REVOLUTION IS MY NAME
REVOLUTION IS MY NAME
An Egyptian Womans Diary from Eighteen Days in Tahrir
Mona Prince
Translated by
Samia Mehrez
The American University in Cairo Press
Cairo New York
This electronic edition published in 2014 by
The American University in Cairo Press
113 Sharia Kasr el Aini, Cairo, Egypt
420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
www.aucpress.com
Copyright 2012 by Mona Prince
First published in Arabic in 2012 as Ismi Thawra
Protected under the Berne Convention
English translation copyright 2014 by Samia Mehrez
First published in paperback in 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN 978 977 416 669 3
eISBN 978 161 797 617 9
Version 1
To All Egyptians
Central Cairo
A Necessary Introduction
They did it! The Tunisians did it! Bravo! A great lesson for people who want to live and who truly love lifenot those obsessed with the Day of Judgment, Hell, and the torture of the grave. Greetings and respect to the people of Tunisia. (Facebook, January 14, 2011)
This was the comment I posted after the Tunisians succeeded in toppling their president.
I called up my friends and relatives, and we congratulated each other as if the Tunisian Revolution was our own. We were sincerely happy for them. I was in my home in Tunis, a small village in the Oasis of Fayoum, following live, and for the first time in my life, a revolution that deposed an Arab dictator. I met up with some of my friends in the village and we celebrated Tunisias revolution together. And, of course, we wondered whether the Egyptian people would ever rebel. Not in our lifetime.
Next mornings headline in al-Akhbar :
Zein al-Abedin Leaves Tunisia to an Unknown Destination after Increasing Unrest.
There was another headline about Egypt at the top of the page:
International Organizations: Mubarak has Secured the Highest Levels of Economic Stability for His Country.
I had no comment.
Some Egyptians started to set themselves on fire imitating the young Tunisian Mohammed Bou Azizi whose self-immolation sparked the Tunisian Revolution. A handful died of third-degree burns and the others were rescued. As always in Egypt, we were flooded with jokes:
Every citizen will be given coupons for one liter of gasoline and matchboxes with his ration card or national ID... gasoline is too expensive; make it kerosene instead, because its cheaper.
Stop setting yourselves on fire, guys; there will be no one left when the revolution begins.
Again as expected, all those who attempted to set themselves on fire were deemed either crazy or in search of fame. Needless to say, they were considered sinners and would end up in Hell.
I want to quote some of the sarcastic posts about self-immolation that circulated on the Internet:
Words of Wisdom, as anchor Hamdi Qandil would say.
Member of Parliament Ahmed Ezz: The solution to the phenomenon of self-immolation is to increase the price of gasoline.
Minister of Finance Boutros Ghali: New taxes to be imposed on the families of those who attempt to set themselves on fire using gasoline.
Minister of the Environment: Self-immolation is the cause of the black cloud that lingers over Cairo.
Minister of Labor: Self-immolation will open up new jobs for the youth to work as firemen.
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif: The people dont know what is in their best interest; the proof is their abuse of petro-products.
Minister of Commerce Rashid Mohamed Rashid: There has been a significant increase in petroleum imports after the rise of self-immolation cases.
Head of the Shura Council Safwat al-Sherif: Egypt stands above any kind of political blackmail; self-immolators are irresponsible.
TV anchor Tamer Amin: Self-immolation in Egypt is blind imitation.
The Sheikh of al-Azhar: Self-immolators are sinners and, as a punishment, should not be rescued.
Minister of Interior Habib al-Adli: No more than three citizens at a time will be allowed to set themselves on fire in public spaces.
Speaker of Parliament Fathi Surour: Those in favor of legislation to criminalize self-immolation raise your hand. Motion carried.
al-Ahram newspaper: Firemen strike and demand a raise after complaints over the increasing number of fires they have to fight.
Political commentator Abdallah Kamal: Those who set themselves on fire are not Egyptians. They are infiltrators from Hezbollah and they are funded by Iran.
al-Akhbar newspaper: Egypt imports huge quantities of fire extinguishers.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: The United States demands that citizens be protected against self-immolation and calls upon the Egyptian regime to implement measures that would alleviate popular anger.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Aboul Gheit: Self-immolation in Egypt is an internal affair. All citizens are free to choose to set themselves on fire.
Barack Obama: The United States will station its forces in Egypt to protect foreigners and minorities from the smoke caused by fires due to selfimmolation.
Hamas: The phenomenon of self-immolation in Egypt is due to a sense of guilt on the part of Egyptians because of their continuing siege of Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: We will not return to the negotiating table before Egyptians stop setting themselves on fire.
Ehud Barak: Self-immolation in Egypt threatens peace and stability in the Middle East.
al-Shorouk newspaper (Algeria): The Greens are still the best. Algeria beats Egypt in self-immolation cases.
(Facebook, January 20, 2012)
Calls for an Egyptian day of rage began to circulate on Facebook. January 25 was chosen because it was a national holiday in celebration of Police Day. I found out about the event on the We Are All Khaled Said Facebook page that I had joined. I had also joined one of their silent flash protests in front of the TV Building on the Nile Corniche during June 2010. I really liked their call for a silent protest where everyone would be dressed in black. I also liked the instructions they had posted on the page to avoid confrontations with the riot police. But the protest in Cairo was not as big as the one in Alexandria and I did not see the crowds of people that had said they would attend the event. Facebook is a virtual space that does not necessarily represent reality, and many people post that they will attend local events when they actually live abroad. I posted that I would participate in the Day of Rage and I shared my status. I liked the idea, but did not believe it would actually materialize: A Day of Rage in all of Egypts public squares against injustice, against unemployment, and against povertydemonstrations that would call for freedom, social justice, and equality.
Here is the status I posted on my Facebook page:
Will we rebel on January 25?
I dont know if we will, but maybe! Over the years, many people have set themselves and their families on fire because of fear, oppression, and hunger, but we have yet to do something about it. Were just good at protesting in the thousands against Denmark because of a silly caricature or because a Christian woman has been abducted.... Maybe our euphoria over Tunisia will move us to act. Maybe we wont remain so thick-skinned. Have corruption, bribery, opportunism, passivity, and sexual harassment all become the basic pillars of religion? I dont know. (January 16, 2011)
