The Third Anniversary of Maspero

Besides being Tawfiq al-Hakim's birthday, today marked  a much grimmer anniversary in Egypt as well: the third anniversary of the "Maspero massacre" on October 9, 2011, when a largely Coptic march to the Radio/TV building known as Maspero was attacked by security forces, including scenes of armored vehicles running down protestors. In the string of clashes during an since he 2011 uprising, from the "Battle of the Camel" to last year's carnage at Raba‘a, "Maspero" became shorthand for the bloodshed which seemed to specifically target Coptic Christian demonstrators.

Zeinobia comments on the anniversary here.

You can find a compendium of my many 2011 and 2012 posts relating to Maspero here (including one on the origin of the name), but see particularly here, here, here, here,  here, here, and, on the first anniversary, here.

A video I ran at the time. Warning: the content and violence is graphic at times.