Walk Next to the Wall: Images of Martyrs in the Egyptian Revolution

Prior to the Egyptian revolution citizens of Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt are taught to “walk next to the wall”; a phrase that means keep your head down, mind your own business, do not meddle in the affairs of those who outrank you, and feed your family. In the end, walking next to the wall is not enough to save them. They can no longer escape attention by blending into the walls of their cities. Khaled Said is not the first young man to die at the hands of Cairo’s police, nor is he the last. Said’s death could not be swept under the rug like the many who came before him. His visage, before and after his death, appears everywhere. His face appears on the walls of Egypt’s cities in graffiti when the grip that Mubarak’s regime had over art and society weakened. Khaled Said is not alone. His face is joined by the faces of the hundreds of other men, women, and children who die during Egypt’s revolution. Graffiti is in a unique position due to its fluidity of meaning. These faces’ meanings change based on their viewers and the times. The wall that they are supposed to ‘walk next to’ for protection becomes the wall where they proclaim their freedom from an oppressive regime.