Egyptians are hungry for dignity

January 30, 2012

Interview by Jeremy Tully

 http://socialistworker.org/2012/01/30/egyptians-are-hungry-for-dignity

Shimaa Helmy--known to many people from her Internet reports under the name "Shimaa from Tahrir Square"--is an Egyptian activist from Cairo who participated in the January 25 Revolution, from day one, through the downfall of dictator Hosni Mubarak in February, until she left for the U.S. late last year to speak on the uprising. She is one of four subjects of a forthcoming documentary film about the revolt, produced by Four Corners Media.

Since she came to the U.S. in October, Shimaa has given several speeches and participated in conferences and teach-ins at Yale University, Harvard University, New School, Simmons College, Tufts University, the University of California-Berkeley and others. In Egypt, she was a teacher of Arabic for non-native speakers, an English-Arabic translator and interpreter and a freelancer writer.

Since coming to the U.S. she became very active with the Occupy movement, especially at Occupy Wall Street.
Jeremy Tully spoke with her about developments in Egypt since the revolution.

WHAT WAS your experience of the January 25th Revolution? Were you an activist before?

BEFORE JANUARY 25, I was an anonymous blogger. Most of my activism was only online until January 25th was announced. I came down with my siblings to Tahrir Square. Since then, I have been very involved in the new movement.
I was in Tahrir Square every day and camped there from early February almost until March 9, when the army came and evacuated us by force. While I was there, I was concerned with how non-Arabic-speaking media were portraying our story. I made contact with as many foreign journalists as I could--speaking to them and helping them out.
I would take as much footage as I could from the square, then go back home and upload it online. I did this non-stop for most of the 18 days. I didn't really sleep much, maybe only an hour a day.

During the 18 days, I was detained by the military. It happened on February 4, two days after the Battle of the Camel. Being detained shaped my understanding of the Egyptian Revolution. It was the military detaining activists from Tahrir Square. The common sentiment of Egyptians was that the army and the people were one hand, but being detained taught me otherwise.
They detained me along with other journalists, and when they investigated us, they were very harsh, telling us what we were doing was illegal, that we're not supposed to take pictures, and that I shouldn't be walking around with foreigners.
They ended up releasing us because we managed to get rid of the footage' so that when the army searched the video equipment, they didn't find any evidence against us. For them, "evidence" would have been pictures from Tahrir Square.

After Mubarak stepped down, I was at the square every day until March 9, when they kicked us out. I was involved in the No to Military Trials campaign in Egypt because lots of people I know were detained and abused by the military, and I had to do something about it. I was trying hard to connect with the victims of the uprising--the second generation of activists who had never been politically active before.

I also supported April 8 military members who defected from the army. We organized campaigns, marches and protests in front of the ministry of defense against their detention.

WHAT HAPPENED to the officers who joined the revolution?

THEY STARTED their activity on Facebook just like us. They declared they no longer approved of what SCAF [Supreme Council of the Armed Forces] was doing--especially the military trials for civilians and virginity tests for female protesters--and they were not honored to be part of this institution. They said they would join us on April 8. When they came down, between 40 and 50 officers showed up, and they joined a sit-in of 3,000 people in Tahrir Square.

The army and police showed up later that night at 2 a.m. and evacuated Tahrir Square by force. They killed three army officers and detained the rest of them. An unknown number of civilians were also killed. Some civilians were detained and accused of starting violence. The army officers were sentenced to 10 years in military prison and later on, it became three years--just for joining a civilian protest. They are still in prison.

On May 27, we had what we called the Second Revolution. I helped in organizing this day. Some army officers were helping us online and trying to promote the day. They were detained from their houses just for participating online in politics. Even if you're an army officer, and you're trying to criticize SCAF and speak against it, you risk ending up in jail.

WHAT IS the relationship between organizing on the streets and talking to people online?

THE PEOPLE you need to talk to on the ground are completely different from people you connect with online. We organize online because it's not safe for us to organize in public. You have to keep a low profile because anyone can be subjected to military detention and trial at any time.
Only 6 million people in Egypt have Facebook accounts. And the rest of the people are living below the poverty line--they don't have access to the Internet or even electricity.
And these are the people we need to talk to.

That was one of the biggest challenges we were facing and are still facing. We don't have independent television stations, and the state TV is under the army's control. If you speak out against the army in newspapers, you might be detained, or your newspaper might be shut down. 

You have to connect with people at their basic needs in order to get them on your side. That's one of the biggest challenges we've been trying to overcome. And it's still a challenge.

After the army evacuated Tahrir, I got stuck inside and online. I was able to connect with like-minded people. But May 27 made me realize we had to do more to connect with people face to face.
I began trying to reach out to families of the detainees, families of the martyrs, all the people who were victims of the uprising. I tried to bring them together on the ground, because they don't have access to the Internet. They come from poor neighborhoods and different parts of the country.
But people are also still using the Internet to organize. 

