The military council had invited the egyptian youth to attend an open forum today! They announced it 48 hrs ahead and requested applicants to decide within a day who's going. I will not even address how stupid and unprofessional the planning for this event was. Anyway the majority of youth coalitions refused the invitation and replied with this statement. Read Here
The same night, CNN broke a story about the violations imposed on Egyptian female protestors who were detained the night of March 9th when the army along with thugs broke the sit ins of Tahrir square. In the news report, an army general who remained anonymous admitted that those girls were forced to go through "virginity checks" by male doctors!!!
Many political and human rights activists along with journalists planned a rally against these violations to be held in front of the theatre where the SCAF will meet with the youth who agreed to attend.
I arrived at 7:30 and there were only around 30 protestors then standing peacefully along the pavement of Salah Salem road holding signs with slogans condemning the violations and calling for probes into the incident.
Within an hour the numbers increased but I wouldnt estimate we were more than 200.. We started chanting "Sabo leena el baltageya wi 3amleen koshofat 3ozreya" and some of the jan25 slogans calling for a civil rule instead of a military one.
All of a sudden some of the protestors decided to cross the street onto the other side where the police/military security officers were and to chant from there. I dont believe they intended to be violent by any means.. But I still dont see the point of going to the other side! I was worried that this might be perceived by security as a provocation and would result in some sort of retaliating action on their part. Those of us who stayed where we were continued chanting and waving for them to come back and they eventually did.
I didnt like how the chanting wasnt specifically addressing the issue at hand which is those illegal virginity checks! Because the crowd quickly forgot about the main cause and began chanting anti-SCAF slogans which to me was so not the point!! If this is a pro women's rights rally then it should stay that way! However I must note that the majority of protesters were females.. mainly because women are more likely to sympathize with such a case.
In a while 2 girls who were attending the forum came out, they said they left because the meeting wasnt going like they expected! They were told by someone who works for SCAF that "e7na 2olna leqa2 ma2olnash 7owar" which is a big lie.. they handed them brochures with all the army's achievements and the girls left.
Later on more people left the meeting because of the same reasons, attendees were not allowed to directly ask question. Each person could write a question on a piece of paper to be put in some sort of basket and then the officers would pick out questions!! One man who left in the middle of the event said the majority of the attendees clapped at ANYTHING the council would say. Another mentioned that the army officials kept using the word "sawretna" as if they planned the whole thing and saluted the martyrs of the 6th of october REVOLUTION.. (last I checked it was a war not a revolution but Hey! if SCAF says so then they'd know best)
Also one of the girls who were subjected to the virginity checks was there and told us about the horrifying experience. How they abused them in front of other soldiers who were taking pics of the girls apparently abdomens showing and about how they were electrified and threatened to be tortured more of they didn't stop screaming during the virginity checks!!!
Eventually people outside hyped up again and we gathered in one spot and began chanting against the injustices of SCAF "2olna 3eesh karama 7oreya msh mo7akmat 3askareya" and the likes... then some guy started to chant "wala salafy wala ekhwan" something something and all hell broke loose!
A fight started because someone standing next to him was apparently from the muslim brotherhood or supports them and was offended and cursed him and then they started beating each other with the crowd trying to disperse them away from one another. The name calling started and the MB supporter blurted as he left "ento betetkalemo 3an el dimoqrateya wento msh fahmenha... ento asasan sha3b gahel" which was very nice of him...
By then it was 11pm and the attendees of the event were done but the gates werent open! For some reason they wouldnt let them out. The lights of the building were the meeting was were turned off and we could see the attendees behind the gates but they wouldnt let them out!!! I'm not sure if they were afraid of fighting between both sides or if they were afraid the attendees would join us.
That's it folks.. Check some pics from the rally below!
The same night, CNN broke a story about the violations imposed on Egyptian female protestors who were detained the night of March 9th when the army along with thugs broke the sit ins of Tahrir square. In the news report, an army general who remained anonymous admitted that those girls were forced to go through "virginity checks" by male doctors!!!
