of women's issues by introducing women into public space. This project was co-founded by Mia Gröndahl, a Swedish street art documentarian, and Angie Balata, an Egyptian artist, in December 2012 with funding from the Danish Center for Culture and Development, and was launched with a month-long event in the Spring of 2013 in Cairo, Luxor, Alexandria, and Mansoura that included painting sessions, workshops, and lectures on topics ranging from art to women's issues more generally. The project held its second campaign in February 2014.
context_section_description: During the Arab Spring revolutions, and in the years leading up to them, graffiti was commonly used as a form of popular protest. Street art was an effective way to spread the message of political rebellion, since it is in public view. Furthermore, since authoritarian Arab leaders had poured significant resources into public beautification projects in order to demonstrate their absolute ownership of the public space, street art was a way for the people to reclaim that public space. During the Arab Spring, street art became a prominent form of protest in many Arab countries, including Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria. An earlier example of this reclamation of public space is graffiti painted during the Palestinian intifada during the late 1980s. While Israeli state censorship prevented the production of a lot of Palestinian protest art, Palestinians were able to paint graffiti in order to spread their message without being stopped by the state. Also, the anonymity of the art form made it a stand-in for the collective spirit of Palestinians.
  In Egypt, street art was not a widespread phenomenon before the January 25, 2011, but it quickly became one of the most powerful tools of the revolution. In the first days of the revolution, street art was largely used to mock then-president Hosni Mubarak. However, Egyptian graffiti quickly expanded into a number of spaces, mediums, and genres. Popular types of revolutionary graffiti include political satire, mocking political and military leaders, murals depicting pharonic and biblical themes, tags for social and political movements such as the April 6 Youth Movement and the Ultras, and martyr paintings. These various types of images are meant to critique the political order, incite anger, connect Egyptians with the past, and inspire solidarity for the revolutionary movement.
caption: Down With The Military Rule(Graffiti)
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