The Tahrir Spirit --- Khallas? Part 2

A long school year in Cairo

It's almost the end of the school year in Egypt. Exam preparaions are normally the dominant subject this time of year but the chatter is different among the students here in Cairo. Nowadays when students talk about ‘results’ they often mean those of the presidnetial elections.

For the students of the Jesuites School in Cairo this has been a very eventful school year. I was invited to spend a day with a group of secondary students and discuss how they feel about the current political situation and who they hoped would rule their country.

The Jesuites is one of the oldest and most prestigious schools on Cairo. It also has a mix of Muslim and Christian students.

It is a boys’ school , situated in the neighbourhood of Faggala, about two minutes away from Abbasiya where the latest clashes between protesters, armed individuals and military forces have left at least eleven dead and hundreds wounded.

 The Jesuites boys

All classroom pictures courtesy of Jesuites Cairo students

It's also five minutes away from Tahrir square the epicentre of the Egyptian revolution and the many sit-ins and demonstrations that followed after.

“We could just look out of the window and see it all happen.Marches , demonstartions everything. ” Fawzi Al Asmar, one of the lead teachers told me. “It’s all right at our doorstep.”

A lot has changed since January 25^th 2011 for these students.Politics is no longer a boring subject their parents talk about. It has touched them closer than they’d ever thought possible.

The Jesuites Cairo students I was speaking to have a lost a friend last February. Karim Khouzam was one the 70 people killed when violence broke in Portsaid after a game between the popular Al Ahly club and the city’s home team of Al Masry which many blamed the securty forces for.

This gas mask from days of protesting in Tahrir
hangs in students' classroom

Karim Khouzam was a student at Jesuites Cairo .
He died in the Portsaid  Stadium violence. 

“Before February, I felt that the protests, the violence ... all of this was happening to someone else. But when Karim died , I thought, this is my friend this could happen to me” Raymond Bolous, one of the students, told me.

The next day the studnets did not go to classes and left school early to attend the funeral. After that they went on marched to Tahrir Square denouncing the violence and the army’s rule of Egypt.

"A fresh face"

Most of these young teenagers are not old enough to vote but they have very strong opinions about the thirteen presidential candidates.

“I don’t feel that any of them are competent enough to be president. They are either Islamists or Folool (Arabic word for remnants of the old regime)” Ali Shihata told me.

“We need someone who represents the revolution – someone young. A fresh face” Mustafa Sadek another student said.

Of all the eight students that I met Mustafa Sadek was the most involved in politics. He’s part of a new student movement that he and his friends from other schools organised mainly to spread political awareness among school students aroumd Egypt.

An ambitious project, but chose to start with his friends.

“Now we talk politics during our lunch breaks and after school we go on protests and join marches” Mustafa told me.

“Mustafa had encouraged us all to get into politics” Rami ,class mate of Mustafa’s said.

“It’s not just in school”Mustafa added. “We try as much as we can to talk to the general public get their opinion about what’s happening in the country.”

“For example, when I’m in a taxi with a friend we start up a conversation deliberatley so the driver can near us and get invloved.

“You find out really interesting things. For instance now most taxi drivers I talk to are fed up with the Muslim Brotherhood and tell me they regert voting for them in the parliamentary elections” Mustafa said.

Note your average classroom: Students have filled the walls with revolutionary posters and Tahrir  memorabilia

Ahmed Harara (on the left) has become an iconic figure for protesters. He lost both his eyes on two different clashes in
Tahrir Square: the 28th of January and the 19th of November..Both in the same year. 

The growing anger with the current political situation is palpable everywhere I go. At best it’s expressed in heated discussion between political rivals. At worst it’s deadly violence.

But many people see these students as a sign of hope and say that as long as they are engaged in what’s happening in the country there's still a chance for real change.

At the end of the school day the students take me for a walk around their school.

They are so obviously proud of it and its heritage.They take me to their classroom. At first glance it looks like any other classroom but a second look at the walls and it feels like a piece of Tahrir square!

Revolutionary posters against military and Islamic rule, A strip of an article with the title R.I.P Karim, a gas mask hanging from one of the boards and pieces of a guitar which broke in one of the protest. 

I asked them if their teachers object to these heavily politicized posters. 

"Not at all!" Mustafa told me. "They love it. They encourage us and I feel they respect us more . Our French teachers are really interested in it all!" He continued. 

 I asked them once more about the elections. What if someone that they really did not want took office... what can they do about it?

