Ahmed Salah - You Are Under Arrest for Masterminding the Egyptian Revolution: A Memoir

You are under arrest

for masterminding the Egyptian revolution

You Are Under Arrest

for Masterminding

the Egyptian Revolution

Ahmed Salah

with Alex Mayyasi

Spark Publications

Copyright 2016 Ahmed Salah and Alex Mayyasi

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without the written consent of the authors.

This book is one thread in a historical narrative. Please contact the authors at with comments or questions.

Cover design by Phil Balliet.

Editing assistance from Sandy Nader.

ISBN: 0692630767

ISBN-13: 978-0692630761

This book is dedicated to everyone around the world who has risked his or her life to achieve freedom

And to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice during the Egyptian Revolution, and our friends who have been injured, imprisoned, or tortured by the Egyptian state

You are the sparks that light our way

CONTENTS

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

JANUARY 25, 2011

The night of January 24, 2011, I could not sleep. I tossed and turned and worried about what would happen the next day in cities across Egypt. For thirty years, a dictator had ruled my country. Under President Hosni Mubarak, Egypts economy deteriorated, political prisoners languished in jail, and corrupt politicians rigged elections for the president and his allies. I had spent nearly a decade working with democracy activists to overthrow Mubarak through nonviolent protest, and I believed the success or failure of our ten-year struggle would be determined tomorrow, on January 25.

I belonged to a loosely unified opposition movement of activists, politicians, workers, and judges that wanted to overthrow Mubarak and bring democracy to Egypt. In 2006, we criticized the government in protests and press conferences in downtown Cairo so often that we referred to the area as liberated territory. In recent years, however, we struggled to challenge Mubaraks rule. Just months earlier, the presidents National Democratic Party swept parliamentary elections in one of the most corrupt elections in Egyptian history. Egyptians agreed that Mubarak was grooming his son Gamal to succeed him as president.

The rigged elections and prospect of hereditary rule insulted Egyptians dignity and focused peoples anger against the regime. On January 14, 2011, twenty-eight days of protest culminated in the downfall of Tunisias longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. This inspired Egyptian dissidents, who set the date of January 25 for similar protests in Egypt. It was an ironic choice. January 25 is a national holiday that celebrates Egypts once admired but increasingly despised police.

I doubted we would succeed as quickly as our Tunisian brothers and sisters, and I feared the protests would fail entirely. In mid January, I posed as a journalist and asked Egyptians in Cairo, where I lived, if they planned to protest on January 25. What protests? they answered. After attending hundreds of protests attended by only a few dozen people, I knew better than to expect an overwhelming response.

After that discouraging afternoon, I worked non-stop with other activists to spread the word, share the strategy I believed in, and train new protesters. We recruited Egyptians who had attended protests or signed political petitions. My fiance Mahitab, who excelled at recruiting people to our cause, set up dozens of meetings in Cairo and northern Egypt. I talked with volunteers until I spoke with the rote consistency of a tape recording.

I did not set an alarm for the morning of January 25. I was tired, and I worried that I would find my hopes dashed again the next day. Since I focused on training others, I had not planned to lead a rally. The role of an activist is not to lead the masses with a flag draped around his or her shoulders. Activists meet a few people at a time in a coffee shop to explain in hushed tones why they should believe when no one else does. An activists moment is not the moment of change; it is the period when change seems impossible. We did our best to strike a match. We could only pray that it would catch.

When I finally slept, the sun was up. A phone call from the Delta, the area north of Cairo where the Nile spills into the Mediterranean, woke me at eleven. Even though January 25 was a national holiday, and shops and offices were closed, I struggled to hear the caller. He told me that protesters had driven the police outside the city. Turnout is massive, he told me. It is like the city is on fire. I was stunned.

Over the next half hour, I dressed while answering phone calls from activists and protesters I had met over the past week. Each told the same story. One man relayed news of successful protests in Mahalla, an industrial city that Egyptian riot police had patrolled like an occupying force since it held massive anti-government protests in 2008.

I felt euphoric as I left my apartment to join the protests. I did not know exactly where I was going. Along with other activists, I advised people to assemble and rally in side streets, gaining numbers before moving to more central locations and eventually to Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. No one set exact times and gathering points, as that would allow the police to disperse protesters before we achieved safety in numbers.