vanguard blog | February 07, 2011 | 13 comments

Egyptians Say, "Can You Hear Me Now?"

Noreen Moustafa is an associate producer for Vanguard.

I have had my cultural identity as an Egyptian-American shift in the eyes of others overnight many times before.

Growing up in Los Angeles, when people would find out that my family was Egyptian, they would gasp at the exoticism of it. Many couldn’t wrap their mind around the idea of a modern Egypt because their imagination had already been captured by the storied history of Ancient Egypt. I enjoyed their curiosity, never minding to answer questions about the pyramids, papyrus, or pharaohs.

But post-9/11, people no longer had questions about Cleopatra — instead they interrogated me about Al-Qaeda. At the time, I definitely knew more about King Tut than I did Osama bin Laden, so I admit the questions weren’t as cheerfully received (nor delivered, for that matter) as before.

And then, on January 25, I experienced the most personally powerful cultural shift yet, as I watched a purely popular uprising spring from the impossible dreams of Egypt’s youth and gain momentum. I can only imagine what sort of cultural transformation those very youth are undergoing right now as the world watches the Egyptian protests breathlessly, no one quite sure what will happen next.

I am 30 years old and Hosni Mubarak has been president since my very first visit to the country, when I was six months old. Since then I have travelled to Egypt almost every summer. Because of those frequent visits, I have been privy to the kind of anger, frustration, and desperation that surprised much of the world when the protests erupted in cities across Egypt last month.

That is not to say that I haven’t been completely astonished and awed by what’s transpired in the past 12 days! I have also been privy to the paralyzing fear and hopeless apathy that has kept most people from daring to imagine a different reality than the poverty, inequity, government corruption, and indignity that they knew.

After daring to express any grievances publicly, most would then tell you, “Alhamdillilah,” meaning “Thank God.” Many Egyptians are also very prideful and therefore, sometimes to the point of paranoia, worry endlessly about their perception abroad. When I started travelling with a camera, members of my family would encourage me to film at historical sites or museums. They suggested I go to the well-manicured gardens of the private country clubs, the Mediterranean shore, or at least the new shopping mall in town. “Why are you filming those toddlers begging?" they would exclaim. "Do you want people in the US to think that we are all homeless?” This kind of self-censorship was baffling to me. But it appears that in just under two weeks, through self-empowerment and self-organization, Egyptians have broken through the barrier of fear and apathy and are expressing themselves in ways they never have before.

During my last trip to Egypt, I interviewed a few domestic servants, to better understand this segment of society who is rarely given voice. It was the kind of story that I felt I could cover without too much interference from the meddling police, considering that my subjects’ world was mostly inside the home.

The women ranged in age from 14-67, each working inside homes cleaning, cooking, and providing childcare for middle class families for very meager wages. The younger ones typically lived with the families they worked for but would return to their home villages a few times a month to visit and share their salary with their parents. When pressed about what goals they had in life and whether or not they were happy, a smile would come over their face, and no words would be spoken. This was the quiet resignation that I was used to seeing in Egypt. The older ones had known decades of labor but were so grateful to the families that helped support them throughout the years. “Alhamdillilah,” they would say. In the end, the interviews were only compelling if you could read between the lines, recognize pain behind someone’s eyes, or at the very least, you could identify the universal desires of every human being that weren’t being met.

What has been a happy surprise for me is that with this latest cultural identity shift, I haven’t had too many questions from my American friends about the yearnings of the Egyptian protesters. It seems in this case, the exotic and different Egyptians have communicated with the rest of world with utter clarity, in a language we all can understand. Their message is succinct, without ideology, and well-defined: They are seeking their unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Eighty million people in the world have just found their voice. I also have faith that a veritable democracy will find its way to Egypt. I never expected Egyptians would be the ones to challenge us Americans and test our own commitment to the democratic principles we hold so dear. And as the world watches anxiously to see how this organic revolution plays out, I find myself saying, “Alhamdillilah.”

Watch Vanguard's Adam Yamaguchi report from Egypt in 2005.

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13 comments // Egyptians Say, "Can You Hear Me Now?"

  • alovejoy
  • jeanrenoir
    • 0
      jeanrenoir  

    • This is the hour of decision for American "progressives." Either we organize and demonstrate in the street in DC to do all in our power to FORCE Obama and Hillary to side with the 80 million Egyptians instead of Likud and the Israel Lobby, or it will be our fault when Obama and Hillary help re-establish our dictatorship in Egypt, bought and paid for for thirty years with our tax dollars. We can't just express "solidarity" with the Egyptians in cyberspace. That influences no one. We have to get onto the Mall and SCARE the Obama administration enough to get them to side with the Egyptians, instead of continuing to serve Likud and the Israel Lobby by crushing the Egyptians with arms bought and paid for for that purpose by us.

    • 1 year ago
  • mglopez
    • 0
      mglopez  

    • What a great article Noreen! My wife and her family are Egyptian and migrated to the US over 40 years ago. My mother-in-law was forced to leave behind her children from a previous marriage and is having a dificult time dealing with the images portrayed on the television.

