State and Ideology in Republican Egypt: 1952–82

On 23 July 1982 the Egyptian republic was thirty-years old — the age when a generation reaches maturity. Although it was a public holiday and the Ramadan fast had recently ended, the Nile Valley did not take the opportunity for one of its characteristic displays of exuberance. The authorities celebrated in a mood of respect for tradition: a speech here, a bunch of flowers there, amid the nervous ritual of starchy official ceremonies. The popular symbols of the event, however, were almost entirely absent, as if republican Egypt feared to look at itself in the mirror of recollection.