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My name is Evelyn Ashamallah Eskandar
From Disuq, Kafr El-Sheik governate, Northern Delta
I will be 64 years old this coming August
Before the revolution, I had just retired.
Before that I was the director of the Museum Of Modern Egyptian Art.
I left it after I uncovered (the corruption of) the minister of culture, and all those in charge of museums.
I took part in the 1972 sit-in in the university in Alexandria,
A rebel, though I never joined any political party.
The parties thought I had joined them, because parties are very naive.
Back then, they thought they recruited you even if one was
very far from being recruited.
I heard via my sons, Basem and Salam, that there was a call on Facebook
saying there is a revolution on the 25th of January.
I laughed a lot, and said what a ridiculous thing.
Revolutions don´t have set dates. This is from the perspective
of old revolutionaries like myself.
The revolution is a popular uprising that comes from accumulated
anger and people don´t make appointments for it.
"We will take to the streets at five on so day to start a revolution"
I took part everyday, from the morning on.
Of course because I can´t sleep in the street, I´d stay there till 2 or 3 a.m.
then come back home.
I´d sleep for maybe 2 interrupted hours, and then I´d run back to the square.
It was like someone had found his life again after being dead.
As if one woke up from death.
Everyone is afraid of repression. Everyone.
And no body wants to get beaten.
But being in this collective breath, you take care of yourself by the multitude around you. You´re protected by the people.
I took part in the Choir Project, because I felt one had to play a part in this.
I wanted to take part, but I didn´t want to paint.
Maybe this individual role of painting wasn´t the right one for me at the time.
So, I wanted something out there in the public.
To sing with the people.
All those politicians and all those people, including myself
didn´t have any theory for the Egyptian reality, one specific to Egypt itself, to its people.
All was taken from the Marxist Leninist theory, or the Trotskyist,
or the Anarchist. All were ready-made theories.
Of course we saw that what was happening was great.
And that we shook the throne, and it did get shaken indeed.
But those kids, if they had listened to us, all of us would´ve been kicked in the face.
We would´ve collapsed totally.
Now people are resisting. But we wouldn´t have had any resistance.
The stubbornness of those kids taught us politics.
It taught me personally.
I no longer have any ready-made theories, though I never really believed in any of them.
I always felt the Egyptian reality needs its own sensation.
We lived the 18-19 January 1977, a very popular uprising.
It wasn´t like this one at all. The people were surprised by the increase in prices.
They came out in the millions, and were repressed in no time.
Neither the communist parties nor the Muslim Brotherhood did anything.
Now many, including Egyptian revolutionaries, say the Muslim Brotherhood are the great organized power.
They are not, not an organization nor any of this rubbish.
They´re just a group, enclosed in some set goals, and very stupid.
And they are killing themselves in the parliament.
The girls existed in the revolution against all odds.
They are there, whether you like it or not.
The concept of sex, the act of sex, is still based on violence,
from the man and on the woman.
The woman is crushed by society based on the *** crushing in the idea of sex.
This needs centuries to be fixed, it needs a really long time.
For sex to become something accepted, beautiful, and very normal.
Where people can express it simply and freely.
As long as it is suppressed the way it is in societies like ours,
and as long as people hide to have sex,
and consider it a sin, and a taboo.
The woman will remain subjugated by society because they believe she is sexually subjugated.
On the contrary I see there is a huge victory for women in the Egyptian revolution
An unusual victory, a predominant presence.
The Copts have a very special nature, from ages ago.
I believe the tale of the death of Christ on the cross, and the idea that Christians
have to pay for the death of this Christ,
makes them more submissive. This is my opinion.
It is in the heart of the religion.
And I think that the Orthodox Church in spesfic plays a strong role
in further crushing the people.
The religious authority is an authority, it is usually in harmony with
the political authority, even if it gets kicked in the face by it.
The military junta went to congratulate the (late) Pope and
there was a rumor that there wasn´t going to be any Christmas celebrations.
Because of the martyrs. I don´t know, more than 50 martyrs.
Apart from those thrown in the Nile.
25 or 23 were crushed by military vehicles and died.
One of them, is a very famous rebel, Mina Daniel, who was shot dead.
The man wore his festive outfit, with gold and diamonds
and the clothes he gets as gifts.
And with my due respect, stood up and prayed with the army in the church.
And he thanked them.
That night, the families of the martyrs went to commemorate them in the Doubara Church.
A cowardly and insulting stance that I absolutely disrespect.
When one person stood up in the upper balconies of the cathedral,
and chanted "down with military rule", he was surrounded
by the church security personnel. I don´t know what they did to him.
Beat him, take him out, or who knows what.
Silencing any voice against the military in the church that actually lost people,
Christian martyrs, instead of taking a stand.
This is the (late) Pope´s stance and I totally disrespect it.
The people went out in an astonishing way. Very strangely.
They were carrying very tall and very big crosses,
It is true they were coming out to the society from a dark tent.
I was totally against all these things, but poor ones hadn´t taken to the streets before.
Before, when something happened, they used to protest within the walls of the cathedrals.
This improved massively. Slowly we started seeing less crosses.
Small crosses or no crosses and people carrying Egyptian flags.
I´m from the people who believed the army is not a patriotic institution.
And that they´re not protecting the Egyptian people.
They protect the regime. Tantawi is surely the watchdog of Mubarak.
How could he be patriotic and worry for the people?
Patriotism is not being afraid for the land which gives you money.
Patriotism is worrying for the people. Egypt is its people.
When the people become the enemy, the person is no longer patriotic.
He is a traitor.
The spirit of the Egyptian people is what is going
to lead us to safety.
Not the intellectuals nor their closed circles.
The intellectuals are still learning politics, but they are still very loud.
A lot of taram tam tam, while things are not like that.