It was on January 25, 2011, that a larger-than-ever protest took over Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Here, 5 years later, are the best Egyptian literary works about it.

The Egyptian youth: the spark of the revolution, famous or anonymous, disappeared from the screens. I keep finding faces that are no more — or are slowly fading away…

The daily demonstrations and clashes between the people in the streets and the army are slowly changing Cairo’s urban geography.

Four brides in flowing white gowns, astonished passers-by in Damascus as they marched through the heart of the Medhat Pasha bazar. They held a stoplight-red banner reading: “For the sake of the Syrian people, the civil society declares a halt to all military operations in Syria.”

In Bahrain, powerful graffiti reminds of past and current struggles, and more resistance to come.

Lebanon is now hosting more than 100,000 Syrian refugees. But one group has sadly been forgotten: Syria’s Palestinians.

The painful art of Syrian artist Sulafa Hijazi visualises with graphic simplicity what is happening to her Syria.

Je pense que l’art, même dans sa formation la plus effective, reste une promesse à venir, une promesse utopique. Mais à ce moment là, l’utopie était là, elle flirtait avec l’actuel, l’art et la politique étaient devancées par le présent.

I think that art, even at its most effective, is a but promise. A utopian promise. When the revolution happened, utopia was there, flirting with the actual.

El Nadeem Centre provides treatment to victims of political violence and torture. Mashallah News met with psychiatrist Mona Hamed to discuss the nature of the psychological trauma engendered by political violence.