Yara Kassem
“I just see myself as a citizen that has rights. I went to the streets because I thought I was discriminated against and that my rights we taken away from me.” Yara Kassem is a translator, activist and cartoonist. |
Yara is active defending citizens rights with her drawings and used online tools such as Flickr and social media to get her message out. She also explains how public murals provide a truth-telling service to society in the face of establishment lies. Website : http://yaradraws.blogspot.com/ Flickr: flickr.com/yarakassem Twitter: @Yara_Kassem |
Interview
Interviewed in English in Cairo on 12-April-2012 by Tatiana Philiptchenko.
Q: Where were you on January 25th 2011? I was at home. I didn’t think anything big was going to happen that day. Since 2006, I have been to some small demonstrations. On the 25th of January 2011, I was quite happy because I wanted people to go on the streets, so they finally did it. And I was waiting for it to happen and was loosing hope before this. Q: Can you describe the period around January 25th 2011? Before this, there were the elections: they were a disaster. I was an election monitor in these elections. Then, there was the bombing of the church in Alexandria, which was awful. The revolution in Tunisia gave us a hope that we could do the same. When the protests started on the 25th January 2011 – we got so much involved and we didn’t care about anything. We were going to be in the streets until the regime falls. Some days were scary like the 28th of January, and the 2nd of February during the Battle of the Camels. Q: What has the revolution changed one year after? There is a lot of details that changed but right now there’s not a massive political change. The old political regime was able to regroup. The same regime is here but different faces. On the other hand, People now know they have rights they should fight for and they can change things (specially the working class). There’s a lot of disappointment still and a lot of work to be done. Now, all the people are talking about politics 24/7. Even if they don’t understand politics. Before, In Egypt we had the concept that politics are very bad. Now, people want to discuss about this subject. Q: Do you think you are making a difference with your illustrations and your art? Am hoping. But I don’t regard myself as an artist. My aim is to express myself. I am not good at writing so I put my opinions in my paintings. I will be happy if it makes a difference for some people but my aim is to express myself. Q: Did your personal life change since the revolution? My family is not very happy about my political views and activities. And now, they got to know about them (laugh) Q: How bad or good the situation of Egyptian women is now? It is a problem in the society itself. I personally call it “a sick society”. It is not worst that before. But whether we say it or not, many of us think that women are inferior to men. That is the problem. Many people don’t accept the idea of women protesting and participating in a sit-in in Tahrir Square or somewhere else. It was really obvious the first time the army did the virginity tests on the women protesters(1). The army knows how to influence the society. They said they did this to check if the women were virgin or not. By consequence: the society said that if the woman is not virgin they will not fight for her. The second time was when women were in front of the parliament. This was when women were harassed and beaten (Around December 2011) girl in the blue bra(2). Many people questioned what brought the women protesters there in the first place. Q: Is there a setback in the revolution? Yes, because the army controls the state media and because we failed to get the rights of the people who died during the revolution. The media propagated false rumors about the protesters. So many people didn’t sympathize with them. There’s also a setback because there’s fatigue and disappointment of Egyptian people because changes are not coming. Q: In your view, what is the greatest danger now? All of the factors above combined. Q: What role social media played in the revolution? It helped us in the beginning to organize ourselves. Because state media news were a failure. Many people logged on their social media accounts to get their news but I don’t want to overestimate it because state media and private media are still influencing the Egyptian people. Q: When did you start using social media? Maybe five years ago. In the beginning the usage was totally personal. Then I started putting my drawings(3) on Flickr and that’s when I started using social media politically. Now, I get lots of feedback about my cartoons from people. Having an Internet presence brought me some freelance jobs and a bigger social network. (continued on the right) |
Q: Is it harder for you, as a woman, to be taken seriously about your cartoons? To some extent, yes. I found it hard to work as a female cartoonist in a newspaper in Egypt. It is so hard that I lost interest. I am no longer interested in working in one of these newspapers. I am enjoying posting them on the Internet and getting feedback from many people. Q: Do you feel the artistic expression is important in this revolution? It is extremely important because the revolution brought the best and the worst in us. Now I see lots of talent in the streets, people singing, dancing, and the murals. We call it the counter-Maspero. Some people in the authorities are spreading lies but we are saying the truth with the murals for example. It affects lots of people from all walks of life, because for example, this officer was focusing on people’s eyes (shooting them) during the revolution. Many people knew nothing about this. They learned it from the murals. Same thing about reminding people about the people who died during the revolution by drawing them on walls. Q: What do you think about women representation in parliament? I don’t admit that there’s a parliament yet. This is not a legitimate parliament. There needs to be lots of changes in the street before we have a real parliament. Q: Do you see yourself as a revolutionary? Not really. I just see myself as a citizen that has rights. I went to the streets because I thought I was discriminated against and that my rights were taken away from me. Q: In your view, how much the social media played a role in the revolution? The calls for the 25th of January were through twitter and Facebook. When those people (the demonstrators) went down on the streets, the people who were in their houses joined them. And as the police dealt brutally with the protesters more people went down to protest. Q: What do you like drawing the most? I draw what causes me a certain pain. To highlight some sort of pain. This is what I draw. Something that touches me. Q: How are people reacting to your drawings? Some people like it. Some people get touched by them. Some people insult me. I get lots of insults on twitter and Facebook. A lot of people don’t want you to say something specific about what is happening. Q: Is it because you are breaking some taboos? Yes. This is a big part of it, specially when it comes to the women issue. Because I was insisting drawing for example something about the virginity tests. It took me a year to succeed with a drawing, but I finally made a drawing on the subject(4). I did this drawing because I was really mad because people were dealing with the term as if nothing happened. No, it is not a normal test: it is harassment. This virginity tests is why I called it a sick society. So even the women in the demonstrations were not virgins? They are citizen too citizen too! They have rights. (1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2011/oct/28/virginity-test-tahrir-square (2) http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/27/egypt-s-sexual-harassment-epidemic.html (3)http://www.flickr.com/photos/yarakassem/sets/72157630158358742 (4)http://www.flickr.com/photos/yarakassem/7385809956/in/photostream |