Ali smiled and said. “That’s easy. Tahrir Square is five minutes away remember!”

NOTE: 

Since I met the students of Jesuites, protesters did indeed take to Tahrir square after the announcement of that the presidential run-offs will be between Mubarak's last Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq and the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi.

Mr. Shafiq's campaign headquarters was set ablaze last night. t's not know n who exactly is behind the attack but it seems to be in an angry response to him making it to run-offs.

The numbers in Tahrir Square are still no parallel to the thousands that showed up throughout the last fifteen months  but there's enough anger and confusion in Egypt to promise more protest and possibly more violence. 

The Tahrir Spirit --- Khallas! -- Part 1

With the run-offs set to be between Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq and the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi, is there anything left of the Tahrir Square spirit?

As much as I love visiting Egypt as often as I possibly can, (and I do miss Cairo in particular more than I care to admit) my heart would grow heavy at the end of every visit.


Every time I go back and catch up with  friends and all the people I met in Tahrir square back in July I'm convinced the Tahrir days are gone.

Nothing like Jan25

Graffiti by Omar Fathy. Drawn on AUC wall on Mohamed Mahmoud street. Downtown, Cairo. Photo by Jonathan Rashad

Back in July, or Tahrir 2, as it was called , the revolutionary zeal was still some-what intact. The victory over Hosni Mubarak's thirty year rule was still fresh in people's memory.

Fresh too was their discontent with how the army was running the country and the human rights violations that bagan to surface.

If the first half of 2011 was defined by 'Yasqot Yasqot Husni Mubarak' (Down, Down with Mubarak) the second half of the year was defined by 'Yasqot Yasqot Hokm EL Askar' (Down, Down with Military Rule).

'This is nothing like January!' I remember one protester telling me .. 'Back then the spirit was different.. We felt like one person , we all wanted one thing for 'him' to go'

'Now as you can see , they are all arguing and fighting.'

Same Tahrir - Different voices

Tahrir Square July 29th 2012 (Also known as Salafi Friday)

The arguing varied from those saying the army should go back to the barracks and hand power to a civilian presidential council to others asking for better pay and working conditions.

Strikes were the flavour of the month (well the three or four months )

The following became obvious as the Arab Spring went from a hot summer into a chilled winter:

1- Despite being in the same place, those who went to Tahrir square for the second time spoke in many different scattered voices and demanded different things. Different enough to confuse everyone and diffuse energy. The chants may have been in unison-- The demands were not.

2-The revolutionary voices which defined Tahrir Square in January were drowned out by the political noise of new parties still finding their feet and established ones looking for deals to make and niches to carve in this new and very illusive political scene-- Specifically the Muslim Brotherhood who were quick to form a political pary - The Freedom and Justice.

3-The ruling Supreme Council of The Armed Forces - SCAF- had no idea how to politically handle the country and were operating on crisis management mode-- All the time.

4-The Islamists will rise to power. There's no stopping them - a) Because they had the initial backing of SCAF  b) They've had a massive following for years of tireless rallying and a limitless budget and c) There was no obvious and equally powerful alternative.

5-The hard-line Islamists known as Salafis were rising to the surface at an alarming rate-- Where did they come from? Where were they all these years?

By the end of July the army and a large sector of Egyptians were fed up of Tahrir. The revolution went from being viewed as a catalyst for change to a hurdle in the face of production and economic prosperity.

'3agalet El Entag-- or -- The Wheel  of Production' would be the term used to discredit any revolutionary motion. And to be honest there weren't many and they were never coherent .

On the first day of Holy month of Ramadan (1st August) the army cracked down heavily on Tahrir , taking all the tents down and arresting hundreds of protesters (including yours truly!)

 Patterns of violence

February 5th 2012: Thousands of Ultras Ahlawy took to Mohamed Mahmoud Street outside Egypt's Interior Ministry to protest against what they called police camplaicency in Portsaid violence. Photo by Jonathan Rashad

The pattern of violence would be repeated numerously in the months to come, the most prominent of which are:

• Mohamed Mahmoud Street 
• Qasr El Aini Street outside Parliament 
• Portsaid Stadium after an Al Ahly and Al Masry football game
• Abbasiya outside the Ministry of Defense

May 4th 2012 : Clashes outside the Ministry of Defense headquarters in Abbasiya. Photo by Jonathan Rashad

"Khallas! What do they want" a taxi driver shouted when we passed through the neighborhood of Abbasiya two weeks ago. "The army said they'll go in June after the elections. What do these people want. They just want to burn the country. They were paid to destroy it. "'O'mala !" he told me -- "Agents"

It was a day after violence had erupted between protesters including Salafi supporters of Hazem Abu Ismail and the military police.