Recently, there was a statement from over 50 revolutionary pages that have over 1 million followers calling for demonstrations against SCAF on January 25, the one-year anniversary of the revolution.

THERE HAVE been many strikes during the course of the revolution. Do you feel the Egyptian people are aware of these strikes? Do they side with the workers or SCAF?

UNFORTUNATELY EVEN some of the activists don't support workers' strikes, because they think it's completely unrelated to the revolution. I personally think that workers' strikes are an essential part of the whole revolutionary process Egypt has been going through.

The propaganda of the military council is that the strikes are stopping the cycle of production, and the economy is going down because the workers are complaining and not working. I remember a lot of workers were subjected to military trials just for striking. They have been under several occasions since Mubarak resigned.

My feeling is the youth should cooperate with the workers. This is what happened back in 2008, when the biggest strikes happened in the Mahalla textile compound, and the youth supported it. We were not there--it was the workers who started the whole thing. And it happened again right before Mubarak resigned. They switched the whole direction of the revolution.
Unfortunately, you don't read good coverage or any news on workers' strike. They're widespread all over the country, but the entire focus is on Cairo and Alexandria, and that's it.

YOU LEFT Egypt to come to the U.S. in late October. Why?

I WAS invited to speak in a conference about my participation in the revolution and a documentary film on the revolution that follows me and several other Egyptian women. Then I got involved with Occupy Wall Street, and I got to speak at different universities. I ended up organizing protests here in the U.S. with American and Egyptian activists. I feel I'm helping the revolution even if I'm not in Egypt anymore.
At the same time, I really wish I were back in Egypt right now, doing something on the ground. But I'm trying to make the best of my visit here in the U.S., in raising awareness and connecting American and Egyptian activists. It's been fun, rewarding and working well.

SINCE YOU'VE been here, the Occupy movement has really taken off. Do you have any lessons for the Occupy movement?

MY ADVICE would be that Occupy activists should talk to the 99 percent, not just on behalf of them. We should take the occupation to our blocks. Activists should be really strategic about what they really want to do.
Our mistake back in February was when people imagined they could have a successful revolution in 18 days. That wasn't true. People should plan for three years from now--what do we want to do with our movement, why are we doing all of this, and where are we going with it?
Before I came here, the only information about Occupy Wall Street I had was from the news and American activists involved on the ground. Seeing it on the ground in reality is completely different.
I think it's too early to judge a few months old movement. It will take us some time to make a good judgment about it. I really like the slogan of we are the 99 percent and the central idea of Occupy that a small proportion of people--the elites everywhere, not just in the U.S.--are controlling politics and business, and the majority of people have no say over anything. But this should change with the uprising in the Middle East and across the world including Occupy.

WHAT DO you say to activists in the U.S. who want to stand in solidarity with the Egyptian people and support the revolution?

FIRST, WE need a strong Occupy movement here and a strong infrastructure. A strong movement in the U.S. would influence and reflect on all movements elsewhere.
The most important thing is to do something about the U.S.'s foreign policies. The U.S needs to reconsider the military aid that goes to Egypt. This is something U.S. activists and Occupy Wall Street activists can do to support the Egyptian Revolution. Occupy should also spread awareness of the struggle of the Egyptian Revolution, because the revolution is not in the mainstream media anymore.
The U.S. supplies $1.3 billion to the Egyptian military every year: tear gas, rubber bullets, live ammunition, tanks and all kinds of weapons. Most of the Egyptian military's weapons are made in the U.S.

December 1st 2011 Egyptian and occupy wall street protesters marching towards point lookout capital, NY

In New York, we did a protest against Combined Systems, one of the manufacturers of the tear gas the U.S. supplies to the Egyptian military. A group of Egyptians in the U.S. and American activists on Occupy Wall Street worked to make this happen. We protested their main investor, Point Lookout Capital, which had an office in Manhattan. The tear gas itself is made in Pennsylvania.

IN NOVEMBER, there were large demonstrations in Egypt, after months in which street demonstrations were much smaller. What do you make of this development?

THE PREVIOUS few months were the incubator of what is happening now. The frustration was there. The anger was there. The military council was creating enemies everywhere, starting with journalists, bloggers, human rights activists and even political parties like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists.

For example, there were clashes in October, in Maspero, during the Coptic marches. They were targeting well-known activists like Mina Daniel and Alaa Abd El Fatah. They wouldn't have done this before, but now they're doing it very openly. We can no longer pretend that everything is fine.

WHAT WOULD a victorious revolution mean to you?

THE RELEASE of all the political prisoners and the civilians who were tried in front of military courts, the lifting of the state of emergency, getting our factories and institutions back, and handing power over to a civilian government.
The media really like to portray it as a pro-democracy movement. I think it's not just about democracy, voting in elections, reforming the system or reforming the way the system is functioning. We failed to reform it for the past decades. The basic slogan that the January Revolution people came out with was "Bread, freedom, social justice." Egyptians were hungry for being heard and feeling dignity in their country.
Until now, people are being tortured in police stations and military jails, and we lack basic human rights. It's too early to start fighting over ideologies or talking about elections candidates when the system we came out against is in power still.

