My sister-in-law Jill has been living in Cairo for the past few years. That made an awesome excuse for taking a most memorable trip to Egypt back in 2008. But the recent protests and now subsequent resignation of Hosni Mubarak as the country’s president are the topic of this post.
Jill has been keeping the family back here in the States updated as much as she can. She has a good network of people there – both Egyptian and other expats – who had been keeping an eye on the volatile situation. Things were most concerning when the Internet was down and phone use was sketchy. But today she sent out a much more celebratory message about what’s going on in Cairo along with some photos. With her permission, I’m posting what she shared with us…
Dear everyone,
I just returned from being out in the streets and words cannot even properly express the jubilation and elation that is in the air and visible on everyone’s faces and audible in their voices. It was like a massive parade. We walked as far as the bridge that runs directly into Tahrir (Liberation) square, but decided not to try to make it all the way down into the square (too crowded and smelly, from what I was told…), besides the celebration was in full swing on both sides of the bridge and filling the streets leading up to that area. Groups of people chanting “Hold your heads up high, you’re Egyptian!”, “Goodbye son of a thief”, and “The youth changed (or brought down) the system (regime)”. Entire families, including young children were out singing, dancing and waving Egyptian flags. (I dare say the people selling Egyptian flags in the street had quite a profitable day here).
Obviously everyone is waiting to see what comes next, but at the moment people are simply celebrating the fact that they were able to change the future of Egypt, and that their voices, for perhaps the first time ever, were heard and made a difference. One of the most amazing things (and respectable, in my opinion) about this revolution is that it was carried out in the name of PEACE. And while the road ahead remains a difficult one, their is hope in the hearts of everyone here that a democratic Egypt is possible. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming days.
I have attached a few (bad) photos which do NO justice to what I actually witnessed/experienced. I was wishing for a much more sophisticated camera lense and flash at the time…oh well, if you want good pictures, then go to Al Jazeera to see them.
It’s nice that the energy in the air has turned positive! We were all holding our breaths after Mubarak’s disaster of a speech last night.
This has all been a bit of a crazy whirlwind experience but it is exciting to be witness to such a momentous historic occasion.
Hope all is well with you all, thank you all for keeping me (and Egypt) in mind these past few weeks. Look forward to catching up with you all soon.
-Jill
p.s.- I should also note that “son of a thief” is an insult to Mubarak, not his parents. It works much better in Arabic than in English… there were also lots of “long live Egypt” chants as well.
As Jill alludes, Egypt by no means became the pinnacle of open democracy immediately after this latest news. With reins handed over to the military, it will be very interesting to see how (if) converting to a democratic leadership actually occurs. I’m sure the world will continue to watch events (history, even) unfold.
Here are some pictures she sent us of celebrations going on around Cairo…
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