Mansoura city, the capital of Dakahlia Governorate, witnessed a bloody week of clashes between protesters and security forces at the end of last month. The confrontations broke out after several demonstrations against President Mohamed Morsi, resulting in dozens of wounded. At the heart of these troubled events, two brothers found themselves on opposite sides of the conflict.

“Are you in the Square?”

Mansoura city, the capital of Dakahlia Governorate, witnessed a bloody week of clashes between protesters and security forces at the end of last month. The confrontations broke out after several demonstrations against President Mohamed Morsi, resulting in dozens of wounded. At the heart of these troubled events, two brothers found themselves on opposite sides of the conflict.

“Are you in the Square?”

A.A. is a twenty-year-old young man from one of Talkha’s villages. He is studying at the Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, and is a member of the campaign of the former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabahi, which organized the demonstrations of January 25 in Mansoura, demanding “bread, freedom, and social justice” and objecting to the “Ikhwanization of the state”. When A.A. took to the street, he did not know that he might confront his brother, a security conscript.

Preferring anonymity, so as not to harm his brother, A.A. said, “The aim of the demonstration was to promote the culture of disobedience within the Governorate Headquarters where the Martyrs and Thawra squares are. Since the headquarters is the mainstay of Dakahlia, no other institution will be able to function when it is paralyzed. Fortunately, the disobedience was on the pay day of the headquarters employees who found out that there were arbitrary deductions from their salaries, which made dozens of them participate in the disobedience.”

“The next day, after dozens of them responded positively, members of the Muslim Brotherhood tried to disperse the demonstration by force through assaulting and beating young people until things escalated and the security forces came,” he added.

Suddenly, A.A. received a call on his mobile phone. “Are you in the square?” His brother shouted with tears, begging him to leave the square.

Family crisis

M. A. said, “I am a conscript doing my military service in security forces assigned with the task of arresting thugs in Lake Manzala. At noon on Monday, the second day of disobedience, we received orders from the Dakahlia Police Directorate to move to the square where the Governorate Headquarters is to eliminate riots. I was shocked when I saw my brother there, and I immediately talked to him, asking him to go home.”

A.A. however refused to leave the square since he was there defending a view he was convinced of, he said. This prompted his family to interfere. “My family is pressuring me to leave the square, and my mother left the house in fury and went to see my uncle, saying she would not stay and see how her son would kill his brother.”

“I am not going to let my two sons fight each other, and if a confrontation occurs, I will go to the security force headquarters, stage a sit-in and protest, demanding the imprisonment of my conscript son before he faces his brother,” said the father with intense anger.

Other brothers

M.A. found himself in a difficult situation. He said he would not hesitate to execute orders even if they led to the arrest of his brother, because he would otherwise be court martialed and his brother would still be arrested by his colleagues.

Finally, A.A. decided to reflect on leaving the square so as not to start a crisis back home and not to face his brother. “I would like to send a message to the regime: the conscript is not my only brother; the protesters are also my brothers in struggle. The one who was run over by the armored vehicle and the one who was shot dead were my brothers too. The regime should understand that the solution is not a military one, but political,” he said.