My thoughts on #Jan28 2011: The Egyptian Friday of Anger

I can't imagine it's been a year already with too much things happening around me on the political, educational, and personal levels.
From the Revolution in Egypt to traveling to the U.S and then occupy movement.  

I keep saying I will never forget these days and that I will sit down one day and write down. Well, I do forget and I know I won't be writing anything at all if I kept slacking off like this that's why I started writing today.

Looking at the news and hearing from my family and friends it kills me that I'm not in Egypt while all of this is happening. I keep telling myself I've had a hectic year already. 
I needed a break but that never happened actually.

Jan the 28th is a day I don't wanna forget any piece of detail I've seen, done or felt in and it's been a year since it happened.


On Jan 28th night 2011 I was talking on skype with my friends and relatives overseas telling them about what's going in Egypt right now and that we are planning a massive day of action called the friday of anger when the internet went down around 1 am in the morning. I remember that I went crazy by then.

Friday's morning I prepared my bag for the day with water, scarfs, medical masks and my camera. Then I had such a big fight with my dad when I was trying to go out. He locked the door on us and asked my mom to leave so that he could deal with it but we were so stubborn. 

I didn't wait for my sister and left on my own, prayed in the biggest mosque in Abbaseya and then came out after prayer. There were hundreds of cops and security forces blocking the way to the square and we had to take another one. The numbers of ordinary people who marched with us to Tahrir were unbelievable. We marched across my neighborhood for over than 3 hours and from a neighborhood to another people kept joining us.


The security forces kept tear gasing us and chasing us everywhere we go but we kept marching. We arrived to Ramses square and then the scene became really ugly. Tear gas, fires, burnt vheicles, injured people and the sounds of shooting were all over the place.

I was sneezing and coughing none stop, I became blinded  by the gas and for an hour I was walking with my brother and sister and they were holding my hands because I couldn't open my eyes. People kept flooding from everywhere, we couldn't believe how big it was getting.

Then the police backed off and the crowds started marching again towards our destination: Tahrir around 5- 6 pm after sunset prayer.

That was the most beautiful moment in the entire day. Everything around was burning and the smoke clouds covered everything and you could see the fire on the horizon.

We were exhausted and wasted but the streets were ours.

Nobody there except for us, the protesters shouting slogans and the echoes were all over the place. No media presence, and the security forces were absent completely as well.  

All the means of transportation were absent as well, they shut down the underground, the buses, the taxis were rarely seen and Cairo was becoming a burnt ghost city.

We kept walking to Tahrir then heard that the army is down in the streets and that's why we had to find a way to get back home before they arrive to where we are.

I was scared of the army coming down for some reason, I had a negative feeling about the army unlike everyone else but I wasn't sure about anything.

But I became sure they are not on our side a week later when I was detained and investigated by them.

We didn't talk to our parents for the entire day because they cut all the communications and I started to feel guilty we just left. I wanted to continue to the square but then we just walked back home, the three of us, exhausted ,dusty and full of gas. What happened afterwards was a different story.
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Now I'm going to share some of the pictures I took on the 28th of Jan 2011:

People marching in my district Abbaseyah after Jumaah prayer towards Tahrir in the alternative rout we took

On the bridge looking at all the marches that kept flooding to Ramses square headed to Tahrir

Seeing people like this man and woman who have never been part of any political activity before gave me so much hope that day

Ramses Massacre was one of the biggest battles we had in the entire country.
This is were I got stuck for hours with my siblings.

Check out the rest of my album here:
https://www.facebook.com/Shimaa.Tahrir
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We will never forget, we will never forgive..

Cosa dice l'Islam sul terrorismo?

L'Islam è una religione di misericordia e non consente il terrorismo.

Dio disse nel Corano:
((Dio non vi proibisce di essere buoni e giusti nei confronti di coloro che non vi hanno combattuto per la vostra religione e che non vi hanno scacciato dalle vostre case. Dio ama coloro che si comportano con equità.)) (Corano, 60:8)

Il profeta Mohammed proibiva ai soldati di uccidere donne e bambini e li avvisava:

{Non tradire, non essere eccessivo, non uccidere un neonato.}

Disse anche: {Chiunque abbia ucciso una persona che ha un contratto con i musulmani non profumerà come il Paradiso, sebbene la sua fraganza si sentirà per un periodo di quarant'anni.}

Il profeta Mohammed aveva anche proibito la punizione con il fuoco.

Egli elencograve; l'omicidio come il secondo di tutti i peccati e avvisava anche che nel giorno del giudizio, {I primi casi a essere giudicati tra persone nel giorno del giudizio saranno quelli di spargimento di sangue}.

