Disillusionment with the January 25 revolution and what followed might be the first step towards a better, and more democratic, Egypt.
By Amr Kotb
THE CAIRO REVIEW - JAN. 24, 2016
On January 25, 2011, Egyptians piled into Tahrir Square to demand bread, freedom, justice, and dignity. I watched the events of those eighteen days of revolt unfold from the comfort of my apartment in Arlington, Virginia, calling family in Egypt regularly and gluing myself to every live update. Born and raised in the United States to Egyptian parents, there was still so much I did not know about Egyptian society. Nonetheless, like many first-generation Americans, I was proud of my Egyptian heritage. The revolution thrilled me because it created a chance for Egypt to reach its potential. My excitement and hope drove me to move to Cairo three years later. Egypt’s nickname, Um Al-Dunya, or Mother of the World, arises from its historical and cultural significance. Yet over the past sixty years, the country has plunged further and further into a morass of social and economic problems. I had always blamed much of this failure on the rulers that followed its 1952 revolution. The dictatorships of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak had failed to provide basic human rights and civil liberties. The rulers led citizens and much of the world to believe that the choice for Egypt was stark: either authoritarianism or political Islam and religious extremism.
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