Nihal Saad Zaghloul
“The benefits of the revolution are not out yet. The only benefit now is that we are able to speak up. Other than that, I haven’t seen anything" Nihal (26) is an IT officer and activist with an education in electronics and communications engineering. She is the founder of Imprint movement, a voluntary movement aiming to radically changing misconceptions in the Egyptian society. |
Nihal explains how women need to be clever about their strategies to advance their cause. Simple force of numbers will not necessarily work. She says the key benefit so far is freedom of speech, the full benefits of the revolution have yet to come. Blog : http://zaghaleel.wordpress.com/ Twitter : @nihalsaad Imprint movement : http://www.facebook.com/Imprint.Movement.eg |
Interview
Interviewed in English in Cairo in April 2012 by Tatiana Philiptchenko.
Q: Where were you on January 25, 2011? I was at home. I didn’t do much. I saw people going out on the streets. I saw people gathering in the morning. I didn’t think it was going to be anything, honestly, because many people just go and nothing happens. When I saw the authorities shooting on the 25th, I got very angry about it. But nothing happened on the 26th or the 27th of January 2011. On the 28th January ,they cut off all communications lines. I decided I wasn’t going to stay at home. I marched from my place from Nasr city to Ramses. I decided to march because I didn’t like the way my people and myself were being treated. I didn’t like how everyone was corrupt and nobody was doing anything about it. How corruption became something normal, it is not something I believe in. It killed me to see everyone silent. On the 28th I saw that so many people objected to corruption like me. This made me feel it wasn’t a lost cause. That many people are willing to stand up for themselves, I was amazed and moved to see many people at the demonstration. I was so happy, I was flying. Even if I went to this march on my own I didn’t feel alone. There, I met friends that I haven’t seen maybe in ten years. They said “don’t stay alone, march with us just in case something happens”. Until we went at Ramses where we got shot at with teargas, it was the first time I smelled teargas. When we reached Ramses it was violent. I expected it will be bad but I didn’t realize it until I was in it. Q: Did you go to other demonstrations? Because of my work, whenever my schedule allows it, I go. I can’t just go to all of them. For the Women’s march in December 2011, I was there for example. I also went to the march for the military trials. Every Friday, I use to go to Tahrir. Every Friday there was something in Tahrir (protests): “Speed up the process”, “The SCAF is sleeping”, “No Military trials”, “Relinquish power”. Of course I was at the battle on Mohamed Mahmoud street in downtown Cairo on November 18th and 19th 2011, all week for five days I was there. I was sick afterwards for a month. I honestly thought I was going to die there (She explains: because of the teargas: when it gets into your system you feel it is poisoning you slowly). Q: A year later, do you feel it was worth all the efforts? after being shot at and tear-gased? It is, for the future generations. The word of everything we are doing right now is still not out. Except for, yes, we had free elections, kind of. The revolution freed the people. People are no longer afraid. They go out on the streets. Even if I don’t always agree with them, but they do it. Now you can talk about politics without being afraid. Freedom of expression and democracy: yes it is worth it. And the benefit of it: we won’t feel it much now, but at some point we will. Q: In your view what actions women have to take to have more place in society and gain political power? It needs to start at home and it needs to start with education. You need to start with a mother and her kids. I don’t think that women going on the streets protesting and asking men to get their rights will give women their rights. It won’t work by force either because men are obviously stronger physically. If it’s tried violently it will be answered violently as well. So women need to be smart. Another thing: most of the men that oppress women, it is not because they are sick. It is simply because they are oppressed themselves so they need to oppress someone else so they always do it on the weaker sex in their life: the mother, the sister, the wife. I think we need to educate men: women are not your enemy, they are not the ones that did this to you. It is very simple. When you look at an example like the this women who got stripped by officers during a protest (1) . What did men do? Instead of going to the authorities and the army and tell them “you should stop doing this”, men thought they were weak and their power was stripped from them so they said it was the fault of the woman demonstrator. Of course there many men who went and demonstrated but the main stream media was saying : what made her go? its her fault and they asked: why wasn’t she wearing something under her abaya ? (traditional dress), so she got blamed. Once men understand, then women will be free. Women who know their rights need to educate other women who don’t know theirs. Many women think that their position in life is to be mothers and for men to take care of them. I am not demeaning this message but you can do more if you wanted to in life. If you don’t want to, then, fine, but it needs to be your choice but don’t put yourself in a box. Make it a choice and not as if there’s was no role for women in life other than to be a mother. Q: You are very active in Social media (Facebook, Twitter), did it help you in the revolution? Yes, through Facebook and Twitter I reached lots of people, especially during the battle of Mohammed Mahmoud in November 2011 (downtown Cairo). I was right in the middle able to take lots of pictures and tweet about things and show people what happened. I reached lots of people and it helped me identify other people’s opinions. I went through some debates with some people. It was interesting on Facebook to see others people’s opinions. It gave me also information. Social media puts people together, people you cannot meet in real life because you’re busy or some other reason. So, yes it helped me and social media is helping me now. I tweet for example depending on the events that are happening on a certain day. For example, during the battle of Mohammed Mahmoud street I sent more than one thousand tweets because there was much to report about. I was tweeting almost every minute. When there’s not much going on I don’t tweet. I tweet when there’s an important event worth sharing. (continued on the right) |
Q: Do you think Egyptian women are benefiting from the revolution?
