The two-year anniversary of the Egyptian Arab Spring, which ousted then-ruler Hosni Mubarak, was marked this week by clashes between protestors and riot police outside the presidential palace in Cairo. Elections held after Mubarak’s ouster saw the election of Mohamed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood-linked candidate who subsequently triggered a crisis in political legitimacy by granting himself sweeping powers and insulating his office from judicial review. Arabic media sources reporting on the eve of the anniversary have noted that women’s groups remain particularly critical of the post-Arab Spring political environment. The combination of strong security measures, centralized power, and limited civil liberties have deepened fears that rather than paving the way for a democracy based on the rule of law, the Egyptian revolution will have replaced a relatively secular strongman with a theocratic strongman.