I saw it in Tunisia first. I was monitoring what´s going on in Tunisia very carefully. As any Tunisian do. I was focus and I been reading about what´s going on even I don´t read French. I´ve been using Google translator sometimes to– I wanted to understand what´s going on exactly in Tunisia. And when I saw Ben Ali second TV speech and when I saw his body language, I told one of the people who sit down next to me, I told him, “This guy are going to leave.”
This guy is the first Arab dictator who will be thrown out. And when I have been monitoring, focus on what´s going on exactly in Tunisia, my back mind was focus about how can we copy this in Egypt? And my whole hope that if this is happens in Tunisia, if the Tunisian made it, the Egyptian would made it like this (SNAP). And I think that because of– there is a lot of similarity between the Tunisian and the Egyptians. The both nation feel self dignity. And they put this as a high thing for [themselves].
And the Tunisian did it. They brought down their own dictators. They brought down Ben Ali. And I was ready with my friends of doing what we used to call it– the emergency plan. Which is we´ve been expecting almost everything the regime will do. There is a groups of people, my friends, we trust each other. Ahmed Maher, Samir Abdel Fattah and others who have been promoting over the internet to tell the people that we have to have revolution on 25th of January.
And I´ve been doing this. I been making my team– we have– I run an small internet radio. I been telling my team that they have to be ready, very ready, for 25th of January. Because we´ll have a lot of things to cover. I been talking to all the youth– through Facebook, through Twitter– to tell them how we can– going on. Even– Egyptian who study abroad, we been– we– we had a lot of– of communication. Because we wanted somebody to translate into English what´s going on. And keep Tweeting about it.
We had this [Twitter] hashtag– Jan. 25th. And hashtag, of course, Egypt. And we been under this hashtag, we´ve been keep saying what´s going on. And the Tunisian friends over the internet– I had Tunisian friends who participate in the revolution. And this Tunisian friends have been very active to support our revolution via internet and Facebook. They told us a lot of small, small techniques very useful during demonstrations. And this strikes, which is how to fight the tear gas. I never knew before that when you use some kind of soda to clean up your face with it. This is very effective against tear gas. I didn´t know that. The Tunisian came with the concept of blacking– spraying the police cars front glass. So they cannot see anymore.
Ahmed has extensive experience as an organizer and trainer in international programs for human rights education. He has served as a media adviser and director of media observation in a national campaign for monitoring elections in Egypt sponsored by USAID. He has also been a trainer for projects sponsored by the Norwegian Human Rights Fund, such as Supporting NGOs and Right to Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion and Combating Propaganda for War. He is the founder of various organizations: Liberal Youth Seminar sponsored by New Civic Forum, Knowledge Club, and Free Youth Association sponsored by Al JEEL Center for Youth and Social Studies. Currently, Ahmed is the Director of the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies and the director of EGYPT 1st online internet radio.
With a history dating back to the 10th millennium B.C., Egypt has long played a central role in the Middle East. Egypt is the largest Arab nation and has an influential voice in Arabic and Middle Eastern culture. Egypt has a diverse economy, but has struggled to create sustained economic growth and opportunities for its population of 84 million people.
The country has little experience with representative democracy. From 1956 to 1970, President Gamal Abdel Nasser ruled Egypt with a strong hand, nationalizing the Suez Canal and taking the country into conflict with the new state of Israel. Upon his death, Anwar al-Sadat became president. Together with other Arab nations, Sadat launched the October War against Israel in 1973. In 1979, Sadat signed a groundbreaking peace treaty with Israel.
From Sadat’s assassination in 1981 until the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Egypt was governed by President Hosni Mubarak. For all of Mubarak’s time in office, and for much of the time since his resignation, Egypt has been under “Emergency Law,” which allows the government to suspend constitutional rights, including limiting political activity and restricting free speech. Emergency Law also allows the government to use summary arrests against political opponents.
For four successive terms, Mubarak was reelected in referenda without an opponent. In 2005, under domestic and international pressure, Mubarak proposed a constitutional amendment to allow Egypt’s first multicandidate presidential elections. Because the amendment would have imposed severe restrictions on the eligibility of opposition candidates, opposition groups boycotted the vote. Mubarak claimed to have won the September 2005 presidential election with an official 88 percent of the vote, amid widespread allegations of fraud and vote rigging. The main opposition leader, Ayman Nour, was subsequently prosecuted by the government for forging signatures on petitions and was sentenced to five years in prison, provoking protests from the United States and other democratic countries.
Following the example of the Tunisian Revolution, large protests swept Egypt in early 2011. The military, led by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), withdrew its support of Mubarak. On February 11, 2011, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had resigned. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi then assumed power in Egypt. SCAF dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution.
In November 2011, Egypt held parliamentary elections that were reportedly fair and democratic. In June 2012, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi was elected President, in part because liberal and secular forces failed to coalesce around a single candidate. Morsi’s popularity declined as he declared his orders immune from challenge, removed judicial review processes, and was accused of taking steps towards the implementation of Islamist policies. Conflict arose between those supporting Islamist policies and those seeking a more liberal and secular government. Protests occurred throughout his presidency until Morsi was ousted by the military in July 2013. Muslim Brotherhood leaders were arrested and their camps and offices raided. Until new elections are held, a SCAF-installed provisional government led by acting President Adly Mansour is in control.
In its most recent report, the independent watchdog group Freedom House classifies Egypt as “partly free.” On its scale where 1 is the most free and 7is the least free, Egypt earned scores of 5 in both the civil liberties and political rights categories.
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