The Story : Revolt on the Nile

Told by Iman Bibars: A woman

from Egypt
 The Story Outline
• Why and how it started (The
economic, social and political
situation- and the trigger)
• Who led, who are those young
people
 The Story Outline
• Who led and who participated
• The reaction of the regime
• The entrepreneurial spirit of the
revolutionaries
• What is the future and what
are the roles of the different
partners
Why and how it started
 The political and legal framework
1. A 30 year regime that became a
dictatorship , that was disconnected,
arrogant and disrespectful
2. A regime and system that was
controlled by a MAFIA where the
business and political leadership
became incestuous
3. A cabinet of relatives– who were
selected from the business world as
saviors and turned blatantly corrupt,
dismissive and disrespectful of its
people; namely Egyptians
4. An elite old boy club that ruled
people that they did not know , nor
liked, nor respected
5. A sham – joke of a democratic
system of elected parliament,
political partities etc
 The Rule of Law ?
1. 30 years of Emergency law
2. A constitution amended to protect
the royal family and its protégés
3. The Scandal of the 2010
Parliament
4. Blatant and insolent use of power
in elections,
5. Restrictive laws for association
whether for the civil society
organization or the political party
6. Complete control over the
political system without shame or
remorse
7. Disconnected and dismissive of
the youth , the NGOS, the people
at large
8. Disrespect and attack on the
judiciary = penetrating and firing
dissent
 NGOs in Egypt
1. Restrictive law limiting the
formation, the funding , the ability
for mobility
2. A regular campaign to discredit
and attack NGOs in the state
media, semi state media creating
suspicion
3. Promoting the political private
sector to take over and redirect
philanthropy to either charity or
political upward mobility
•Several efforts to change
the law by human rights
groups
•The Development coalition
of NGOs lobbying for a
different more grass roots
law (ICNL , ADEW and
more than 150 CDAS, and
NGOS from all over Egypt)
•Conspiracy by federation
and MSS to create a more
restrictive law (how)
 The Economic
infrastructure
1. Limited number of elitists and
regime related businessmen
given a free hand and in control of
all resources
2. Marginalized and disfranchised
medium and small business
sector
3. Corrupted and fishy deals to sell
public sector and the national
industry in a questionable and not
transparent manner
4. Coincidently sold public industry
to the controlling political elite
and the close circle to the
Mubarak family
5. Deterioration of the
economic standards of
the people, lack of job
opportunities
6. Rising unemployment
and a government that
blamed people and
youth for that
7. Dysfunctional social
fund and or programs to
support SMEs
8. No transfer of know how
mechanism
9. Spread of poverty in all
its forms
 The Trigger : What
happened? Why now?
• Blatancy of a corrupt and
arragont regime and NDP in
2010 parliament
•Independent media which
showed the abuse of power and
corrupt business deals to sell
the country
•The arragonce and dismissive
insolent police apparatus
•The rising unemployment,
prices, exclusion of people and
blaming the people for it
 The Trigger – what happened , why now
Face book Group
Khalid Saeed
•Training ground for youth (kefaya
– 6th April – we are Khalid saeed)
•The wave of arrests, beating,
torture and the reporting on it
•The satellite channels,
independent media and exposing
the people to what could have
been
•The covert – or unfelt creation of
the silent majority party of the face
book

•Tunisia
Who participated ?
? Who led
• The weighting
generation
•The youth who were
dismissed, ignored , and
discredited
•The youth whom we
thought were
disfranchised
 Who led and Who
participated ?
•A united front, a new
party created by the
social media and in
cyber life
•A brave and exposed
youth that united
around one goal
•A genderless,
classless and
religious less group
YOUNG WOMEN
PROTESTERS
YOUNG AND FEARLESS
WOMEN
United : We are all
Egyptians
United : We are all
Egyptians
Demonstrating : women of
every age, education and
class
Women of every age :
familiar 
 The lucky generation
• Children from all
walks and social and
economic
backgrounds joined in
the revolution
• They came with their
mothers, fathers or
older siblings
• They were called the
lucky generation
Slogans in every language
Slogans in every language
• Emulating the
lyrics of a
famous song :
“didn’t it occur
to you once to
leave ; you
Mubarak who
caused my
hunger
Leave : Go in every
language
Signs in every form saying: Go
Mubarak.. In funny ways too
Signs in every form saying: Go
Mubarak.. In funny ways too
The reaction of the regime
The reaction of the regime