      It is great to see the future generations of a country stand up and fight for the freedoms that some in this country take for granted. It is unfortunate that it took the death of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia to make the rest of the world take notice. Change will come - but will it be the kind of change that can really make a difference?

    • 1 year ago
  • JEP07
    • +2
      JEP07  

    • A very moving article, Noreen, it helped me understand the everyday Egyptian people better. But I wonder just how entrenched Sulieman's thuggery actually is, and how much of a divide he might be willing to create in his desperate attempts to hang on to a failing status quo.

      Had a deep thought watching the news coverage last night of the protests in Egypt. Is Sulieman the real entrenched leader, has been all along, and Mubarek a puppet himself? Maybe Mubarak got most of the graft money, we won't ever know to what extent, but it seems as if Sulieman has the same sort of control and "black-ops" power that Cheney had over Bush.

      Which would explain a few things, like Sulieman's patronizing claim that the people of Egypt aren't ready for democracy (and isn't this a not-so-subtle admission that Sulieman and his secret police have fixed every election in the past?)

      The Egyptian graft and money-grubbing was exacerbated during the Bush/Cheney war in Iraq, can we have any doubts that some of that easy no-bid war booty (our tax dollars) went to Egypt as one of our military stopovers? One must wonder, just how abiding is that profane pact between our status quo and Egypt's?

      If the Obama administration doesn't IMMEDIATELY extricate itself from the quicksand of a "transfer of power" to Suileman (which, as I have noted, may not be a transfer at all, just a public perpetuation of an existing power chain that was previously secret), they will be perceived as enablers of Egyptian despotism, not the inheritors of it.

      The use of thugs and state police by Sulieman, even as he denies they are at work, is a very bad sign that the truth is much bloodier than the cover-up portrays. Lets hope the public will prevails before the status-quo becomes a cornered killer-beast. Beware the cornered beast.

      And as for this sentence in your article, Noreen,
      "Eighty million people in the world have just found their voice."

      All I can say is "Viva la Blogs!"

      Without our keyboards and our courage to use them, Egypt would still be a fake democracy ruled by real tyrants. Now it looks like the birth of real democracy, and an end to the tyranny that prevented that giant leap for the people of Egypt for so many years.

    • 1 year ago
  • kerriberri
    • +1
      kerriberri  

    • What a bright window into the Egyptian culture. Your post gives me an even deeper appreciation of the dynamic we all witnessed. I never realized how utterly unlikely it was that a people who have endured and borne burdens with such resignation finally decided, together, that enough was enough. And that they really could be the source of the change they sought. Incredible; thanks for an interesting piece!

    • 1 year ago
  • ikenhower
  • ikenhower
    • 0
      ikenhower  

    • I don't get it, with you growing up in L A why would people gasp if they found out you were Egyptian. I've seen pyramids on the history channel which are suppose to be thousands of years old, but in no way would I have an opinion about the Egyptian people or their culture based on that. That makes no sense to me. How did a man like president Mubarak come about replacing a man like Sadat. He's been in power for over thirty years he's over eighty years old and he just now has agreed changes need to be made. It sounds like he's been asleep at the wheel. With access to the internet people all over the world are seeing for themselves they deserve better.

    • 1 year ago
  • dantee
    • +2
      dantee  

    • I so admire those people of Egypt for the sacrifices they've made of late. Daring to face the authorities and the dangers involved to submit their grievances and state their case. And I'm so ashamed of the Obama administration for the insensitivity of the US and the corporate and political opportunism which obviously and inevitably will continue to dictate Egyptian policies and thus, insure the people of Egypt will not be free. But, the world is watching. America has made many terrible mistakes in the past. Mistakes which have caused millions of lives and vast fortunes in revenue, but this may end up as the most costly for America.

    • 1 year ago
  • GrannyLib
    • 0
      GrannyLib  
    • dantee:

      There is an Open Letter to President Barack Obama, as Egyptians Herald a New Dawn : http://www.PetitionOnline.com/Egypt22/petition.html

      (PetitionOnline.com has disabled the display of email addresses for signatories who chose to make their address public. We have done this to reduce the spread of harmful Windows viruses which harvest email addresses from the web cache of infected computers. This also prevents spammers from harvesting email addresses from this site.)

    • 1 year ago
  • ras_menelik
    • 0
      ras_menelik  

    • And this revolution that is not being televised is spreading faster than Bush Fire ...
      RT @LamaSabri: أم الدنيا تلد الحرية و أمي في السعودية تلد محرمها!

      #SaudiWomenRevolution

    • 1 year ago
  • frank_runyeon
    • +2
      frank_runyeon  

    • A really insightful perspective on the Egyptian mindset...knowing their sensitivity to how they're perceived abroad adds a new dimension to the developments over there. Not something you'll hear about on the news!

      Thanks for drawing back the curtain a little bit.

    • 1 year ago
  • ras_menelik
  • ajcowley
    • +3
      ajcowley  

    • Thanks for sharing this Noreen.

      It would be really interesting for you to go back to Egypt after the dust has settled to find the women you interviewed before and see if and how their lives have been effected by whatever changes come out of the protests. Assuming (and hoping) there is a positive outcome for Egypt following the unrest.

    • 1 year ago
Noreen_Moustafa

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