" Revolution is no fun" I screamed out in frustration.
My mother looked at me quizzically, I elaborated " I thought after Tahrir it will be gone, it will be one glorious continuous burst of colors, but they couldn't, the army just couldn't let us enjoy our victory"
She hugged me smiling as she said " When your working on human rights violations it can never be over"
When Mobarak left.
No, Let me rephrase that: When we forced Mubarak to step down.
On that beautiful day I found myself crying among thousands of strangers, Zagharit filling the air, shaking hands and taking photographs with crazy smiling screaming strangers, I thought there will be no more heart ache, there will only be time for us to get over the ordeals of the past.
Then came the day I got a reality slap: Februery 26th
It was awful. It was awful because we weren't prepared and they cheated us. It was awful because minutes before the army beat the crap out of us, there was a young man spreading a blanket to sleep on and his friend asked him if he isn't worried atall and his answer was " The army is here, Nothing could worry me"
Minutes later the army was dispersing the crowd with electric probes, running after them , dragging them while kicking and cursing.
I can still remember the scary sound of electric shocks. I can still remember Amr El Beheiry's helpess look as he was dragged behind the army line, to be handed back to us minutes later all bruised and with a bleeding nose.
Minutes later Amr got arrested again, tortured,and beaten up.
Over the following 3 days he would face military trial over forged charges, in absence of his family and lawyer as they were misinformed of the date of his trial, and in minutes he'd get sentenced 5 years.
Amr was arrested on Saturday the 26th of February, He was sentenced Monday the 28th.
But Amr was just the begining.
Amr was our peek into the backstage of the revolution: While thousands of Egyptians were celebrating our patriotic army, chanting " The army and the people are one hand", thousands others were getting silently crushed by the army.
Families were losing their kids for years of imprisonment over made up accusations, wives were losing their husbands just because they happened to be on the street at a time when the army were totally clueless as to how to deal with this alien situation so they thought " Lock them up, we'll sort it out later"
To some families this is their only share of the revolution: Endless trips to distant prisons where their men were sent off, tens of letters pleading to the mercy of Chief Tantawi to review their sons' cases, numerous trips from one prison to the other trying to findout the whereabouts of their husbands, sneaky phonecalls from their sons in prison assuring them they are fine.
But in all of these bleak moments you would see the real revolution that is taking place, you would see it in:
*Om Sameer, bravely defying an army officer telling him " You told us our sons were heroes, you pretended to support them in their revolution but now you imprison & torture them, if you had told us from the begining they were criminals, we would have locked them up at home & forbid them to go to Tahrir"
Om Ahmed , taking a weekly trip El Wadi El Gedid prison, a trip that takes 2 days, and collecting all info of prisoners inside & their stories and bringing it to us so we can work on their cases.
Om Hassan bravely telling Chief Tantawi " Even if he did something wrong, he should be tried in a civil court"
Dina , deciding to get married to her fiancee the moment she knew his 5 year imprisonment sentence got ratified.
As international media obsesses about " twitter revolution", "role of social media", " Role of women" & " Fear of MB"
As our media obsesses about " Lack of security", " The Israeli Spy" & " lack of stability"
As we obsess about " Consitution 1st", " elections 1st", " National coalition" & "National dialogue"
Away from all this media frenzy, a battle is taking place and it is lead by the true revolutionaries.
* "Om" means "mother of"
 |
| Photo by Neil Pollick |
" Revolution is no fun" I screamed out in frustration.
My mother looked at me quizzically, I elaborated " I thought after Tahrir it will be gone, it will be one glorious continuous burst of colors, but they couldn't, the army just couldn't let us enjoy our victory"
She hugged me smiling as she said " When your working on human rights violations it can never be over"
When Mobarak left.
No, Let me rephrase that: When we forced Mubarak to step down.
On that beautiful day I found myself crying among thousands of strangers, Zagharit filling the air, shaking hands and taking photographs with crazy smiling screaming strangers, I thought there will be no more heart ache, there will only be time for us to get over the ordeals of the past.
Then came the day I got a reality slap: Februery 26th
It was awful. It was awful because we weren't prepared and they cheated us. It was awful because minutes before the army beat the crap out of us, there was a young man spreading a blanket to sleep on and his friend asked him if he isn't worried atall and his answer was " The army is here, Nothing could worry me"
Minutes later the army was dispersing the crowd with electric probes, running after them , dragging them while kicking and cursing.
I can still remember the scary sound of electric shocks. I can still remember Amr El Beheiry's helpess look as he was dragged behind the army line, to be handed back to us minutes later all bruised and with a bleeding nose.
Minutes later Amr got arrested again, tortured,and beaten up.
Over the following 3 days he would face military trial over forged charges, in absence of his family and lawyer as they were misinformed of the date of his trial, and in minutes he'd get sentenced 5 years.
Amr was arrested on Saturday the 26th of February, He was sentenced Monday the 28th.
But Amr was just the begining.
Amr was our peek into the backstage of the revolution: While thousands of Egyptians were celebrating our patriotic army, chanting " The army and the people are one hand", thousands others were getting silently crushed by the army.
Families were losing their kids for years of imprisonment over made up accusations, wives were losing their husbands just because they happened to be on the street at a time when the army were totally clueless as to how to deal with this alien situation so they thought " Lock them up, we'll sort it out later"
To some families this is their only share of the revolution: Endless trips to distant prisons where their men were sent off, tens of letters pleading to the mercy of Chief Tantawi to review their sons' cases, numerous trips from one prison to the other trying to findout the whereabouts of their husbands, sneaky phonecalls from their sons in prison assuring them they are fine.
But in all of these bleak moments you would see the real revolution that is taking place, you would see it in:
*Om Sameer, bravely defying an army officer telling him " You told us our sons were heroes, you pretended to support them in their revolution but now you imprison & torture them, if you had told us from the begining they were criminals, we would have locked them up at home & forbid them to go to Tahrir"
Om Ahmed , taking a weekly trip El Wadi El Gedid prison, a trip that takes 2 days, and collecting all info of prisoners inside & their stories and bringing it to us so we can work on their cases.
Dina , deciding to get married to her fiancee the moment she knew his 5 year imprisonment sentence got ratified.
As international media obsesses about " twitter revolution", "role of social media", " Role of women" & " Fear of MB"
As our media obsesses about " Lack of security", " The Israeli Spy" & " lack of stability"
As we obsess about " Consitution 1st", " elections 1st", " National coalition" & "National dialogue"
Away from all this media frenzy, a battle is taking place and it is lead by the true revolutionaries.
* "Om" means "mother of"