Denial , arrogance,
disconnect
 Brutality by thugs and
police
• It was common
knowledge that the
old regime used
plain clothed thugs
who belonged to the
security apparatus
to terrify and
terrorize the people
and the protesters
Brutality by thugs and
police
Brutality : Blinding tear gas
Their courage:
Will not give up
The failure of the regime : killing its
own defenseless peaceful youth
MARTYRS BRUTALLY BEATEN AND
KILLED BY RIOT POLICE

We Won: Their blood has not

been wasted
The Egyptian entrepreneurial spirit
 THE SOCIAL
ENTREPRENEURS
The square was divided into
corners;

press wall, kindergarten, hospitals,

fun areas, garbage collection
committees and much more
 The Egyptian entrepreneurial spirit
• The hospital where
doctors volunteered
to provide medicine
and checkups
• Fellow Hany and his
friends contributed
medicine
• Fellow Tandiar
provided medical
information to some
volunteers
Medical care by the
volunteers
 Life in Tahrir Square
The Egyptian entrepreneurial
spirit
• The people built
the bathroom
• They called it the
headquarters of
the National
Democratic Party
The Egyptian entrepreneurial spirit
:
Clean and Green
• Rubbish Bins
under the
direction of the
cleanliness
committee
which was
created by the
youth
 The wall of Martyrs
• Many of the young
revolutionaries did
not know what
was happening
outside so corners
for news and
newspapers were
established
• This was the
martyrs corner
 The news corner
• Many of the
young
revolutionaries
did not know
what was
happening
outside so
corners for
news and
newspapers
were
established
 The bloggers corner
• Bloggers in
the Midan al
Tahrir
• They followed
up what was
being written
and were also
addressing
rumors spread
by the regime
 Kindergarten
• Kindergarten for
the children of
the revolution
• Children were
playing but also
helping in
drawing and
writing slogans
for the protesters
• Mothers were
busy protesting
Business Entrepreneurs
 Street Vendors
• Aly on a wheel
chair coming
from a distance
to sell drinks to
the protesters
• Street vendors
were usually
harassed by
police before
and he wanted
to join the
revolution.
 Kentucky of the
poor
• Carts with
revolutionary
slogans came in with
the street vendors
• A man selling
Kushari (the
Kentucky of the poor
as he called it)
 Donuts of the poor 
• Egyptian donuts 
• Sold by young
vendors
• Men and women
bought quantities
and distributed it
among protesters
regardless of who
they were
 The Business Center
• Mobile phone charger
business center
• Whether the prepaid
cards or charging the
phone both were sold
with actual cost
• While some
merchants outside the
midan increased their
prices no exploitation
took place in the
midan
 Revolutionary
•
hairstylists
The barber.. The most
!!!
interesting and
entrepreneurial man I
have ever met
• Saw many people nearly
living there and so he got
his tools and came
• He gave discounts to
rural protesters and in
general very good prices
 What did I do?
• 3rd – 11 visits to hospitals and
monitoring medical care
• 3rd – 11th helping the
awareness committee with
their flyers and connecting
them to leaders
• Transporting their flyers to
square with Peter- story?
• Created the page supporters
to revolutionaries with Vibha
(Gandhi – Mandela)
 Our Fellows : Alexandria
• Fellow Sani from Alexandria ensured that there
is a list of telephone numbers of doctors and
pharmacies
• He and Aly Hussein and Samy as all our men,
joined the community based committees in their
areas protecting their neighborhood
• “It was a strange and terrifying feeling to carry a
knife with potential of spilling blood that I try
hard to protect and save” said Aly Hussein, who
works for promoting and institutionalizing blood
donations. He organized blood donations
campaigns in spite of curfew and looters
• Aly and Samy joined the demonstrations
 Our Fellows : Upper Egypt
and Suez
• Fellow Maher Bushra worked with his local
community based represenatatives around minia
and in four other governorates to form the local
committees that protected their areas from
looters
• He provided them with the know how and the
process to ensure that they are inclusive and
also aware of where to go and how to handle
crisis.
• He organized blood donation campaigns, and
also raised 300 thousand pounds for assisting
the victims and those who lost jobs in Suez
where violence was spread
The Aftermath: cleaning another mess
after cleaning the Mubarak Mess
 We love Egypt:
“for the first time we see people that make a revolution
and then go back to clean” (CNN)
 We love Egypt:
“an inspiration to the world” “they
”deserve the Nobel prize
Egyptians changed
their country and in
doing so changed the
world Obama