I musulmani sono anche incoraggiati a essere gentili con gli animali ed è proibito maltrattarli. Una volta il profeta Mohammed disse:

{Una donna fu punita perchè imprigionò un gatto finché morì. Per questo motivo, fu condannata all'Inferno. Quando il gatto era imprigionato, essa non gli diede né cibo né acqua e non lo lasciò libero di nutrirsi degli insetti della terra.}

Disse anche che un uomo diede da bere a un cane, così Dio dimenticò i suoi peccati a causa di questa buona azione. Fu chiesto al profeta:

“Messaggero di Dio, saremo ricompensati per la gentilezza verso gli animali?” Egli disse: {Esiste una ricompensa per la gentilezza verso ogni forma di vita, animale o umana.}

In aggiunta, quando i musulmani macellano gli animali è loro imposto di farli spaventare e soffrire il meno possibile. Il profeta Mohammed disse: {Quando macellate un animale, fatelo nel modo migliore. Uno affili il suo coltello per ridurre la sofferenza dell'animale.}

Alla luce di questi e altri testi islamici, l'atto di incitare al terrore nei cuori dei civili senza difese, la distruzione completa di edifici e proprietà, il bombardamento e lo storpiare uomini innocenti, donne e bambini sono atti proibiti e detestabili secondo l'Islam e i musulamni.

I musulmani seguono una religione di pace, misericordia e perdono e la maggior parte non ha nulla a che vedere con i violenti eventi che sono associati ai musulmani.

Se un musulmano commette un atto di terrorismo, questa persona sarà colpevole di violare le leggi dell'Islam.

http://www.islam-guide.com/it

From Tahrir Square to The U.S: The revolution will continue

On October the 16th I landed in the U.S with Micah, the co-founder of Four corners media, the film company working on the documentary film I'm featured in: If.

Since then I started an educational speaking tour about my Experience in Egypt, how far did the Egyptian uprising go, the film and other related topics. The main goal of these events was raising awareness about the untold stories of the Egyptian revolution especially in post Mubarak era and how the struggle of the American people can be connected with ours.

I noticed that the majority of people here are so impressed by the Egyptian revolution due to the way media portrayed it in the very early beginning. They keep telling me how amazing this 18 -day- long revolution was and how inspired they are only because their experience with us didn't go further than the 11th of February, the day Mubarak resigned.

They thought that we won and that the fight was over forgetting the fact Egypt is a military dictatorship supported by the U.S since so long ago. They don't know much about the Egyptian military- industrial complex and how it is connected to the U.S.

The media didn't tell them that the Egyptian uprising and the real struggle actually started right after Mubarak resigned and appointed a council of army generals known as the Supreme Council of Armed Forces. (SCAF).

I thought that it would be easier for people to follow the sequence of events in Egypt throughout following a story of someone. So, here are some of the articles and videos in English quoting and/or featuring yours sincerely.

**********************

*This interview followed my talk at Poptech conference in Maine
 

1-

http://poptech.org/blog/interview_shimaa_helmy_and_the_future_of_revolution

If the iconic image of protest in the 60's is a hippie slipping a flower into a gun barrel, the image for this generation's protest may be a Muslim woman wearing a Hijab and holding up a cell phone. Shima'a Helmy is one of the young Egyptians who led that country's uprising in January of 2011. Using social media, street canvassing and her own steely determination to change her country for the better, 21-year old Helmy forewent her studies to help galvanize a revolution. The rest is quite literally history.


***********************
2-

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/science-technology/Everyones-a-Filmmaker-132333563.html

'Everyone's a Filmmaker in Egypt'*

What role did the Internet and social media play in the Arab Spring? It depends who you ask, and where they live.

"Shima'a Helmy. "The role of the Internet and social media was over-emphasized in the media coverage, especially in the West," she says. "They were trying to say it was a Facebook revolution, or a Twitter revolution, and that social media had a big role in it, when the fact is it didn't actually work out until we came down into the street. We didn't have our first million person march until the Internet was cut."


***********************
3-

http://turnstylenews.com/2011/10/12/the-frustrated-egyptian-revolution/

*Days after dozens of Coptic Christians died in protests in Cairo, Egypt’s military rulers have responded to the incident publicly.

Less publicized is the plight of the protesters who’ve been detained after continuing their demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Nearly 12,000 civilians have been tried in military tribunals since the beginning of the year, and there’s fear among many young protesters about what’s happened to their comrades. One protester moved her campaign to Facebook after street crackdowns became too severe. This is her story.

 

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Norman Finkelstein: Arab dignity will bring peace to the Middle East

This  important and highly recommended statement by Dr. Norman Finkelstein was supposed to be published earlier but I totally forgot about it due to the unusual circumstances we are going through right now in Egypt.
Last May I attended his lecture in the American university of Cairo and that was one of the most informative and important lectures about Israeli/Arab conflict I've ever attended. 

