After the ups and downs of the last seven years, Egyptian young people are no longer as active in political parties, student unions, syndicates and NGOs, and social and political movements as they were a decade ago. However, other kinds of youth involvement have been becoming more visible and promise to give rise to new forms of social and civic engagement that can have a formative and positive effect on the Egyptian public sphere in the years to come. Though Egyptian young people are no longer organising and protesting in the streets of Cairo and other major cities, they are nonetheless running and biking in these same streets, holding conventions to discuss nutrition and hair care, and shyly but surely appropriating public spaces to make their presence seen and felt. Though Egypt's social media may no longer be full of talk about protests, politics and elections, it is still full of chatter about marathons, bike rides, nutrition and self-care. Young people are carving out alternative means to connect, organise, and support and empower one another. New youth groups centred around sports, nutrition and self-care are filling the void created by the disappearance of others forms of social and political activism. Some important such groups come to mind that include the Cairo Runners, Go Bike, Pdal, Plant Based Diet and Hair Addicts. These have tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of members who are active and committed and participate in events organised by these groups on a regular basis. Young people active in these groups usually hail from the urban middle and upper-middle classes. They include a cross section of young men and women, including students and professionals, Christians and Muslims, and people of diverse political and ideological orientations. They are brought together by a common desire to pursue a shared goal, such as running, biking, nutrition or hair care. They stay away from politics and try to avoid sensitive issues that might provoke confrontation with the authorities. Cairo Runners is a group with 470,000 followers founded in 2012 during a turbulent time in Egyptian politics. The group's motto is “we run this town,” and through their events and marathons they have attempted to appropriate and transform the chaotic and unruly streets of Cairo into a space that is safe for young people to run together and to impose their presence. According to the founders, the group's first running event had 70 runners. Now they organise marathons all over Egypt that have up to 7,000 participants. Go Bike and Pdal are two groups of young people with a focus on biking. Go Bike has 81,000 followers on Facebook and Pdal has 26,000. Both groups organise biking events on a weekly basis in different parts of Cairo. In a city where seeing a woman on a bike was once rare or unusual, thanks to these two groups every Friday morning hundreds of young men and women can be seen riding their bikes in the streets of Cairo, transforming the streets into a safe space for women in not an insignificant achievement. Another group that has also attracted tens of thousands of young people is the Plant Based Diet group on Facebook. The group has 467,000 members, and its objective is to promote a plant-based diet and a healthy lifestyle among all Egyptians. Members of the group provide guidance and support to one another in their efforts to live in accordance with a vegan lifestyle. Many group members have posted testimonials about how their lives have been transformed since they joined the group and how they have changed their eating habits and lifestyles. For some, following a vegan diet has become akin to a religious or ideological commitment that defines their identity and worldview. Another popular group is the Hair Addict group founded in 2016 by a group of young women who sought to encourage young men and women in Egypt to embrace their naturally curly hair and to renounce societal pressures to conform to a European-inspired standard of beauty. The group now has 200,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram, and it has converted many young people in Egypt to embrace a natural look, as can be increasingly seen in many public spaces. These groups, while non-political in nature, are important because they are promoting a set of values that are indispensable for building a more open and democratic society. They bring together men and women, Muslims and Christians, and people of different political and ideological orientations in pursuit of common goals. They also have an empowering and life-altering quality to them. They are akin to religious and ideological groups in that joining them requires a high level of commitment and discipline from young people. The lives of the young people who join them are usually transformed for the better after joining these groups. Young people who run and bike and embrace a healthy diet or a more natural and authentic standard of beauty usually feel more empowered and more integrated into a community that shares these same values. Moreover, these groups are able to appropriate and occupy public space at a time when constraints against youth organising and mobilising are high. By running and biking and holding conventions and organising marathons, these young people are appropriating and transforming public space and opening it up for young people, women and minorities, and people of different political beliefs. While these groups may not have an immediate impact on Egyptian politics, they nonetheless have the potential to transform civil society for the better by transcending gender, religious, and ideological divisions and promoting an ethic of equality and mutual cooperation across gender, religious and ideological lines. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The writer is a senior researcher at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
