Nationalism, Authoritarianism, and Medical Mobilization in Post-revolutionary Egypt.

In this article, we investigate the links between medical practice and expertise, on the one hand, and nationalist discourses, on the other, in the 2011 Egyptian uprising and the years that followed, which witnessed a consolidation of authoritarianism. We ask how it is that doctors, whose social capital in part rests on their being seen as "apolitical," played a significant role in countering consecutive regimes' acts of violence and denial. We trace the trajectory of the doctors' mobilization in the 2011 uprising and beyond and demonstrate how the doctors drew on their professional expertise and nationalist sentiment in their struggles against a hypernationalistic military state. Borrowing the ideas of immanence and transcendence from religious studies and philosophy, we argue that the doctors put forth an immanent vision of the nation as a force that is manifested in the lives of its citizens, in contrast with the State's transcendent vision of nationalism, in which the nation resides outside of and beyond citizens' lives. Relying on interviews and media analysis, we show how medicine has served as a site of awakening, conversion narratives, and building of bridges in a polarized society where the doctors were able to rely on their "neutral" expertise to present themselves as reliable witnesses, narrators, and actors.

Egypt's Popular Uprising and the Stakes of Medical Neutrality.

Amidst the recent political uprisings in the Arab region, physicians and other healthcare workers have found themselves in the crossfire. This paper focuses on Egypt's doctors, paying special attention to how many have both appealed to and practiced medical neutrality as its own potent and contested political stance, particularly since the period of military rule following Mubarak's removal from power. Our paper draws on interviews with physicians who served as volunteers in the field hospitals in the days of unrest and violence, and with others who played a major role in documenting protesters' injuries, police brutality, and other forms of state violence against unarmed citizens. Based on interviews with doctors who belong to organizations such as "Tahrir Doctors" and "Doctors Without Rights," our paper reveals how these doctors' commitment to professional ethics put them at odds with the orders of military personnel, rendering their appeal to "medical neutrality" a weighty political act in and of itself.