Please be warned: This is not an objective, political, or halfway knowledgeable post. This is emotional and slightly dramatic too.
I am writing this piece following a post I wrote on Facebook to all my beautiful friends all over the world saying:
"To my beautiful friends all over the globe. I
enjoy reading your updates and seeing pictures of pretty places, nice
things, barbeques, hikes, dogs, and long winding roads, things that
people see and do when life is alright. But for now I'm worried about
the country that I've loved and enjoyed for so long. Worried that life
as I know it may have changed for me and my children and my loved ones.
Worried, that we may have started or own long
and winding road..down a long, dark tunnel. So while I wish you never
ending bliss and happiness, I hope you keep us in your thoughts and
understand why your Egyptian fb friends have such gloomy updates. I know
you do understand, but I just wanted to share this with you".
This was driven by memories of a time where most of us Egyptian were made to believe that we were may be part of one of the most important countries in the world. Times like January and February 2011, where coverage of Egypt was the only thing that BBC, CNN, or any international news channel, newspaper, or any sort of media could afford to run. They were reporting about nothing but Egypt, sometimes even uninterrupted by commercial breaks. It was our marathon, and they were cheering us on. Our run to reach out for a better future, and they were telling us that they believed in us, or so we believed. We thought we were getting rid of an unjust ruler, thought that we are starting our dash into a better world, where everything else would just fall into place.
These thoughts were not shared by everyone, and there were other Egyptian who were worried that we were heading into disaster, similar to the disaster we are running into now. While international statesmen (and women) were talking about the grandiose revolution and about the marvelous Egyptian people, we kept finding more and more verification. But then things started going sour. We were struggling with the threat of a military dictatorship, and now even worse, with the threat of being taken over by a religious regime that has seen injustice over its years , and has shown no promise of not inflicting the same injustice on us.
We are not few, we are plenty, we are still learning, and this time our fight isn't just against injustice and for democracy and social justice and more progress. This time we fear that our whole life as we have ever known it, is coming to a screeching halt. We are faced with horrible scenarios, we are made to believe that we are an infidel minority, although most of us are good believers (although that is irrelevant, really), and we have always lived in a good degree of peace and warmth. We are more in numbers and stronger than we are made to believe- everyday, by angry and self-righteous alleged men of faith.
We are all brothers and sisters, but now a divide has been driven amidst us. I have had the opportunity to spend time with those people who are told that we want to put an end to Islam. They too are kind people, they too are made to believe that they have an existential war to fight lest they be exterminated, overruled, or made to live in our world of hideous sinfulness.
A little under two years after we had our revolution, and after being celebrated worldwide, we now feel that we are alone, that we have to fight this alone. We don't want anything from you, dear world, but we want our demands to be left without insult and denigration. No, the Guardian newspaper, and the likes, have no right to tell us that we are a tiny little minority that lacks the necessary maturity to accept the democracy and the rule of law. No, you don't have the right to put down our demands of a one Egypt with a constitution that will represent and give justice to Egyptians of all walks of life. Yes, we are unhappy, furious even, that our demands for justice and transparency and respect are being steamrolled, while some international media look down at us trying to explain away what is happening in Egypt, as if they were totally oblivious to a religious regime shoving limiting laws and a constitution down our throats that was approved and drafted at dead of night by them, and only them .
No, dear world, we ask nothing of you, but please have the necessary respect to get the facts straight.
As for my beautiful friends all over the globe, please keep us in your thoughts, and pray with us for better times.
Z