If you are a westerner and interested in getting to know about this conflict from a perspective of a Jewish American who's parents died in the Holocaust you have to know more about this man.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Finkelstein


The article as found in his official site.
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/stop-the-presses-an-article-thats-actually-accurate/
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In a lecture that linked Egypt’s revolution to the balance of power in the region, the renowned American academic Norman Finkelstein painted the clear fear change will induce in Israel

Osman El Sharnoubi, Wednesday 18 May 2011

The American political scientist and author Professor Norman Finkelstein, an outspoken critic of Israel, gave a lecture Monday night to a packed auditorium at the American University in Cairo, a day after he demonstrated with Egyptians in front of the Israeli embassy in Giza on the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba.
Finkelstein, the author of The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, started the lecture by speaking about Israeli aggression towards its neighbours in the last five years, starting from Hezbollah’s victory against Israel.

Finkelstein moved from this defeat to tell a narrative of Israel’s belligerency in reaction to this defeat, using the Israeli invasion of Gaza in 2008, the ensuing blockade and finally the attack on the freedom flotilla, the Mavi Marmara as illustration.
Through such accounts, Finkelstein presented to the audience why he views Israel as a rogue state.
Presenting facts and testimonies, Finkelstein refused to label what happened to Gaza in 2008 as a “war,” insisting that what took place there was a “massacre.” Presenting Israel’s excuse for this massacre as false, for Hamas did not provoke this response from Israel, he moved on to the real reason for the operation against Gaza. Israel, smarting from its humiliating defeat in Lebanon in 2006, wanted to display its military might.


In the same way, the professor undermined the reasons for the Israeli blockade on Gaza, saying that preventing weapons from entering Gaza did not necessitate banning chocolates, potato chips and baby chicks from entering.
He sees the blockade as a form of collective punishment on the Gazans for choosing the wrong leaders in the 2007 elections – Hamas.

pictures from Gaza after IDF attacks in Dec 2008

The final, and most important, part of the lecture covered the Egyptian revolution and its impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Posing as a starting point the question of whether or not the revolution would threaten Israeli security, Finkelstein delved into Egypt’s history with Israel since 1952, shortly after the occupation of Palestine, following the free officers’ coup and the revolution that immediately followed.

Finkelstein, again, tried to show that Nasser and other leaders were in fact hoping to avoid a confrontation with Israel, preferring to focus instead on modernising. It was Israel that wanted a war.

Through citing events from 1954 to 1967, the lecture presented the view that an unthreatened Israel carried out the 1967 attack on Egypt in its effort (with the grace of the United States) to destroy “radical Arab nationalism” and eliminate the chances of Egypt becoming a force to reckon with in the future. Instead, with Mubarak in power, it became a country that could “be pushed around.”

From here, the lecture became more inward looking, touching upon issues hotly debated in Egypt since the ousting of Mubarak. Among these is the Camp David peace treaty with Israel.

The treaty, he explained, came about as a consequence of Israel’s desire to remove Egypt from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The concern stemmed from Egypt’s military performance in the 1973 war that temporarily saw Israel pushed back in Sinai.

Sadat unilaterally agreed to peace in return for the Sinai Peninsula, which, according to Finkelstein, “freed Israeli’s military hand” to attack on other fronts. The 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank followed.

Finkelstein asserted that under Mubarak, Israel was guaranteed a calm southern front, and it pursued its attempts at cornering Iran with sanctions and mobilising for war against it.

This, the professor stated, is no longer the case. The first thing Israel said after Mubarak was ousted from power is that the attack on Iran is off.

Another consequence of Mubarak’s toppling, believes Finkelstein, is that the popularly rejected Camp David treaty may be renegotiated, although he doubts it will be renounced due to the reciprocal obligations a treaty entails, i.e. Israel left Sinai in exchange for Egypt making peace with it. Israel, Finkelstein said, trembles at the possibility of having to renegotiate with Egypt.

The revolution has brought Israel to face a fear it hasn’t had to contemplate since signing the treaty with Egypt. Israel is “afraid that the dignity of the Arab World, in particular Egypt, will be restored, that’s their problem,” declared Finkelstein. War, on the contrary, fills it with no fear since it has the upper hand militarily.

It was then the turn of Arab leaders to come under Finkelstein’s caustic analysis. Despite knowledge being a crucial asset for leading a country, Arabs – citing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah – don’t generally read, especially their leaders. “The complete guide to chewing grass” he cited as the only book Mubarak had ever read.

For this reason, Finkelstein explained, the Israelis weren’t afraid of Mubarak, but, in contrast, “they know ElBaradei reads,” to which the audience applauded.

His reference to the Nobel Prize winner and presidential hopeful Mohammad ElBaradei lead to him admitting his preference to see him become president because he “wants to restore the dignity and the pride of Egypt.”

It is precisely the prospect of Arab countries rising as powers and modernising, which destroys Israel’s war option, preventing it from having a free military hand in the region to use under the pretext that Arabs only understand the language of force. This, Finkelstein said, is the greatest threat to Israel.

The nullifying of the military option would create a climate in which the prospects for peace between Israel and Palestine have never been better.

