20120709 interview

Abstract

######, a 28 year old alumna of and graduate student at the American University in Cairo, recounts her experience of Egypt’s revolution of 2011. She describes conditions when she traveled around the city during the early days of the January uprising, and speaks of making and posting online on January 27 a “call to action” video with colleagues from the media production company where she worked. Feeling disconnected due to the internet and mobile telephone outage on January 28, ###### and her husband decided to go to the protests at Tahrir Square, but they drove back home before reaching the demonstrations due to a radio announcement about the curfew. ###### tells of attending the protests at Tahrir Square several times after January 30, 2011, including the day following Wael Ghoneim’s appearance on television. She observes that different social groups had their own spaces (“downtown artsy crowd, there was the Muslim Brotherhood corner, there was the salafi corner”) but interacted with each other, which permitted “putting a face to all of these unknowns,” breaking down stereotypes. According to ###### the atmosphere at the demonstrations was at times carnival-like, with the presence of vendors and families with young children and even pets. She recalls an “unspoken code of conduct” at the demonstrations, but her recollection of the jubilant scene around Tahrir Square at the announcement of President Mubarak’s departure is tempered by the sexual harassment she and friends experienced on February 11. ###### also mentions the burning of the homes of two people she knew who had political and economic ties to the Mubarak regime. ###### depicts the demonstrations that took place at Tahrir Square after the initial 18 days as having a different mood and organization from those of January and February 2011. She speaks about her participation in such events, including a women’s demonstration and the unrest on Mohamed Mahmoud Street in November 2011, contrasting the violence taking place there with the carnival atmosphere at the square. ###### emphasizes the special meaning of those spaces for members of the AUC community who had worked or studied on the campus nearby. She also assisted an Egyptian-American filmmaker who came to Cairo to document the revolution, providing contacts for activists and other figures involved in politics. ###### discusses her own participation in Egypt’s new electoral politics, including debating her voting choices with family members and others.

The University on the Square: Documenting Egypt's 21st Century Revolution project was made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.