A few days after Mubarak was forced to step down, the word foloul came into use. The word in Arabic literally means "scattered remnants of a defeated army." It was first intended to describe key pillars of the old regime: members of the cabinet and the parliament, key operatives of the National Democratic Party (NDP), corrupt politicians, pro-Mubarak and regime-apologist members of the media, business partners in suspicious deals, heads of the security apparatus and so on. But with time, the sphere started to expand, reaching almost every official who took part in government and served with some power or capacity to change things but chose to swim with the flow. The concept then expanded further as the revolutionaries started to label entire families as partners of the old regime, a result of old affiliations of heads of these families with the NDP.
Fears of a counter-revolution were high. Many activists felt that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) was applying a “containment” strategy, as confrontation seemed too risky and bloody. The foloul were just hiding in the shadows, waiting for an opportune moment to make a grand comeback and re-install the old regime with perhaps minor cosmetic changes in a way that will recapture their privileges and secure their interests.