To live with dignity or die

as Martyrs the heroes of 25
January
 What is now and what about
? the future
First revolutionaries and activists:
• The young revolutionaries are not political
parties, not CSOs and not human right
groups
• They are the weighting generation
• They are now organizing themselves and
negotiating with the army on future action
• They are using the same media tools and
channels to create the groups around their
different plans/programs
 What is now and what about the future :
revolutionaries, activists and other people

• In Egypt the people (not •There are groups that are

civil society) are now working on improving
using the social media to tourism
organize and promote •Groups for cleaning Egypt
the leaders they want in and keeping the Green
the coming government spirit and they have
• There is a group for Amr organized cleaning of TS
Moussa as next and restoring burned
President – For Wael police stations
Ghoneim – and for •Groups for lobbying for
others in other positions. Egypt to be secular and
remove article 2 from
constitution
 What is now and what about
? the future
Second the Army and current government:
• The council of armed forces took over in
order to prepare the country for a civilian
regime
• This is a transitional period, with the cabinet
same as before Mubarak leaves
• They met all the demands of the
revolutionaries: dissolved both houses,
suspended the constitution, formed a new
high committee to amend the constitution.
 What is now and what about
the future : Ashoka fellows
• A meeting was held on the 13th February
• We are documenting by video and other means their
experiences and how they contributed to the
revolutionaries
• We are working with them to create on our face book a
list of their expertise and know how that they are
offering to the revolutionaries
• ADEW began a competition for a design by youth for a
memorial monument in the square
• ADEW and myself are still monitoring the hospitals
and have cases of success (Nasser hospital –
demerdash hospital)
 What is now and what about
the future : Ashoka fellows
• With women’s CSOs , ADEW and a number of
female fellows we are campaigning to include
women in the committee for drafting the
constitution
• We are writing about women's contribution to the
revolution and lobbying for their inclusion (articles,
letters to the high council of armed forces,
interviews on the different medias and groups on
face book and the other new social media)
 ?So to sum up; where are we
Good steps
•After Mubarak stepped down the army took over, they dissolved the two
houses, suspended the constitution, formed a committee to amend the
constitution
•They announced that they are there for 6 months until a democratic and
transparent elections of the two houses and the president occur
•They reshuffled the last cabinet of Mubarak to represent different
parties.
•They began discussion with the representatives of the revolutionary
group
•They asked the General Prosecutor to prosecute the ministers and other
business people and public figures who are incriminated with the old
regime in corruption
Worrisome steps and challenges
•The new committee to review and amend constitution is not what the
youth asked for and does not include women
•There is now a witch hunt and a sense of vindictiveness that does not
reflect the spirit of the revolutionaries
•An economic crisis --
•Police lost credibility and there is no police now in the country
 So to sum up: role of Civil society
1. Should encourage and support the young leaders to create
their own CSOs and provide the know how
2. Lobby for the change of the law – now and not later and create
a favorable public opinion of NGOs
3. Lobby for women’s active and equal participation in the new
Egypt in all spheres – for more economic empowerment
programs to all -
4. Work to have a social and economic agenda of Egypt with
every group or organization focusing on its expertise but
within an overall framework
5. Try to mend the recent backlash before the revolution where
people were encouraged to move towards charity and not
sustainable development
6. To lobby with the international donors to listen to all voices
not only the highest and to inclusive and not exclusive.. To
address development efforts equal to human rights
Change is Inevitable : The fall of the
WALL OF FEAR