In 2011, as we walked past Agouza on our march from Mohandessein, people cheered to us from their balconies. Families looked out of their windows and they expressed both pride and joy, young men would stand with their mothers in balconies, and ask them if they could go down and join us in our march, and the mothers would proudly send their sons down to join us, walk with us, chant with us, march with us.
In 2012, I remember the protests against the military, and I remember the huge march that took up most of Batal Ahmed Abd El Aziz street. I remember the massive echoes of the chant “Down with Military Rule” – shouted, demanded, in unison through a crowd of tens of thousands.
I remember the march to the Ministry of Defence. I remember as we walked through the streets, a woman, coming out in the balcony, chanting with more power and passion than any of us had ever seen. The march paused underneath her balcony, at an intersection, as she furiously led the chants and bounced, literally bounced, on the balcony – as though her small frame could not contain the sheer might that was pounding through her. I put a video of that woman up on YouTube, by the next morning, more than 100 thousand people had seen it. Just a video of a woman, on a balcony. Chanting against military oppression.
All those moments still exist in time, and in people – they are not gone, and if they haven’t concluded then know this; the story is far from over.