The benefits of the revolution are not out yet. The only benefit now is that we are able to speak up. Other than that, I haven’t seen anything. Other people don’t agree with me. People are still poor and drive badly, and tourism is bad for example. I am optimistic that things are going to change and that people need time and education for this. Many activists, whenever they have the chance to leave (abandon) this country, they do it and this is contradicting. I don’t understand this. If you check all the lovely activists that are tweeting nowadays, most of them are at the back tweeting but not at the frontline. So tweeting about it doesn’t make it any better. And the majority of the people we are trying to fight for are not on twitter. I feel sometimes that we just celebrate poor people when they die. Poor people when they die become martyrs and important, not before. Then they blame the Muslim Brotherhood and blame them for giving people food and others things. At least the MB does something. I don’t agree with the politics of the MB but at least they are doing something. They are on the street reaching to people. They are not on the computers tweeting about it. This is why they won. Not because they are better but because they are on the streets. The problem is with the American and European media who are always going after people who are on social media and put them under the spotlight (who use twitter and Facebook). Probably those people are not such a great of a deal. All of the people who are not on social media are not on the radar of the foreign press. Social media are a means to mobilize people but it is not the end, it is a means. So, sometimes I feel people think that if they are using twitter and they are saying their opinion they have done their part: they have educated the people. So what if a twitter user has 15 000 followers in Egypt for example? there are 80 millions people in our country! And most followers agree with a person they follow in the first place. Q: If you look at your life before the revolution and your life now? How did the revolution impact it? I always believed if I worked hard enough I will get where I need to get. I always tried to empower my colleagues too and talk about work culture and ethics. I always said that we should stand up for our rights. We got all good jobs but at the end of the day we were all silent in the face of the regime and the face of corruption. We had to make bribery for everything we wanted. I was silent because everyone else was silent. I was afraid because of the horrible stories I heard about people being arrested. After the revolution, it broke that fear in the people. I am no longer afraid. If they arrest me tomorrow I know I won’t be another number, my name will be mentioned that I got arrested for that purpose. Now there’s someone who can listen to me and hear me talk. So am not longer afraid. Q: How do you define yourself? You are a young professional woman that wears a headscarf (this could mean for some that you are more of a conservative person) and you are also a very strong person and activist defending women’s rights. I grew up with faith but at some point I felt it was not good enough. I started reading about other religions and understanding more about my own: Islam. I am a Muslim woman. A Muslim woman is someone who is outspoken, who doesn’t kneel in the face of injustice, who is optimistic. I was given education and empowered and God gave me this as a responsibility so I can help others with it. So, somehow this responsibility is a burden too. The headscarf is not a symbol of anything, it is just one of the steps I am trying to do to get closer to God. Religion for me is very personal. I do it for myself. It might be perceived like a statement but it’s not Covering is not about oppression: it’s about a choice. Q: What is the greatest danger right now (to the revolution)? People giving up because of the fatigue and loss of hope. Q: What is your view about women representation in parliament right now? It is expected. It is a male dominated society where women are not empowered. Therefore, they are not going to empower their women. Women are their worst enemies. So they don’t believe women should be empowered by them. Although most of the voters were women but they didn’t think that women were good enough which again shows that they think that women don’t belong in the political field Q: Do you see yourself as a revolutionary? I am a human being, an Egyptian who is trying to make the best of the situation she’s in, and for the people around me as well. Am I a revolutionary? No. But I am unconventional. I don’t follow culture and traditions blindly. My family calls me a rebel. Q: In your view, how much social media played a role in the Revolution? With Social media we were able to reach out the middle and upper classes with the same thinking. But on the 28th of January for example: we as the middle class would have never won if the less fortunate people didn’t join us. They are the ones who fought and who were aggressive. Through education we are indoctrinated to think in a certain way: we loose our basic instincts and everything has to be thought with our mind and we have to put a logic to everything. But the people and kids who grew on the streets were the ones who were fearless because they had nothing to loose. Get a wild side instinct and nothing to loose and you have a “Day of anger”. At the end we had stuff to loose, they didn’t. They are the ones with the power. [1]http://nazra.org/en/2011/12/continued-militarization-increased-violence-against-women-human-rights-defenders |
