Friday of Rage: 28 Jan 2011, Cairo

I Wanted To, but I Couldn't

The protests against the corrupt government that ignited on the 25^th of Jan were about to pass almost unnoticed. Almost all of us, Egyptians, were keen on showing the whole world the magnitude of the situation in our beloved country, Egypt. We were not going to give up until drastic positive changes happen. There were tens of thousands of people still there, sitting and even sleeping, overnight at the Tahrir square (i.e. liberation square) at down town Cairo. The official Egyptian TV and media kept giving false information; saying that the protests have been stopped. I really wanted to participate in the peaceful protest on Friday 28^th of Jan, but I had a take-home exam/case study that was going to be sent to me by e-mail on the same day; it was part of my Masters in Business program. So, I decided that I can not join these protests. Little did I know about what fait had for me.

They Forced Me to Join It

I woke up that Friday, and after a few hours all forms of communication has been cutout, only a few cable phone lines have been left working. So, I couldn't access my e-mail to download my take-home/case study exam. I went to the Masged (i.e. A holly place where Muslims pray); right next to my home and prayed Al-Goma prayer (i.e. Friday’s Prayer), and after the prayers, I saw a lot of people gathered for the protests. I had noting to do at that moment; as the internet was cutout and I couldn’t download my exam from my e-mail. I got more worried about what the rotten police forces and the corrupt government might do to the protestors, and what would be the result of such brutal actions, would we ever live in peace in Egypt again? Would they have it in them to kill all those tens of thousands of unarmed peaceful protestors?! All those questions came rushing in my mind. I decided that I want to be there when anything happens to those protestors. It would be better if we were more people; power in numbers. So, I decided to join the protests. I went up home to wear my shoes, as I went to Al-Goma prayer wearing slippers. My younger sister stood at the door blocking my way out. She was worried. She told me “It’s not safe, and you don’t know what might happen!!, and father said to keep out of trouble”, I ended up going anyway. I knew that the right thing to do is going there and join the protestors wherever they are going. Their act of cutting all forms of communication has forced people to go out of there homes in rage to join the protest and to protect the people who were already protesting in the streets. This is what President Sadat has called “Political Stupidity”.

Breaking the Fear Barrier

We have been living in fear for a very long time, and we have to speak up and stand up for our rights. After 25^th Jan, my fear of participating in protests has been broken. The large numbers of young, honest, decent, well-educated, and cultured people that was gathered there on 25 Jan gave me hope, and made me feel safe. They couldn’t possibly put all those tens of thousands of people in jail and if they do, their families will tell the world what happened. I remembered the story of young Khalid El Saeed; who was murdered by the police, at Alexandria, without a reason, and how his family showed the whole world this brutal act and stood up to condemn such acts, and protests ignited everywhere on such brutal acts done by the dishonest people working in our police (there is a good number of honest people in our police, I personally have some honest friends who are working in the police, but sadly the most powerful are the corrupt people in our police force. That’s what you get when you have a corrupt government).

They were very peaceful protests. It first started by calling people to join the protests while walking in small streets in my neighborhood. Then Shouting things like “The people want to drop the government”, “Freedom, liberty, and social justice”, “Gamal Tell you father that the people hate you”, “We are not Opposition or Ekhwan (Islamic brotherhood), and we are all the Egyptians ”and“ Peaceful protest”.

The Journey to Freedom

A lot of people from Nastr City; where I live, gathered for the protests. Then it grew as we marched along Nasr Road and Salah Salem Road. People polled into the protest; gathering to express their demands. There was no violence at all. Some, less educated people was attempting to throw rocks, but the people around them stopped them before they do so, urging them to keep the protests peaceful.

When we came across Abbaseya Square we gave the police officers, standing there, bottles of water to drink, we shook their hands telling them we are all Egyptians and we all are together in making Egypt a better country. Then we continued marching towards Tahrir square. Tens of thousands of people were moving from everywhere in Egypt towards Tahrir square; the symbol of liberty. They had one message to tell the whole world “We are Egyptians and we want our Human Rights, we had enough of Mubarak, he needs to leave us”. They were not going to leave Tahrir square unless Mobarak leaves his position as President.

While I was walking in the protest I saw a police officer taking off his official police uniform; he threw his dark police sweater to the ground saying “Damn the police”. Some of the police officers showed support to the protests; they saluted us and sometimes even joined in shouting our demands, but they didn’t march with us; as this would threaten their authority. Even the honest police officers believed in this protests, and they too had enough of their corrupt leaders. Those were mainly police forces that were in Nasr City and along Salah Salem Road and Abbaseya square. Their main job was to secure the safety of the protest and direct the protests. Sadly the police forces at Ramsis square and Tahrir square had a different job!!

