the question i keep asking myself was that worth it
this is Bishoy, ten years ago he found himself at the heart
of a revolution together with thousands of people
Bishoy was part of the occupation of Cairo's main roundabout also known as
Medan Al-Tahrir or Liberation Square internationally the so-called Arab Spring
promised to bring down dictators and replace them with democratic systems
made for and by the people and in egypt protesters demanded
the stepping down of president Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years in power
we look for freedom and we will get it
a decade on from the Egyptian revolution I wanted to know how Bishoy looks back
on his time on Tahrir square
it's something that i actively avoid thinking about
it brings out a lot of not just memories but also emotions of complete devastation
there was a moment where we had it all and then it was just lost
i first interviewed Bishoy in 2016 five years after the events in Tahrir Square
we met through friends of friends and he agreed to talk to me anonymously
it was very like it was something that we never lived before and it was amazing like
imagine like we were a bunch of teenagers me and my friends and yeah we like we might
as well change the this [ __ ] country and how it works
Mubarak's regime ended on the 11th of February 2011
but the changes that followed did not spell democracy,
human rights or an end to police brutality presidential elections took place in the summer
of 2012 with the highly contested results giving the
Muslim Brotherhood a narrow victory but on the 3rd of July 2013
following months of civil unrest the military staged a coup d'etat
General Abdel Fatteh al-Sisi has been the president ever since
consolidating his grip on power by winning elections effectively unopposed
but what happened to the youth of the revolution?
people took one of three directions especially young people
youth my age 20s it's either being totally pro-regime
because they probably hated the days of the Muslim brotherhood
some people were the supporters of the Muslim brotherhood
they are totally anti-regime and whatever good or bad
the regime does you totally slam it and the third fortune
which is guys like me who just doesn't give a [ __ ]
because khalas it's done
today Bishoy is living in Europe but did leaving egypt
make it easier for him to re-engage with politics
before i come here i was like okay this would be a good opportunity
to start thinking how can we unify some opposition but once i came here i was like actually no
i just want to have a normal life have a family settle somewhere that
would not be possible in Egypt
one of the demands of the Egyptian revolution was a fair economic system
and wealth redistribution but that didn't happen instead Egypt has gone further into
debt receiving two loans from the IMF in 2016 and
2020 totaling 20 billion dollars thanks to the government's severe austerity policies
and the devaluation of the egyptian pound even the average family now struggles to survive
and it's increasingly dangerous to speak out against the al-Sisi administration the crackdown
is worse than ever worse than Mubarak now there is literally no media no ngos like all
the little things that we were mad about even during Mubarak now we don't have
five years ago i asked Bishoy whether he had any hopes for the generation that brought
down Mubarak his answer was simply no but he noticed something changing in those younger
than him we used to have this big game when kids play on the streets it's called "easkar
waharamih" the police and thieves right after the revolution found the kids
at my street playing at police and "althuwwar" and revolutionaries and the police were the
people actually running from the revolutionaries
maybe these people are the hope one day
do you feel like there is possibilities within the younger generation for shake-up
the fact that they grew up in all of this mess in 2011
and they saw like on daily basis okay that things can just change from one
day to the other and that you can actually say no to authority
this does make them quite different so yeah i don't know how can
this materialise but that's the beauty of revolutions you can never
see it coming