You can help Egypt, Egyptian women and myself sharing this!

  Hello there my over seas friends!

You might have heard about the situation and the crisis in Egypt.

I was injured in recent Cairo's clashes with police, my friends got shot and some got arrested by the army.

The supreme council of Armed forces brought new carcinogenic weapons and is using them on us.

We are planning a huge protest July 8. I might be killed, injured or even detained before this.

But I still want you to help Egypt out if you really care about human rights and justice.

Keep sharing my page so that the world could wake up. There are awfully interesting news in here, it's really that bad!!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shimaa-from-Tahrir-Square/153772218027570

And also check out this link about the unfinished documentary about myself. Yes, you might help me become famous!

Micah and MH were always there for me. If you helped them in finishing this movie even by passing  this e-mail you are not just helping me or them, you are helping a new country that might  be there for us, the Egyptian people.

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

 "If" is the coming-of-age story of four young women during the Egyptian revolution. Shimaa, the lead character we followed during the revolution, is in many ways a typical young woman, but with an exceptionally informed and unique voice. Shimaa is an avid reader of literature. She identifies with Holden Caulfield and discusses the contemporary political implications of Orwell's 1984. She blogs about politics, philosophy and biotechnology, her major at university. Her world is forever changed on January 25, 2011. Defying her parents, she is one of the first to head to Tahrir Square. Her alienation gives way to activism--Holden Caulfield in 1968. 

Our second character is Mona, an active blogger, whose mother is a prominent human rights activist. Mona becomes a tweeter extraordinaire. She is involved in the early planning of the revolution; as the movement progresses, her Twitter following grows to 10,000; through her Blackberry, her voice reaches the world. 

The third character is Sarah, a curator of contemporary art at the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo. Used to viewing the world throughthe meta-lens of post-modern art, she too is quickly caught up in the revolution. When her friends are trapped in Tahrir Square without Internet access she starts to disseminate information to journalists through Twitter. Sarah moves from a world of ideas to a world of concrete action. 

The fourth character is Nora, a young Egyptian woman who was getting her Masters degree in Brussels when the revolution started. She immediately heads back to Egypt  with a job at the Committee to Protect Journalists. As she describes it, her role there "is to make sure that you don't go missing." 

These four characters are representative of both the discontent that led to the revolution and the incredible optimism and activism that propelled it. The film is a nuanced story of four personal journeys interwoven, and also a portrait of the revolution. The Arab Spring continues to unfold with these four characters playing an ongoing role. They represent a dynamic, young, cross-section of the people who changed Egyptian society, and the future of the Arab world.  Through them we will explore how they changed their world, and how the revolution changed them.

We need funding to return to Egypt and continue filming our characters as their stories unfold. We would also like to begin editing existing footage. 

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Check out our recent projects on the Egyptian revolution: 

Documentary short related to "If" published on Granta Magazine's website

Four Women, One Revolution

http://www.granta.com/Online-Only/Four-Women-One-Revolution

Faces of the Facebook Revolution

Published in Vanity Fair

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/04/egypt-protesters-slide-show-201104#intro 

BBC World News America: First Person Stories 

Curator Sees Power of Egypt Activist Art

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/9452074.stm

Arabs and Muslims: The bad guys in Hollywood

"Reel Bad Arabs": How Hollywood vilifies a people.

I found this outstanding documentary on July 2010 and was impressed by the effort done and the huge amount of information documented in it. It was originally a book by the same author: Dr. Jack Shaheen that I so much admire and respect.

I thought of sharing this movie earlier but it never happened but now is definitely the best time to share such a masterpiece of work for many reasons. 

First of all to remind Arabs of the way we have always been considered and portrayed in the western media and consequently on the western mentality _and may be still are_ in order to work on changing this by clearing these misconceptions up.

I'm afraid the subconsciousness of us is being fed all the time by nonsense that become facts later on in a gradual process. 

(Advice number 1: Watch out for messages sent to you throughout media. All the time)

Secondly, when the map of the Middle East is being redrawn literally, policies towards the Middle East should be reconsidered again as well. This is the role of the educated open-minded westerners who are willing to co-operate.

Although seeing Americans jumping like crazy and chanting CIA in front of the red house oh, sorry I mean the white house made me think twice before talking about rationality and the definition of triumph I still have faith in the smart minority out there.

(Advice number 2: Power comes from people for people who are the makers of their fate, if they neglected this fact they should blame no-one but themselves.)

I'm not going to write much and will just quote from the official site of the movie that you might find here:

http://www.reelbadarabs.com/

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"This groundbreaking documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic history that has run virtually unchallenged from the earliest days of silent film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring acclaimed author Dr. Jack Shaheen, the film explores a long line of degrading images of Arabs--from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and gun-wielding "terrorists"--along the way offering devastating insights into the origin of these stereotypic images, their development at key points in US history, and why they matter so much today. "

"Shaheen shows how the persistence of these images over time has served to naturalize prejudicial attitudes toward Arabs and Arab culture, in the process reinforcing a narrow view of individual Arabs and the effects of specific US domestic and international policies on their lives.

