In February 2011, during Egypt's uprising, people queued outside a bakery in Cairo. A contemporary Le Monde report described long lines at food shops and customers converging on stores with thinning shelves. In Alexandria, mornings were devoted to finding necessities and some shops filtered entry.
Protests, curfews and communications disruption altered both urban supply and the hours available for shopping. The bread line was not mere background to a political event; it was where upheaval reached the daily meal.
This wait should not be romanticised as solidarity or patience. People queued not for celebration but to secure a staple normally bought without crisis. A national emergency became an order of one person at a time at a bakery door.