I witnessed the two most important events in my country during the past 3 years like foreigners: I watched it all on a stupid TV screen. When January 25 protests started in 2011, I was in Denmark on an exchange program for two months. After the fall of the Mubarak regime, I was skeptical, but I was so excited to see people's faces and listen to random citizens on the street reflecting on the whole thing. The sight of Egyptian flags, which wasn't normal before the revolution, was so heart-warming. People felt national pride. It's an incomparable sense of achievement.
Again, on June 30, 2013, while almost all of my friends, relatives, and childhood companions took to the street against Morsi, I was in Spain doing my master's and watching CNN and Spanish television calling it a "coup"!
When my foreign friends think about instability in my country, when I talk to them, enthusiastically, about recent events back home, the first thing that comes to their minds is: I don't want to go back! I sympathize with them. They, too, are victims of unjust politicians. The difference between my country and theirs, in many cases, is that the political system in their country/ies (with all its deficits) is very well-established and deep-rooted. Talking about "toppling" a regime in their context is a little too dreamy (but again, who would've thought that anything near the Arab Spring would ever take place?!)...
What my dear friends haven't experienced in their lives is that when the pressure is higher, our natural reaction is a desire to get closer to the center of trouble, to carry the load with brothers and sisters we don't know, to face a security vehicle hand-in-hand with strangers, to stand near Mohamed Mahmoud Street with a scarf on your nose and mouth and let the tear gas of the fights deep into the street affect you. You're protesting an unfair Constitutional Decree while your fellow freedom-fighters are losing their eyes, their arms, their legs, or even their lives on a battleground located downtown Cairo.
In these moments, the worst thing a loved one can do to you is beg you to stay at home and watch it all through the stupid box called television! How can I just watch life go by? I can't lay on the couch watching history being made. I am history! It's my future on stake! I either be part of it, or die trying! It's that simple.
As idealistic as this might sound, I want to be there at the time of change. I want to be part of the change. I was born an Egyptian, I can never change that. I'm a Middle Eastern, Arab girl, and I love being who I am. I realize our societies have a lot of social syndromes, but the potential that lies behind, is overwhelming. I will never be you, and you will never be me. However, what we can do is what we do everyday: we be humans. We don't judge each others neither by our appearances nor by our mistakes. Our mutual compassion is genuine and we find infinite happiness in each others' company.
One more traveling experience, this time is also a study experience, and it's hitting me in the face: I come from a different world. It's almost a whole new planet. But at the same time, we're more similar than I thought! We're both too excited at small things and we get angry if our friends hang out and don't tell us. All boys check out girls and all girls check out boys! We all worry about what to wear if that special someone will be at the party. We appreciate good food and flatter the cook infinitely. We love the sun, the beach, and the trees. If we can, we'd bring the world to our friends and family just to make them feel comfortable when they visit us.
Again, on June 30, 2013, while almost all of my friends, relatives, and childhood companions took to the street against Morsi, I was in Spain doing my master's and watching CNN and Spanish television calling it a "coup"!
Photo credit: Abanoub Emad
When my foreign friends think about instability in my country, when I talk to them, enthusiastically, about recent events back home, the first thing that comes to their minds is: I don't want to go back! I sympathize with them. They, too, are victims of unjust politicians. The difference between my country and theirs, in many cases, is that the political system in their country/ies (with all its deficits) is very well-established and deep-rooted. Talking about "toppling" a regime in their context is a little too dreamy (but again, who would've thought that anything near the Arab Spring would ever take place?!)...
What my dear friends haven't experienced in their lives is that when the pressure is higher, our natural reaction is a desire to get closer to the center of trouble, to carry the load with brothers and sisters we don't know, to face a security vehicle hand-in-hand with strangers, to stand near Mohamed Mahmoud Street with a scarf on your nose and mouth and let the tear gas of the fights deep into the street affect you. You're protesting an unfair Constitutional Decree while your fellow freedom-fighters are losing their eyes, their arms, their legs, or even their lives on a battleground located downtown Cairo.
In these moments, the worst thing a loved one can do to you is beg you to stay at home and watch it all through the stupid box called television! How can I just watch life go by? I can't lay on the couch watching history being made. I am history! It's my future on stake! I either be part of it, or die trying! It's that simple.
As idealistic as this might sound, I want to be there at the time of change. I want to be part of the change. I was born an Egyptian, I can never change that. I'm a Middle Eastern, Arab girl, and I love being who I am. I realize our societies have a lot of social syndromes, but the potential that lies behind, is overwhelming. I will never be you, and you will never be me. However, what we can do is what we do everyday: we be humans. We don't judge each others neither by our appearances nor by our mistakes. Our mutual compassion is genuine and we find infinite happiness in each others' company.
One more traveling experience, this time is also a study experience, and it's hitting me in the face: I come from a different world. It's almost a whole new planet. But at the same time, we're more similar than I thought! We're both too excited at small things and we get angry if our friends hang out and don't tell us. All boys check out girls and all girls check out boys! We all worry about what to wear if that special someone will be at the party. We appreciate good food and flatter the cook infinitely. We love the sun, the beach, and the trees. If we can, we'd bring the world to our friends and family just to make them feel comfortable when they visit us.