By inspiring critical thinking about the social, political, and basic human consequences of leaving these Hollywood caricatures unexamined, the film challenges viewers to recognize the urgent need for counter-narratives that do justice to the diversity and humanity of Arab people and the reality and richness of Arab history and culture."

About Dr.Jack Shaheen:

Dr. Jack Shaheen (born 1935) is Professor Emeritus of Mass Communication at Southern Illinois University. He was also a consultant on Middle East affairs for CBS News.

He studies portrayals of Arabs and Islam in American media. Being a committed internationalist and humanist, Dr. Shaheen addresses stereotypical images of racial and ethnic groups. His presentations illustrate that stereotypes do not exist in a vacuum, that hurtful caricatures of Asians, blacks, Latinos and others, impact innocents. He explains why such portraits persist, and provides viable solutions to help shatter misperceptions.

Among Dr. Shaheen's awards recognizing his "outstanding contribution towards a better understanding of our global community" are the University of Pennsylvania's Janet Lee Stevens Award, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition for "his lifelong commitment to bring a better understanding towards peace for all mankind."

Shaheen, a recipient of two Fulbright teaching awards, holds degrees from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Missouri. 

He regularly appears on national programs such as Nightline, Good Morning America, 48 Hours, and The Today Show. Also, he has worked with several television series: The Lucy Show, Twelve O'Clock High and The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.

To watch the full movie on Top Documentary Films:

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/reel-bad-arabs/

From Tahrir: Stories about me & the Egyptian Uprising

Although I might have many issues to talk about right now, I still don't feel like publishing anything "big" like an article or something about what's going on in Egypt for the same set of reasons I mentioned in my last note here. I just keep updating my facebook statues and tweeting on my brand new twitter account that I called: Agenda_kid but nothing more really.

Another new reason is the fact we are back to the era of arresting bloggers again. Surprise, ha?!

You know this feeling when you naively think you set your country free and you should do some sacrifices and stuff? Right, I will assume that you know the feeling, some of these sacrifices we did was giving up protesting (Yes, a law criminalizing protesting and calling for protesting was secretly passed recently) and also giving up freedom of speech even if it was online. 

( FYI: Recently, a guy was sentenced for 3 years in a military trial for: Attacking the Supreme Council of Armed Forces and misleading the people on a blog post). 

The reason behind this trial might be really funny but you need to be in Egypt to get a sense of what's going on right now then you won't be any surprised, and trust me, 90% of Egyptians have no idea about what's going on in Egypt now.

There are records on CNN, The guardian, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and others both in Arabic and English about issues related to violating very basic human rights, torturing, virginity tests for female protesters, military trials for young civilian protesters while Mubarak and his allies are facing fake civilian trials (If any was true!).


But since I'm a good citizen and always will be one, I should be grateful to their majesty, the generals of SCAF who saved the revolution (Revolution?ha?) and saved Egypt. I should be grateful and obedience. May God Bless the Supreme council of Armed Forces, Amen.

Let's get back to our topic, for historical record I will start again publishing stories about myself and some of my friends from Tahrir square during the early days of the Egyptian uprising right after Mubarak resigned. 

I don't recall talking to any journalists in a while because our movement is no longer interesting to the  global community just like what happened to Tunisia although their movement is not successful either. 
I'm also praying and crying over the Syrian, Libyan, Yemeni, Bahraini, Palestinian free youth who are calling and fighting to get their countries back and cursing the shocking Royal wedding out loud in the meantime.


As for Egypt, I know transitional periods are not hot enough for media and we have nothing that we can do about this. I know there isn't much blood in Egypt or Tunisia right now and the global community needs to see bloodshed to get interested but that's not our problem either. 


(Ok, I'm sorry. I was about to post some stories, right. Let's not forget that.)

So, these stories I'm publishing today will be in Spanish. 

I read them translated into English but still I would like my Spanish speaking Amigos to share this with their amigos about our uprising. My knowledge of the Spanish language is very limited though I've been thinking a lot about learning it but still I didn't take the initiative.

All the stories I'm going to mention here by Temoris Grecko are interesting not only because they are talking about my personal experience and the great touch I added to the Egyptian uprising (As If) but also because of the context it happened in. 

Temoris Grecko and I 6th of February 2011 in Tahrir square sending a message to biased interest focused western media.

Being in the heart of the event, in addition to his background, Temoris Grecko had covered the Egyptian uprising with an admirable professional manner.
  I was part of this and had the honor to befriend with him during the early days of protest and be part of his stories in several Mexican magazines. 

On the 5th of February 2011 I met Temoris Grecko in Tahrir Square alongside with many other tourists who got stuck in Egypt and journalists who dared to be around in this critical time when any foreigner was accused of being a spy who came to turn Egypt upside down. He was there with me, my family and the rest of my friends in Tahrir during the protests, until Mubarak resigned, in our false celebrations and during the false referendum on the constitution. In the meantime Temoris spent some weeks in Libya and also has a great account on the Libyan uprising from the inside.

