Major protest sites of the world: Cairo's Tahrir Square (Part-II)

New Delhi: Protests erupt when group of people get together and demonstrate for a common motive. Sometimes the protests turn into mass movements and can overthrow the government of the country.One recent example of mass movement that made the President of a country to be toppled was the mass protest in Tehrir Square of Cairo, the capital of Egypt.Tehrir Square means Liberation square. It was originally known as Ismailia Square, named after Khedive Ismail, the 19th century ruler of Egypt. But after the 1919 Revolution of Egypt it became Tehrir Square. Since then, Tehrir Square has been a famous landmark for protesters to carry on their protests. There were many protests and agitations over the past decades like Egypt Bread Riots of 1977 and the Anti-Iraq war protest carried out in March 2003. In January 2011, Tehrir Square came once again in the limelight, when thousands upon thousands of protesters gathered at Tehrir Square to topple the then President Hosni Mubarak. The protestors alleged they were jobless and the Hosni Mubarak regime was corrupt. Initially over 50,000 demonstrators started peaceful protest against the corrupt government. The Hosni Mubarak led government jammed all the area's wireless networks.A Facebook page named ‘Tehrir Square' was made and for the first time social networking site was used for spreading news about the protests in a regime that had imposed strict censorship on the media. By the 7th day of peaceful protest, BBC reported the attendance of more than 1,00,000 people on Tehrir Square. After a couple of days the number grew to 2,50,000. The revolt went on for 18 days and the number grew to 3,00,000. The protests were peaceful despite attempts by Mubarak supporters to charge camel riders into the crowds. Finally, under pressure from the army, Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down. There was huge celebration in Tehrir Square following the resignation of Mubarak and announcement of fresh elections. The Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi was elected president. Again in June 2013, thousands of Egyptian youths gathered to agitate against President Mohammed Morsi for the same reasons. "The people want the ouster of the regime", this slogan was used by the protesters during the demonstration that was used in 2011 against Hosni Mubarak.In a couple of days, the number rose to tens of thousands and there were reports that protests were going on in 18 places across Cairo. After a week of mass protests, Mohammed Morsi was toppled by the army and an interim government led by the chief justice was sworn in.