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My name is Mahienour El-Massry, I´m 26 years old.
A lousy lawyer, don´t know how to work as a lawyer!
I work in the boring legal translation.
Before Jan25 I was part of the Revolutionary Socialists,
before that I was part of Youth for Change in Kefaya (movement).
The first thing I took part in was the Anti-Globalization Egyptian Group.
The Khaled Said case was a major shift in our focus on police & torture.
And systematic *** by the Ministry of Interior.
I was first arrested on the 23rd of July, 2008. Here in Alexandria.
It was the beginning of the April 6 group.
They had come as part of a tour to present their ideas and vision.
Suddenly some people in plain clothes attacked us,
they didn´t chase us, they were waiting for us.
Those who managed to run did so; and those who couldn´t were arrested.
Once I reached the police station, it all turned comic.
I started laughing hysterically, we had been beaten.
The usual "welcome" of continuous beating.
Then we felt we were not worried.
My friend and I were singing "Baby, come see what happened to me" as they were beating us.
This provoked them, that we are not worried.
Around nine hours later, they let me go. The boys were sent to the Public Attorney´s.
This was the beginning of a big youth movement.
I thank State Security, they brought April 6 very much into the public attention.
I wasn´t part of April 6, but they got quite a lot of attention in this case.
It made a lot of people sympathize with a youth group who were flying kites.
I was released at dawn, & hadn´t planned to tell my family.
My mother was a big supporter of mine, she was told I was arrested.
She was always hiding what I do from my father.
I was always doing things, like travel, or sleep out, and he´d think I´m in my room.
In Alexandria we had the Coordination Committee for the National Youth Groups,
it had 9 political movements from the far left to the far right. But only youth.
We decided to divide ourselves on Jan25 into three groups covering Alexandria.
One would start at Miami close to the Saints Church, another at the Bakkous Market,
and one from Manshiya.
If the governates hadn´t took part, the revolution wouldn´t have succeeded or been a revolution.
It would´ve been a big sit-in demanding something.
It broke this (centrality)
There was an advantage in Alexandria of not having a central place for gathering.
During the 18-days, the main objective was to make people feel they are part of the revolution.
A lot of demonstrations with 1000s in them passed in front of every house, in the neighborhoods...
people felt they were part of the revolution.
They didn´t need to turn on the TV to listen to analysis.
If they didn´t like what they saw, they´d insult us, and if they did they´d join.
On the 28th of Jan, I started at a dead point, not many people were there. We didn´t believe it would get bigger.
We didn´t believe it would get bigger till we met with the other demonstrations.
In Alexandria the streets cross somehow perpendicularly. It looks a bit cinematic when there is a big demo & people pour from the side streets
We were coming from the Cornish side, we arrived at the Iqbal street, close to my house.
It is where the villa of the head of security is.
Suddenly I saw a young man who fits the official profile of what they call a thug.
He was wearing a tank top in the cold, though that day none of us was feeling cold.
He had his shirt tied around his waste, and had a big tattoo on his arm.
He didn´t look "nice".
I suddenly saw him get into the villa and it was the first time I hear the chant "Pacifist"
People started chanting "pacifist" and insulting him, trying to get him out.
This guy came out with a huge TV, and looked at us.
People started saying "we are not thieves"
He said "I´m not a thief, this is our money" and he smashed the TV on the ground; & continued the demo with us.
I´m supposed to die smiling, to be oppressed while I smile and chant "pacifist".
I´m supposed to be repressed and be happy about it. This is what the term "pacifist" try to convince people with.
Simply, the revolution continues, the people see the best choice they have and do it.
In the end people want to change a regime. A regime that uses very brutal means and kills people.
I think it is the same as labeling the Palestinian resistance as terrorism.
It is the same. A regime that is occupying you and killing you, and you should smile and say good morning.
They´d shoot you and you´d say thank you.
People were violent with the individuals, or the buildings, or the institutions,
that they saw responsible for the corruption.
People weren´t walking around slaughtering each other in the street.
But they were violently breaking into police stations where they were tortured.
They´d let the soldiers go, but they´d treat the officers violently.
People were that aware.
As activists we made a mistake when we started acting as politicians and not as revolutionaries.
We dealt with the revolution as gains and losses in a political sense and not towards changing a society to the better.
We said we want to bring down the regime, and now once again we are working to beautify it.
For example, now we have the presidency battle and we think we´ll get a savor.
Whoever this savor is going to be, we forgot that our problem was in the regime of one person.
People talk about x, y or z, is better for the revolution.
No one is better for the revolution more than the people.
Nothing is better for the revolution than the people who believe in it.
No matter who is going to come, even if it was an angel or a prophet, he will become a dictator.
He will be an agent for the military.
Even if he is good, it is not in his hands.
We aren´t working towards changing the regime, we are still in the regime.
Still in the same old way believing that one person is the solution.
Still believing a party will carry the answer.
This is not true. Not true at all.
We didn´t give the people tools to self-organize their lives.
Political tools like unions, coalitions, or committees and we started dividing ourselves in parties.
What is an Islamist rule? What I personally care about
are the economical and social forms, and the liberties.
I hold regimes accountable on this basis and not on what they call themselves.
In the end, the people chose the Muslim Brotherhood, or the Nour Party, not only for religious reasons.
I think the religious claim is not true.
They chose them for purely economical reasons. They were helping a lot in that.
They had the biggest presence in the street which is something we don´t do much.
If we end up under an Islamist rule by force, you are a human and you can resist.
No one will force me to do something I don´t want to do.
No one in the past repressive regime managed to make me part of the corruption.
I can also refuse any impositions against my personal freedoms.
Death which is the thing that people fear the most, is the most logical thing in this life.
The thing that is certainly going to happen.
I can succeed or not, find a job or not, but I´m definitely going to die.
When, where and how doesn´t matter. I will surely die.
When I get this idea, I feel that at least I´d die defending something I believe in
is better than dying on my bed, or die out of grief over people who died fighting for something we believed in.
My aunt is the one that had the most impact on me.
She was a political activist to the contrary of the family.
Coming from a very conservative middle class.
She is from the 70s generation and the first to try to step out of this structure.
Yes, we´ve met, we used to meet. Unfortunately she died in 2000.
She lived in Cairo not here, and the family always tried to restrict our relation with her.
All the people I wished to tell them the revolution has started, died before it.
My aunt and my father.
I remember after the 18 Days I went to visit them in the graveyard.
And I told dad "I wish you were here, you didn´t like what I used to do.
You were always saying that the world will never change
You used to say that there is no hope, and that suffering is part of the human life
I´m sorry (dad), I wish you were here to see that those you called slaves are not slaves.
Their lives will be better and they believed in a dream and they will continue it."
Next to him is my aunt´s grave, I told her
"I wish you were here, and I thank you,
I know you are happy now, tell them you were right.
Tell them other people will continue."
This is what happened after the revolution started.
The most important two people I wanted to have here, were gone unfortunately.
The one who was with the idea of a revolution and the one who was against it.
If they can hear us, I´d like to thank both of them.
The one who feared I get influenced by these ideas, has actually pushed me towards them.
And the one who never tried to convince me of these ideas,
but practiced them in a very humane way, made me feel they are the solution.