El Mahalla El Kubra living conditions. Beginning in April 2008 the city held mass demonstrations protesting the election results of President Hosni Mubarak, claiming election fraud and demanding better wages. Security forces were ordered to crack down on the dissidents, and in May they killed two or three in the city and injured dozens. Images of protesters in Mahalla overturning billboards of Mubarak were viewed by some Egyptians as a turning point in Egyptian politics, according to "The Washington Post". "The Observer" has written that protests in El Mahalla from 2006 to 2011 spearheaded larger political changes throughout Egypt. A Facebook group established by
Youth Against the Coup they are simply interested in fighting for the same freedoms and rights they sought during the nation’s 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak. “We are looking for freedom,” said Nadine Zaid, 19, a first-year Cairo University student who began protesting with the movement last fall. “It’s really hard to see your friends killed in front of you. We are against blood, we are against violence.” As the protests persist, the question is whether they could lead to broader youth demonstrations, said Michele Dunne, a senior associate in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “We know a