I was caught by surprise on the number of people who turned out on the 25th

Jan 25th was marked as a day of protests against the injustice in Egypt. It was a national holiday marking the "Police Day" in remembrance of the bravery of the Police force in Ismailia against the English in the last century. I thought that marking this day with a protest against the brutality of the police was very relevant. As I suggested to people on face book that we should participate I articulated this conviction in the following post

"We need to first agree that we are definitely not in the best shape and despite the assurance from our government that "kolo tamam" it isn't, and the claims that we are living "feeh 3as elrafaheyah" as has been claimed is also kalam fare3'.... A good chunk of the reasons why this is the case is the absence of fairness within this society and the presence of corruption. Both are there because that police is protecting them in favour of the system, and not protecting the society against them (Remember that the slogan of the shorta2 has change from "Elshorta2 fee khedmet elsha3b" to its new version "elshorta2 wee elsha3b fee khedmet elwatan", and while we can debate for hours what "elwatan" is but when it comes to the reality it is the corruption and the individual and not the society by all means.)

All that being said, and with our current state of affairs wouldn't you agree that the perfect moment to object to the oppression and lack of fairness, lack of freedoms, abundance of corruption on the day that the nation celebrates "3id Elshorta2", to voice the fact that we have had enough of oppression, corruption and all those who support and facilitate its existance. That we demand a treatment much better than what we are receiving. That change, substantial and in the right direction, is a must for this nation.

One thing is that doing this once and forgetting about it is not going to take us anywhere, alternatively this could be the start of other things to make sure that the change is needed and a must. A stand that is more long term and that people need to see change before it is too late.

That being said, I strongly question that a lot of people will turn out to this event, and think it will not materialise to anything because this nation is almost clinically dead. Even despite the fact that Tunisians provided to us "elegabaa2 elnamozageyah" that change is possible when we demand it as a unity."

However, I have to admit again that I questioned if people would actually go out to the streets to protest. I was under the impression that this would be a protest of some 1000 people that would last for a hour or so and then I would back to spend time with the kids on the day off. I was definitely surprised to the limit.

I arranged with a few friends to go to Cairo University, which was marked as a starting point to protest, at 2pm on Jan 25th. A friend, Ayman, was coming with the subway so I made arrangements to meet him close to the Dokki subway station. As I went there by taxi, I passed by Mostafa Mahmoud Mosque which was another starting point at 1:30pm, and saw a few tens of protesters surrounded by and outnumbered significantly by a large number of police troops, which was a very usual pattern. As I waited with Ayman for another friend, Mohamed, Ayman mentioned that another friend was joining from Giza square, and he called and said nothing is happening at Cairo University. Just a lot of troops but nothing there. As we waited for them to join we decided to go to Mostafa Mahmoud square which had something happening.

As we walked we were joined with another 4 friends, making us a party of 10 heading towards Mostafa Mahmoud square, and remained to question the magnitude of this. We were chit chating with each other along Elbatal Ahmed AbdelAziz st heading towards Gamet Eldowal street and as we were almost there, a sea of people suddenly appeared. I was surprised. They were walking towards us chanting "wa7ed etneen...Elsha3b elmasry feen" calling on people to join them in the protest that was walking down the street. People of all kind, mostly young middle class individuals that have received the call on Facebook for the day. I couldn't account for the number of people but they certainly outnumbered the expectations of the most optimistic people I know by orders of magnitude. It was a very nice feeling to be within this group.


Police troops were hurrying alongside, trying to close to the crowds and people were chanting "Selmeyah..Selmeyah" (peaceful..peaceful) as they walked. A few fictions with police happened and people broke them up. The crowd occasionally would great the police with good wishes on the day that marks the nation's honouring of them. It was certainly a very surprising event.

We walked passed 6th October bridge and the police troops ran quickly to make sure we don't get on the bridge, which we didn't. I had the impression that the protests were to walk to the main building of the Ministry of Interior in down-town Cairo. We walked to Dokki square and there on to Tahrir st. and moved in large numbers chanting the same slogans calling for people to join and indicating that this is peaceful protest. People pooped out windows and balconies at the sight and watch on the side walks as the protest moved. While in Dokki the call for Asr prayer was voiced in mosques, and people chanted "Hansally fel medan" we will pray in Tahrir square. Surprisingly people were receptive and the protest continued to march.

We reached the Gala bridge and the police tried to stop us, but they soon moved away and allowed us to pass in some groups. They only allowed small numbers at a time and tried to push back. But we managed to pass and walked towards the down-town. The same thing happened on Kas Elnil Bridge and the protest kept on moving.

As we arrived at Tahrir square, the protest headed a little towards Abdulmeniam Reyad square and stopped there, waiting for more people. Some started to pray Asr and as I headed to join a police truck with a water gun started to drive quickly through the crowds, not caring who is infront of it. A young man from the protesters jumped on the ground and managed to pull the man behind the water gun to the ground. Later I saw the video of the event and both had hit the pavement hard. The man behind the gun was mobbed by several people in the crowd in a sea of people. I have no clue what happened to them.



As people gathered and some had prayed, they started to move towards the main square. Tear gas was fired and people moved back, but still persistent to take this to the end. Another police truck was about to blow water guns but it suddenly changed its course as the crowds chanted "selmeyah selmeyah". We moved to take control of the main square and police we standing their ground on most of the entrances and exists of the square. We stayed there and chanted the same slogans again. People started to gather from other places and those who were held back earlier and the numbers started rising.

After a while tear gas started falling again. People were running away and then back again. It was irritating and people tried to cover their faces with something against the gas. The tear gas soon stopped. As night started to fall we prayed Maghrib prayer, and then tear gas started to fall again pushing us back but still in the square. We soon gained control of the main square again.

As time passed people started to take comfort and people were started to say that they will stay in the square in a sit in. They started to organise and collect money to buy supplies for staying the night. I was talking with the people that I knew about "an exit strategy", is there one once we have settled here? couldn't come to some plan amongst ourselves. I had not expected this to go that long and decided to leave with a friend to come back later with some supplies of food and water. I took the subway back home and agreed with Mohamed to meet again around 9:30pm.