If there was a picture for 'state of emergency' Abbasiya would have been it on the day. Military police officers of different ranks dotted the place .. armorued vehicles parked back to back on both sides of the long street running through the neighbourhood.

Tension was high but the message from the military was clear.. 'We're in control. We'll go at the time we've said we will-- Not sooner'

"we ba3been?--Then what??"

Cairo Graffiti saying 'Now What my country?' on 26 July bridge in Zamalek

Later that night I met a group of friends in a Cafe in Zamalek, ( a neighbourhood in Cairo that has become very close to my heart). Most of the people at the table I'd met in Tahrir Square at one point. They were full of life and anger back then--now they almost disagree on everything.

The Abbasiya violence and presidential elections are the centre of discussion.

"Some people are angry at me for saying that Abbasiya was a stupid move" Adbullah said. "I get non-stop insults on twitter , but I stand by it! What the hell are they doing"

"I was there to support the protesters against those thugs!" Ahmed replied heatedly..

"Support who, Abdullah said-- "The Salafis , what have the Salafis ever done for you?" Abdullah said.

"And by the way --you all were chanting 'Down, Down with military rule' fine, so who do you want to rule now?" Abdullah asked.

Ahmed is silent for a moment then says-- "No one can answer that question"

"But  Ahmed, some of the protesters were armed. Residents of Abbasiya said so themselves " I said.

"Yes." Ahmed replied

"You say they were attacked by thugs -- but it can also be Abbasiya residents fed up with people carrying arms on their doorstep-- besides isn't Abbasiya a SCAF supporters stronghold AND the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense?" I said.

I asked him."What were they thinking? -- that they could just storm the Ministry of Defense?"

Ahmed shrugged.

"I've always said there's no use taking to the streets now." Masry commented

Masry was a member of the security committees team whoch was responsible for securing the entrances to Tahrir Square. He,  more than anyone elese at the table knew what it was like to spend days and nights on end in a sit-in.

"Ana Te3ebt-- I'm Tired"

"Khallas -- sit-ins are no use now. They're the wrong tactic. Everytime it's the same thing we take to the streets they screw us over , people die and we go back to our homes." Masry said.

"we ba3been?--Then what??" Masr asked.

No one really had the answer to that. The obvious one is to let the ballot boxes decide, I suggest.

"Why beacuse you trust those sons of bitches when they say elections will be fair?" someone says from the end of the table. He'd joined us later and I didn't really know who he was.

That's the beauty of those 'Tweet-ups' anyone can join. You're guaranteed to meet someone new everytime!

Another debate errupts on which of the presidential candidates is more incomeptent than the other.

(This very debate will become a distant memory very soon-- Those very people will find themeselves between Ahmed Shafiq's rock amd Mohamed Morsi's hard place")

Some people at the next table hear us talk. I overhear one of them saying -- ' I can't listen to this shit anymore-- let's move to another table' and they do.

Masry and his fiancee drive me to my hotel. On our way out everyone is in a thoughtful sombre mood.

Tahrir Sqaure was five minutes away from the cafe we were in but its spirit was a million miles gone.

As I get ready to go Masry asks me.. "Do you know how many friends I've lost in the last fifteen months. How many are in hospital? How many lost their eyes."

" Look at me Shaimaa! I've aged! I feel old! I shave my head so people won't see the grey hair!"

"I was in Tahrir day in and day out-- But now I want a life. I want to get married and have kids. I want to live. Ana te3ebt --I'm tired. Khallas!"

Mubarak Trial: All Rise!

This was the day millions of Egyptians were waiting for but were not sure would ever happen. The Mubarak trial has had it's share of controversy ever since it was announced. Many didn't believe the Military council were serious about trying their former commander in chief. Many others thought that if they did it would only be a show, Mubarak would not be seen in the caged dock . His sons may appear and the trial would be adjourned in a few minutes.

"Sorry father..."
Everything about that day proved the expectations wrong. We set out from the early hours of the morning to ensure a good position to set up out side the Police Academy in New Cairo. Ironically it was formerly known as the Mubarak Police Academy. When we arrived Pro-Mubarak protesters were on the scene in full force, all wearing T-shirts that said "I am Egyptian I refuse to humiliate the leader of the nation in reference to former president Hosni Mubarak.