When I arrived at Ramsis square everything was peaceful. The police forces were forming a wall to prevent people to reach Tahhrir square. Then after a while they started throwing gas bombs. Some people knew what these bombs are, and they covered there noses and took precautions, but others didn’t know. The people who didn’t know these gas bombs are less educated people who never participated in any political protests, they panicked and thought it was poisonous gases, and some even fainted. Still people didn’t back down. They were determined to join the rest of the people at Tahrir square. So, the police used rubber bullets to shoot on the protestors. Some got wounded, and some fainted to the ground from the increasing clouds of gas bombs. I saw a young boy carrying a little girl and running out of the clouds of gas. People fainting and being carried out, others were rushing in towards the police. Then suddenly we heard a very laud sound, they said that people attacked the police truck. Then I saw it was on fire. You don’t expect to shoot people and throw gases on them and they would stand doing nothing!!

I met a friend there at Ramsis square; a friend I didn't meet since two years ago!! It was a pleasant surprise. His eyes were red because of the clouds of gas bombs. We stayed together resisting the clouds of gas. We were joined by another friend later on. We fixed a gathering point where we would gather if we lost each other, as all communications were cut off and we could not use our mobile phones to contact each other if we got lost in the crowds.

We kept trying to move towards Tarir square, but the police resisted us, using more gas bombs. My friends and me ran and got lost in the panicking crowds. So, we met each other at the meeting point; we agreed upon. We caught our breath a little. I noticed beside me a man lying on the ground trying to catch his breath and people gathered around him. So, I told them to stay away from him, give him a chance to breath and made sure he’s ok. My friend noticed that the man standing next to him was waving his cigarette smoke near him and told him to keep it away. Then I left him and told everybody to leave to give him a chance to breath and I stood far watching. He was ok, he recollected him self and stood up again, and a man supported him while walking as he had some minor injury on his leg.

After a while I noticed that the front line of police has been broken and some people started running towards Tahrir square and police forces started following them and beating people with their clubs. My friends and I ran away, and we took shield behind a building in a narrow alley. Then we ran into a Masged El Fat-h (Masged is a holy place of prayer for Muslims), and took shelter there. The police forces were throwing tear gas bombs on the garden of the Masged and the gases where diffusing into the place of prayer!! Those people have no respect for anything!! They’ve gone completely crazy. We stayed there until Al Maghreb Prayer (Prayer of Sunset). During our stay we were all praying that Allah (God most gracious most merciful) would save this country and remove the corruption. We heard people screaming, explosions, gun shots. We didn’t know if this was live gun shots or just sound shots to cause fear. Later we discovered that it was a mixture of both! How could an Egyptian police officer kill his brothers and sisters the Egyptians!! I guess this is what they’ve been training for all the time. At Maghreb prayer the Imam (Person who leads the Prayer in the Masged), prayed a lot to Allah to remove this could that’s upon us, to grant Egypt safety and its people victory.

After the prayer we stayed a little while, hearing the loud noises, and smelling a mixture of smoke and tear gasses. Then one of my two friends decided to go home, because his legs were hurting from all the walking and Running from Nasr City to Ramsis square, and his eyes were red because of the gases. The other friend wanted to stay, he didn’t want to return early and leave the crowd. He believed that it would be shameful if he returned to his wife and little kid early leaving the crowds to go on with the battle without him. I didn’t know what to do. Should I stay and join the crowds? Or should I leave? I decided to go with my friend who was in pain and had red eyes and help him with the journey home.

The Journey Back Home

We were going to take Ramsis street back to Nasr City, but I though it wasn’t safe since there may be police forces there. So, we took the side roads and alleys. While we were walking we encountered a crowd of people running and we didn’t know why they were running. So, we took another road away from the people who were running just in case there were police running after those crowds. We went into narrow alleys and at the end we arrived at a wide road. There were a coffee shop and the TV was on, it was a satellite Arabian channel and it was showing the fires, and smoke in Egypt. There was a news bar and the lower part of the screen stating that the curfew has started in Egypt since 6 PM. It was about 7:30 PM and I didn't seem to feel that there was actually a curfew!! We continued walking; we couldn’t find any taxi, or bus, only very few cars passing. My friend suggested calling for people in those cars to help us. That didn’t work as in this road there wasn’t much cars anyway. Suddenly a truck appeared and the man called for people to take a rid in exchange for 3 pounds to Rabaa Adaweya Square. There was an older man with his younger daughter. They joined us in our ride in the truck. They too had been walking in the protests. The man had some bread and insisted we should have a bit, so we eventually did. We had bottles of water and we shared it with the people in the truck. The older man was smiling, he believed that what’s happening is going to change thing in Egypt for the better.

Reflections

Back on the 28^th of January, when I was marching amongst millions of honest Egyptians, I felt that this is not an ordinary day. This was the day Egyptians has broken the barrier of fear and has finally united to move together towards realizing a dream, shouting against all forms of corruption. I believe, as well as many others, that this day was the true beginning of the End of corruption. It was the breaking point.

A great part of this was actually written on 1^st of February 2011, but I didn’t post it then for diplomatic & political reasons. I post it today to remind us of the positive spirit of the revolution and the sacrifices some of us made to give us all a chance to realize the dream of a better Egypt. To remind us of the importance of working together united, forgetting our differences, and facing all obstacles along our path to realizing out Egyptian Dream.

“Because they know our power when we are united they try to break us apart, but we won’t let them”