Last month, a Cairo court ordered that images of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his wife, Suzanne, as well as their names, be removed from all “public squares, streets, libraries and other public institutions around the country.”
Posters and portraits of the Mubaraks are ubiquitous in Egypt. Squares, sports fields, libraries, streets and more than 500 schools bear their names.
This mandated erasure is meant to serve as closure for the Egyptian people after three decades of Mubarak rule. But will it help them heal and move forward? For precedent and possible implications of the ruling, we should look to antiquity.
Categories: Middle East