Some carried placards saying "Mubarak , I'm sorry Father for what my brothers did to you" another placard said "The President protected us no to humiliating him" The chants continued , amid very heavy riot police presence and an increasingly scorching Ramadan morning.

Clashes
Tension mounted as the anti Mubarak crowds started to arrive. Mothers who say that their sons died during the January 25 Revolution that saw the toppling of Mubarak. Men and women of all ages all gathering and waiting for one image .Mubarak in the Dock. Will it happen ? I asked someone? "No this is just a show." a man told me " They want to pacify us" someone else said.

Then, the clashes started. Pro and anti Mubarak crowds. Stones, shoes and sticks were flying in every direction. we could do nothing but take refuge in the transmission tents. Riot police were able to control it eventually, but clashes would continue to break out every half an hour or so through out the morning.






The big screen outside the court started showing courtroom pictures where journalists and lawyers were being seated. Every time the picture of the courtroom appeared the crowds shouted "3ayzeen neshofo --3ayzeen neshofo" We want to see him we want to see him." Even as they were chanting this, no one really believed they would see him. Even as a helicopter hovered over us and went into the police academy no one was 100 percent sure he would show up.

The big screen is showing pictures of the caged dock with it's back-door open. Former interior minster Habib el adly and his six aids enter the dock. Big cheers from the crowds. Then the presidents sons Allaa and Gamal Mubarak the crowds grow louder and more hysterical with shoes and stones now being thrown at the screen.



Then came the scene that no one had pictured. Hosni Mubarak the former Egyptian President being pulled on a stretcher into the caged dock. His hair pitch black, wearing a white sports outfit , looking very alert. There was a collective gasp and a moment's silence , then there were ululations of mothers who were in tears. "My son--" One mother told me. " My son's blood was not in vain" . For the first time in the history of the region an Arab leader was being tried by his own people.

The trial continued throughout the day. It started with Habib Al Adly and his aids on the accusations of killing protesters in January. Then there was the corruption case against Mubarak and his sons.

"First Defendant, Mohamed Hosni El Sayed Mubarak" The judge announced "Yes, I am present" Hosni Mubarak answered. Cheers and jeers filled the air as the former president said his first words in court and was described unimaginably as 'defendant' . His sons were also called. Each was presented with the corruption charges against them and each refuted them entirely.

The trial continued and so did the buzz outside the police Academy. "This is the beginning of a long road to justice. In the end he should hang" one young woman told me.

"It's happening in Egypt!"
"Seeing him like this, it's gorgeous" one man said. "We are showing the world what we can do. This is the first time this happens" another man tells me. "And it's happening in Egypt. I am proud. "

Habib El Adly's trial was adjourned to the next day and later to the 14th of August while Mubarak's trial was adjourned to the 15th of August.

The big space outside the police academy starts to empty out. Channels dismantle their dishes and people make their way home. You could see the satisfaction and vindication on some faces. The smiles say everything.

Whatever the court decides at the end of this trial one thing will remain unchanged. On that very hot Ramdan summer day, to millions of Egyptians, justice was being served.


The audio version of this post is being broadcast on World Report for RTE News.

Goodbye Osama Anwar Okasha

I was asked after Osama Anwar Okasha's death if my blog was named after him. It's not. Okasha is my mom's family name but I always told mommy how I wished he'd be one of her relatives.



This is late, it's very late actually but I'm not going to let that be an excuse not to do it like many things in my life!It's been almost a month now since the death of one of Egypt's and the Arab world's most important and influential television writers. But that's not why I'm writing this.

I'm writing this tribute to Osama Anwar Okasha because he's helped shape my life with his work and not in the cheesy sense of 'the big message and inspiring a generation'(even though he did do that and it's not cheesy at all) .. What's very special about my relationship with the late Mr.Okasha was that his influence on me started long before I became inspired by him and began to understand his influence as a writer and historian and how important his work is.

Oh and this is in no way an attempt on my part to analyse his work and technique it's not my place and I'm not equipped to do it. This is about a writer whose characters came to life right in front of me for so many years. I loved some, hated many,fell in love with a handful and remained loyal to the man behind them.

