CAIRO, Egypt — Depending on who you ask, Tahrir Square is either getting a makeover or it’s being airbrushed. In less than a week, the Cairo municipality transformed the square, made famous as the center of the protests that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.
Fresh grass and flowering shrubs now blanket the dirt-laden center divider, which had been trampled by protesters, security forces and squatters over the past year. Workers rewired lampposts and installed traffic lights.
In the most controversial move, government workers, under the auspices of riot police, whitewashed a nearby wall that had been cloaked in colorful revolutionary graffiti. The images depicted the story of those slain during the uprising and the subsequent clashes with security forces.
Young activists and artists immediately repainted the wall, on Mohamed Mahmoud street, throwing up new, angry pieces chiding the government of President Mohamed Morsi for attempting to “erase” the revolution.
“Wipe it off and we will draw it again, you cowardly regime!” reads one fresh tag.