Many political and human rights activists along with journalists planned a rally against these violations to be held in front of the theatre where the SCAF will meet with the youth who agreed to attend.
I arrived at 7:30 and there were only around 30 protestors then standing peacefully along the pavement of Salah Salem road holding signs with slogans condemning the violations and calling for probes into the incident.
Within an hour the numbers increased but I wouldnt estimate we were more than 200.. We started chanting "Sabo leena el baltageya wi 3amleen koshofat 3ozreya" and some of the jan25 slogans calling for a civil rule instead of a military one.
All of a sudden some of the protestors decided to cross the street onto the other side where the police/military security officers were and to chant from there. I dont believe they intended to be violent by any means.. But I still dont see the point of going to the other side! I was worried that this might be perceived by security as a provocation and would result in some sort of retaliating action on their part. Those of us who stayed where we were continued chanting and waving for them to come back and they eventually did.
I didnt like how the chanting wasnt specifically addressing the issue at hand which is those illegal virginity checks! Because the crowd quickly forgot about the main cause and began chanting anti-SCAF slogans which to me was so not the point!! If this is a pro women's rights rally then it should stay that way! However I must note that the majority of protesters were females.. mainly because women are more likely to sympathize with such a case.
In a while 2 girls who were attending the forum came out, they said they left because the meeting wasnt going like they expected! They were told by someone who works for SCAF that "e7na 2olna leqa2 ma2olnash 7owar" which is a big lie.. they handed them brochures with all the army's achievements and the girls left.
Later on more people left the meeting because of the same reasons, attendees were not allowed to directly ask question. Each person could write a question on a piece of paper to be put in some sort of basket and then the officers would pick out questions!! One man who left in the middle of the event said the majority of the attendees clapped at ANYTHING the council would say. Another mentioned that the army officials kept using the word "sawretna" as if they planned the whole thing and saluted the martyrs of the 6th of october REVOLUTION.. (last I checked it was a war not a revolution but Hey! if SCAF says so then they'd know best)
Also one of the girls who were subjected to the virginity checks was there and told us about the horrifying experience. How they abused them in front of other soldiers who were taking pics of the girls apparently abdomens showing and about how they were electrified and threatened to be tortured more of they didn't stop screaming during the virginity checks!!!
Eventually people outside hyped up again and we gathered in one spot and began chanting against the injustices of SCAF "2olna 3eesh karama 7oreya msh mo7akmat 3askareya" and the likes... then some guy started to chant "wala salafy wala ekhwan" something something and all hell broke loose!
A fight started because someone standing next to him was apparently from the muslim brotherhood or supports them and was offended and cursed him and then they started beating each other with the crowd trying to disperse them away from one another. The name calling started and the MB supporter blurted as he left "ento betetkalemo 3an el dimoqrateya wento msh fahmenha... ento asasan sha3b gahel" which was very nice of him...
By then it was 11pm and the attendees of the event were done but the gates werent open! For some reason they wouldnt let them out. The lights of the building were the meeting was were turned off and we could see the attendees behind the gates but they wouldnt let them out!!! I'm not sure if they were afraid of fighting between both sides or if they were afraid the attendees would join us.
That's it folks.. Check some pics from the rally below!
Thanks for briefing us. To be honest I wasnt expecting anything positive out of the SCAF meeting! But I'm more alarmed & somewhat depressed by 1) the diversion of the rally away from the main cause and 2) the fact that protesters who stood together as one in Tahrir for 18 days are now beating each other & exchanging name-calling! That's a shame Wallahi. I feel the sawra el modada is working very well to bring us apart.
ReplyDeletei agree ya nahed! (ana rana elnemr)
ReplyDeletethank you for the brief, i think the same bardu. i was there (on the v. last picture, holding the sign with the big khat a7mar :))
i don't recommend a stand there again ever, mainly because, we, together with some ppl in the theater who double parked, have caused a huge traffic problem on a main road that leads to the airport.. we were standing on the pavement, yet ppl slowed down to read our signs & in many occasions they'd curse us & curse our cause.. i felt grateful for tahrir, where the square is big enough for us & it feels more at home..