page_title: Rabia sign
section_title: Politics
hierarchical_section_title: Rabia sign / Influence / Politics
caption_attribution_description: English: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan making the Rabia sign.
context_page_description: Rabaa or Rabbi'ah sign or, less commonly, Rab3a, is a hand gesture and a sign that first appeared in late August 2013, thought to have originated from Turkey and used in social media and protest marches in Egypt. It is used by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters in Egypt in the wake of the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, which occurred after anti-government protests calling for his removal. On July 9, 2014, a Brotherhood-affiliated organization declared August 14, the day when the sit-ins were dispersed, "World Rabia Day," in an attempt to garner support across numerous countries.
  The sign is named after the Rabaa al-Adawiya Square in Nasr City, Cairo Governorate, which surrounds the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque, where a sit-in was held by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Morsi's inauguration. The sit-in lasted for about forty days before it was dispersed by security forces, leading to clashes that resulted in 638 deaths, of which 43 were police officers.
context_section_description: The Rabia sign and gesture has influenced certain political and social levels among, both in Egypt and in particular, Turkey. The President of Turkey, Erdoğan, and his supporters, has been seen in several conferences and speeches making Rabia gestures. The Mayor of Istanbul, Kadir Topbaş, announced days after the dispersals in August 2013 at an opening ceremony of the Dörtyol Square in the district of Esenler, that he wanted to rename it to ‘Rabia Square.’ 
  Egyptian kung fu champion Mohamed Youssef was wearing a T-shirt with the Rabia sign on it after winning the gold medal at the 2013 Kung Fu World Championship in Russia; this led to harsh criticism in anti-Brotherhood media and a subsequent one-year ban by the national kung fu federation.
  Egyptian soccer player Ahmed Abd El-Zaher also celebrated one of his goals by making the Rabia gesture, which led to his subsequent suspension from the 2013 FIFA Club World Cup.
  On 25 December 2013, the Muslim Brotherhood was designated a terrorist organization in Egypt.
  German journalist Thorsten Gerald Schneiders claimed that "[t]he [Rabia sign] is already out of the Islamist spectrum, and has no relation with Islamic radicalism. Its meaning has extended to protesting against dictatorship and tyranny in general."
caption: Erdoğan performing the Rabaa gesture.
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D4", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.02", "Image DateTime": "2013:08:20 11:48:41", "Image Artist": "", "Image WhitePoint": "[313/1000, 329/1000]", "Image PrimaryChromaticities": "[16/25, 33/100, 21/100, 71/100, 3/20, 3/50]", "Image YCbCrCoefficients": "[299/1000, 587/1000, 57/500]", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "472", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "37632", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "37760", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8794", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1250", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:08:20 11:48:41", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:08:20 11:48:41", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "185", "EXIF SubSecTime": "60", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "60", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "60", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4928", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3280", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R03", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "37602", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "185", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Gamma": "11/5"}