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
Hosni Mubarak States Sameh Shoukry reported that his personal sources said Mubarak "is possibly in somewhat of bad health", while several Egyptian and Saudi Arabian newspapers reported that Mubarak was in a coma and close to death. On 12 April 2011, it was reported that he had been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack during questioning over possible corruption charges. In June 2011, Mubarak's lawyer Farid el-Deeb said his client "has stomach cancer, and the cancer is growing". Mubarak had undergone surgery for the condition in Germany in 2010 and also suffered from circulatory problems with an irregular heart beat. On 13