Cairo

There were barricades on the north-eastern side of Tahrir Square in Cairo. I stopped to talk to young Ibrahim who had been sleeping there for about two weeks, together with a group of Egyptian activists, so as to defend the permanent anti-Mubarak sit-in from attacks from the president’s supporters. All of a sudden he received a phone call and Ibrahim’s eyes lit up with joy. I asked him what had happened. He told me to wait. Soon after another man joined him and said, “In about an hour the news will be official. An army general will announce that he has resigned.”

Actually, the official announcement of President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation would only come the following afternoon – and after one last televised speech that threw Egyptians into a state of profound depression – but for the men belonging to the Egyptian group of activists led by the April 6th Movement and by Kifaya, success had been achieved! Tahrir Square started to be filled with an amazing number of people. Men, women, families carrying flags and darbouka as well as guitars, ready to celebrate a victory for Egyptian civil society.

My mind returns to those days spent in the square together with the Egyptians. This is now longer any old square in Cairo, but the one portrayed by Time Magazine (http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2047066_2047070_2047071,00.html) as one of the ten most important protest locations in world history, together with Place de la Bastille in Paris and Tiananmen Square, in Beijing. A walk through Tahrir Square was the first thing one did in the morning, before going to work, or in the evening on one’s way home. This was a habit many adopted in Cairo after January 25th 2011, the day on which the protests began and that I too started to follow. In Egyptian this square is called Midan Tahrir, which we translate as Liberation Square, and it is the symbol of the Egyptian revolt against Mubarak’s regime.

Once impossible to cross due to the heavy traffic that blocked this important route in the Egyptian capital, in the last two weeks it became what was perhaps the safest place in Cairo. This, ever since the anti-Mubarak activists’ sit-in became permanent, with protesters in Tahrir Square swearing they would leave only after Mubarak too left power. Tents had been pitched where protesters rested at night, wrapped in woollen blankets. Every evening new activists arrived to take turns or to bring them food and water. There was even a field-hospital for treating the sick. Many young people were members of the Muslim Brotherhood – banned but tolerated by authorities in Cairo – who had not initially joined in the protest, but who slowly allowed themselves to be involved in providing assistance. Accustomed to working in the shadows, they were the quickest to organize aid.

Tahrir Square was not always a welcoming and peaceful place during this revolt. In the course of the first protests, just after January 25th, police repression had been harsh here and tear gas caused a number of victim whose names are published online at Egypt Remembers. Then came the violent clashes of February 2nd against the pro-Mubarak activists, infiltrated by the frightening baltagi (hit squads paid by the regime, Editor’s note) who hunted down reporters and photographers inflicting terror in pure Soviet style. What made this a special place was the atmosphere of solidarity and humanity that the great Egyptian people showed during such a difficult time.

While crossing the centre one was surprised by the songs and slogans praising the revolution. Twenty-year-olds held their heads down and their fists raised while shouting, “The people wish the regime to fall”, “We are not leaving, he is the one who must leave.” Those entering the square were at times welcomed by applause from the improvised cordon of activists. A marriage ceremony was held here and Christian Copts and Muslims together celebrated Mass. One day I met a man who had brought along his 20-day-old son. This was a child of the revolution, he told me, because he was born only a few days before the protests began. Some even spoke of organizing in this square the yearly International Book Fair that had been suspended. According to the Egyptian daily newspaper Al Ahram, the square will host Egypt’s director Magdi Ahmed Ali making his film based on the real story of Doctor Tarek Helmi, who since January 25th has been leading the medical team assisting protesters.

All this took place thanks to a civil society that proved to be strong. Security within the square was a strong point in their favour. Guaranteed in recent days by the army, security had been provided all along by a cordon of Egyptian volunteers who spontaneously checked IDs and backpacks at all the square’s main access points to prevent anyone from entering with a weapon. And so, in this square one saw many important people from Egypt’s elite, ranging from Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammed El Baradei to the author Alaa El Aswani. The crowds were galvanized also by Wael Ghonim, Google’s manager for the Middle East and Africa, who vanished for twelve days because he had been taken away by the police. Why? Because he launched the protest from his Twitter account (@ghonim) and the Facebook page Kullina Khaled Said (http://www.facebook.com/elshaheeed.co.uk. It means “We are all Khaled Said”, the young man beaten to death by the Egyptian police in Alexandria last year.

Translated by Francesca Simmons