My Teenage Life in Egypt

Nasser’s Successors Nasser’s deputy Anwar Sadat became president in 1970. Sadat made the economymore open and encouraged foreign companies to come to Egypt. He also signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, for which he shared the Nobel PeacePrizewith Israeli PrimeMinisterMenachemBegin. The treaty made Sadat unpopularwithmany people, even thoughEgypt regained the Sinai Peninsula. Sadat was assassinated two years later. After Sadat’s death, vice president Hosni Mubarak became president. Almost immediately he declared a “ state of emergency .” Under its terms, he had almost dictatorial powers. Though hewas re-elected several times, the Egyptian people became increasingly unhappy with him. That unhappiness came to a head in January 2011. The “Arab Spring” Riots and protests against a dictatorial government in Tunisia had bro- ken out in late 2010. People in Egypt and other Arab countries also began protesting against their governments. These protests became known as the “Arab Spring.” The name referred to people wanting a greater voice in their governments. For nearly three weeks, television broadcasts fo- cused on Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Asmany as 300,000 people packed it every night. Nearly 1,000 people were killed during the protests, but eventually Mubarak was forced to resign. Mohamed Morsi was elected in June 2012 to replace him. He was the first democratically elected president inEgypt’s history. Themilitary over- threwhima year later. General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, chief of the Egyptian armed forces, became the country’s sixth president. The promises of the Arab Spring remain unfulfilled. 

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