Witness to revolution

The democratically-elected Islamic President of Egypt Mohammed Morsi was ousted by military on July 3 in a people’s revolt. His dismissal opened another chapter in Egyptian history. The writer of this article, Anum Malik, was an eyewitness to the tumultuous event. In her first person account, Anum, a student at The George Washington University in Washington DC, clears the negative publicity given to the uprising by international media. She was in Cairo when the Egyptians launched their campaign against Morsi and had stayed there for 7 weeks. She even took part in the protests by going out to the Presidential Palace during the revolution

What do you do when you wake up in the middle of an uprising in a foreign country? What if it was an uprising that could potentially overthrow the widely respected institution of democracy right in front of the entire world? Most people would hide indoors. Many students, like myself, would be forced to evacuate. Recognizing the valuable learning opportunity this could be, instead of taking any of the escape routes out, I chose to stay.

This summer, I ventured to Cairo, Egypt, to serve as a research intern in the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at The American University in Cairo. However, three weeks in, my work ended as the Egyptian people gathered in protest to overthrow the then President Mohammad Morsi.

I first heard the word “tamarod,” the formal name of the protest and the Arabic word meaning “rebel,” from an American Professor at AUC on my first day of work. I thought nothing of it in the beginning, but as the weeks went on, tamarod entered into the conversation more and more, whether it was between me and my colleagues, family and friends from America, or social media. In the week before the protest, I was overwhelmed with warnings not to go to the protests, with stories of the hostility towards foreigners and the sexual harassment of women. Many peoplecalled me, begging to behave safely, and I realized that tamarod would be a lot larger and more serious than I had anticipated.

Finally, the last week of June rolled around. I sat in my apartment, stocked with a large supply of food and cash for emergency, a mere 25 minutes away from the protest sites. The news on TV and the social media outlets online were my only sources of outside information. I believed I was living in a warzone.

Although every media source had predicted a bloodbath to ensue, I had not heard of any violence reported since tamarod had begun. I was itching to go and witness this historical moment in person, rather than watch it on TV, which I could have done from my home in America. Taking everyone’s concerns into consideration, I called up my trustworthy male Egyptian friends and pleaded with them to take me. As they had my safety in mind, it took a lot of convincing, but they finally agreed to take me to El Ethadeya, the Presidential Palace.

I put on simple clothing, closed toed shoes in case I needed to run, and went with a mindset that I would try to blend in as an Egyptian and speak in Arabic as much as possible. My Egyptian friends and I piled into a cab, and a mixture of nerves and adrenaline overtook my body. On the cab ride, reality started to sink in. I, a female US citizen, was on my way to plant myself in the middle of one of the largest uprisings in the world, a revolution that many countries frowned upon, a revolution that put me in danger.

When I arrived, I was shocked. Frisking-- frisking as in security checks when you entered, to make sure people didn’t have weapons. Women-- just as many, if not more women than men at the palace, their voices extremely loud and heard by all. Kids-- kids of all ages, playing with each other, eating popcorn and cotton candy, climbing on the phone towers, cars and the palace walls, waving the Egyptian flag.

Where was all the fighting? Where was the war zone I had believed I was living in, the same one that made my family and friends worry for my safety? The roar of the people, their cheers, horns, whistles, and their melodic Egyptian hymns was almost deafening. As I walked through the crowd, I was greeted by smiles, laughter, and kindness. I observed Egyptians from all social classes coming together and pitching tents, graciously helping each other with the most miniscule tasks.

Everyday that I went out to the crowds, I got an Egyptian flag painted on my face, and everyday, the local painting my face would figure out that I was a foreigner. Everyday, locals heard me break out into English at the protests, and what did they do? They and the men who painted my face would greet me with warm smiles, welcoming me to their event, a display of Egyptian pride.

I believe they were happy to see foreigners because they wanted them to witness that Egyptians are peaceful, and that they were simply exercising their constitutional rights. With the help of my friends, I climbed atop the palace walls to get an aerial view of the crowds. People spanned for miles and miles in all directions, and every time a military helicopter flew over, all of the signature green laser pointers would shoot up and the crowds would erupt in a roar, cheering on the army.

During that fateful week, I learned lessons no classroom or textbook could have ever taught me. People threw negativity my way, arguing that I, the US Citizen, had no place in the Egyptian revolution. However, I did not go to participate in an overthrow of a president. Contrary to those who thought I went in the spirit of rebellion, I went to understand, to witness the will of a people formulated into action on the streets, and talk to the locals to understand their point of view.

In coming to Egypt, I hoped to understand the Arab perspective and compare it to my American perspective. Tamarod happened to be the perfect outlet to fulfill my quest. On June 30th, 33 million people came out in one of the largest revolutions in history, and proved to the world that through peaceful protests, they could achieve their goal. There will always be people who cause trouble no matter where you are, and violence did occur on that day. Although I condemn the violence, I also acknowledge that the number of violent cases reported compared to the number of people that came out to protest proved the demonstrations to be mostly peaceful. Very little violence occurred considering the number of people involved in the protest, but the media focused in on those stories, ignoring the larger picture and hindering any efforts of the Egyptians to better their reputation.

There will always be politics between countries, but a true testimony to peace is whether or not the people of different nations have the tolerance to still get along. This tolerance is for the most part, practiced in America. I saw evidence of this respectful ideology in Egypt as well, when they accepted my and my foreign friends’ presence in the protest, which in my eyes, was a large proof of civility.

I could go on and on talking about the reasons I learned of why Egyptians wanted to oust Morsi, but the general idea is that to local Egyptians, Morsi did not bring the democracy they had hoped to achieve after Mubarak’s overthrow. He failed the people and caused as much damage in one year as Mubarak did in 30 years. People around the world believed that Morsi’s overthrow resulted in a military coup. However, the night Morsi was ousted, General Sisi did not read out his own orders, rather, he read out the requests of tamarod that he was going to put in effect. The army just serves to provide safety now, and the interim acting President is Adly Mansour, the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court in Egypt.

After experiencing the revolution, where the Egyptian people treated me with the utmost respect, I had a new outlook. I saw their frustration and I was so moved to witness the will of almost half the country come alive right in front of my eyes. Entering into the heart of the conflict with an open mind was extremely valuable and taught me to accept that there is no single way to a democracy. This experience made me realize that many people, including myself, think we understand something fully just by reading about it in the news.

If I had not gotten a chance to talk to the locals of both the lower and upper class on my own, I would have held the opinion of many around the world, one that cannot fathom why people wanted the military to overthrow an elected President. Unless I had gone to Egypt, I would not have picked up on a lot of the bias in the media, which is the only source for the majority of people on the crisis in Egypt. Although many around the world are alarmed by what is going on right now, deeming the military takeover as a coup, I was given an insight to a different mentality, and that gave me a faith in the Egyptian people.

Anum Malik