Ramadan and the sound of my childhood


El Shahd Wel Demoo' Intro

Osama Anwar Oksaha had become synonymous with many things for me over the years but first and foremost he was synonymous with Ramadan. Among the many sounds of my childhood the intros to his TV series which mainly aired in the holy month remain engraved in my memory and associated with family gatherings and after-Ifatr teas and sweets. His series brought families together around TV sets to watch his characters live their lives.

El Shahd Wel Domoo', Layaly El Helmeya, Ana Wenta We baba Fel Mish Mish, El Raya EL Bedaa, Dameer Abla Hekmat, Arabisque, Zizinya and many others were the staples of Ramadan and companions of my youth. Even though I caught up late on some of them after we came back from the US they remain part of me.

By no means do I intend to narrow him down to this list and the effect they had on me, but this is how he came into my life and many other millions of lives; in our homes, through our televosion sets. He came into our lives with the struggles of Zeinab in El Shahd Wel Domoo,through the eternal animosity between Seleem El Badry and Suleiman Ghanem in Layaly EL Helmeya that for the years of it's existence remained amicable and amusing. He came into out lives with Ali and Zuhra's epic love story in the same series and through the fallen hero that is Hassan Arabisque.

He dared to challenge TV tradition by presenting 2 seaons (parts) of El Shahd Wel Domoo' when it was unheard of and 5 whole seasons of Layali El Helmya. He confused and baffled audiences and critics alike with his quirky and innovative Ana Wenta We Baba Fel Mish Mish, changing the shape of Arabic TV drama and discussing everything from corruption to the freedom of press.


Ana Wenta We Baba Fel Mish Mish Intro


He stole our hearts and minds completely when he took us to school with Dameer Abla Hekmat with the legendary Faten Hamama hitting it right in the head with a question about why education in Egypt is in the dire state it is.Is it the lack of educational facilities or the lack of human resources or both? (Twenty years later the question remains unanswered and Egyptian education goes from bad to worse..That is another blog post!)

He managed to transform Sanaa Gameel into the notorious Fada El Me'addawy in El Raya El Beda where in the end of the last episode I was so ready to go out and join the sit-in in front of Dr.Abulghar's villa in Alexandria to save it!


El Raya El Beda clip

This is why, in my view, Osama Anwar Okasha will remain alive; because his characters are. They're real and alive because they were real and alive in Okasha's mind when he wrote them. Everyone had a story that was intricately related to the stroy of another that was all linked in the end to the story of a country ..told by those who loved and lived her.

Mommy and Layaly El Helmeya


Layaly EL Helmeya Intro

I once asked my mom why she,an avid TV hater and despiser, was a keen follower to Layaly El Helmeya and she said "because Osama Anwar Okasha writes life, when you watch you feel you're watching people's lives, you feel they are real." Only he could manage to get my mom away from her books and lecture preparations. He'd also managed to get conversations between me and mommy started on so many things starting with my questions as a youngster on why the King was bad and why the July 23rd revolution was good and why everyone loved Gamal Abdel Nasser so much and why Zuhra was so cruel to her mom when she grew up and what she'd suffered and why I should be grateful for mine and why Tawfiq El Badry was mommy's favourite character and what was so noble about him.

The other reason why Layaly El Helmeya in particular is so special to me is that I, quite literally, grew up with it. The series started in the mid eighties when I was a child and ended in the mid nineties when I was a teenager. Through the years the characters changed and grew and so did I ...How can you not connect with that? How can that not be part of who you are!

Alexandria


Zizinya Outro

The other major reason why Mr.Okasha holds a special spot in my heart is his love for my home town Alexandria. I fall in love with it over and over and over again when I see it through his eyes and I live in it with his characters. I get tears in my eyes everytime I hear the outro to Zizinya and remember Ramadan nights watching the series and listening to that song in the end; how it felt, where I was and man oh man how things have changed sisnce then!

There's so much I still haven't grasped in Mr.Okasha's work, a- because I don't see it often enough and b-because when I do see it I watch it with a sentimental nostalgic eye. I think one of my missions should be finding his work on DVD and watching it closely.

Okasha was an immaculate historical dramatist and a writer of the highest calibre some call him the Naguib Mahfouz of televesion and it's true; both the men's charachets are so alive you can smell them. Their dialogues ring so true you could swear someone you know had said that before! Okasha has managed to create a niche in Arabic television drama I have yet to see someone else fill.

He always had an eye on our past and was keen for us to understand and learn from it. He was constantly critical of the present and ever so worried about the future. Okasha was desperately in love with Egypt and I think it's safe to say that over the years Egypt grew desperately in love with him.