He happened to be one of the very few genuine eyewitnesses who wanted see what was going on in Egypt closely with sincere interest and thus his testimonies are very credible and honest.

Before I share the stories with you in detail I would like you to check out some examples of his works in his blog and facebook.

1- Kindly find Temoris Diaries on the Egyptian revolution are all under Egypt tag both in English and Spanish:

http://temorisblog.wordpress.com/tag/egypt/

2- The Libyan revolution:

http://temorisblog.wordpress.com/tag/libya/

Pictures:

My favourite album ever:

Women in the Egyptian revolution

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150099153988017.271049.518893016

Libyan Revolution: The power of the Sisterhood

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150117991543017.279356.518893016

Stay tuned, We will be back very soon!

Shimaa

A quick list of inspiration and why did I take part in the revolt

Ever since I was a young kid and having lived in Egypt trapped inside a corrupted system surrounded by all the hot issues of the middle east I was curious, then became aware and then frustrated and desperate. My only goal was to leave Egypt and leave the whole Arab world to somewhere else where I could find a chance to live as a normal human being with very basic human rights.

The question that kept showing up in each possible occasion, on which all the writers wrote and people in the streets were asking about was:

Why and how come we never revolt?! 

Now, after the the question turned to be "Why do Arabs revolt?" I feel surprised myself this question is being asked.

The reason why I feel so is that many people around the world are impressed and inspired but why it is really hard to understand we are doing it? And when we emphasize that it was a leaderless uprising why everyone tries so hard to find a leader to it? When we say that we do care not only for Egypt but also for Libya, Tunisia, Sudan, Palestine and Afghanistan why do they ask about our motivations?

It gets on my nerves when the world around is becoming a tiny small village when travel is easy and internet is full of information but still people have no clue about the political, economical, and social pressure we are living up to. We have always been suffering here whether during the foreign colonization of the majority of countries in the middle east or afterwards. The uprising was actually decades late, we should have done this years earlier and this should be the question. So, asking why do you actually revolt was a little bit off base.

And to sum it up:

Those who revolt amongst others are the ones who happened to know more about "Their rights", have faith in "Themselves" and have "Courageousness" to encounter "corruption and injustice". It is that simple, really.

So, If you are interested to know how I and like-minded people learned about our rights, had faith in ourselves, and had the guts to say no, you have to meet and know about some of the names that were of an inspiration to me throughout my very short life. They all contributed somehow at some point in waking me up, opening my eyes and heart to see that there's something wrong out here.

I'm a female, Muslim, Arab, Egyptian and a human being after all. A complex combination in a complex world who was a little bit more curious than many others around her and that's why I took the chance with a tiny small part in the huge Egyptian uprising and wish I could take part in other countries around as well. 

Here is a short list of some people who inspired me right before and after the uprising. I mentioned those that you can easily find online. I might not completely agree with their personalities, we might be from different backgrounds and ideologies, we might not share anything at all but that's my point: If you put bias, intolerance and stereotypes aside you can learn basically from everyone and then teach them back.

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Prophet Muhammad

محمد صلى الله عليه و سلم

Prophet Jesus

عيسى عليه السلام

Prophet Moses

موسى عليه السلام

Tamim Al Barghoothi

الشاعر تميم البرغوثي

Ahmed Matar

الشاعر أحمد مطر

Dawud/David Wharnsby Ali 

المطرب الكندي داوود وارنسبي علي

Omar Al Mukhtar 

الشهيد عمر المختار أسد الصحراء

Benjamin Franklin

بنيامين فرانلكين

Rachel Corrie

رايتشل كوري الناشطة الأمريكي التي قتلها العدوان الإسرائيلي

Dr. Abdul wahab El messeiri

الدكتور عبد الوهاب المسيري

Mahmoud Darwish

الشاعر محمود درويش

Abdulrahman Al Ashmawy

 الشاعر عبد الرحمن العشماوي

Ahmed Khaled Tawoufik

الكاتب أحمد خالد توفيق

Edward said

إدوارد سعيد

Anton Checov

أنطون تشيكوف

H.G Wells

هربرت جورج ويلز

Oscar Wilde 

أوسكار وايلد

Salman Al Ouda

الشيخ سلمان بن فهد العودة

Sultan Muhammad Fatih

السلطان محمد الفاتح

الناصر صلاح الدين الأيوبي

Salahuddin Al Ayoubi

Dr. Yusuf Qaradawi

الدكتور يوسف القرضاوي

Rudyard Kipling

الشاعر الإنجليزي روديارد كيبلين

Asmaa Mahfouz 

أسماء محفوظ 

Khaled Said

خالد سعيد

Mother Leila (Khaled Said's mom)

ماما ليلي والدة خالد