Paul Ropp
Reflection 9
To be honest I don’t have a lot to say about the documentary
on the Egyptian revolution but I do have some things to say that, maybe,
perhaps, just might be relevant to the course work. During the documentary
there was one seen with the family, an elder women, a middle aged women, and
their daughter/granddaughter. What really struck me was that this family was very
well to do, the house was pristine the mahogany table wasn’t probably purchased
at some rag-tag IKEA, sorry professor, and the way people dressed and acted was
in a very upper middle class fashion; for god’s sake the women was going to go protest
in heals. Before I go any further this
isn’t going to be some attack on their wealth and them being removed from the
actual revolution, because they did participate, but what really struck me was
how they all felt about the revolution. The family was having the same
arguments and the same worries that people of all classes had in the streets of
Cairo; that the Muslim brotherhood would take power and persecute, like they
have been persecuted for so long, or that the autocratic military would remain
in power and that Egypt would become another dictatorship. What was so
interesting and enlightening about this was that the revolution was an actual
cohesion of Egyptian civil society in full, the sectarianism was there and had
the opportunity to fly from the starting gates, however, it didn’t. The main goal of all Egyptian people during
the revolution, from what you saw on the streets, heard in the news, and saw in
the upper middle class home, was to oust the regime of Mubarak, in a united
fashion. Granted I do find the participation of the family to be somewhat sheltered
as we never see them in the midst of full swing protests, under the barrage of
rocks from hired thugs, or being ran over by the esteemed officers of Egyptian
law; but what really matters is that they participated in civil society. To me
it doesn’t matter how you participate in civil society, whether you are dying
on the front lines of a movements or supporting it in some other way what is
unequivocally important is that you take part in a unified movement to achieve
something that as a society you all want. I guess what I am getting at here is
that I think this moderately sheltered upper class family is doing just a noble
and respectable part as the people who were leading the protests on the ground
and to that they have my respect. Another thing I would like to talk about is
the recent vigilantism of Cairo citizens against the harassment of women.
“The young activists lingered on the streets around Tahrir
Square, scrutinizing the crowds of holiday revelers. Suddenly, they charged,
pushing people aside and chasing down a young man. As the captive thrashed to
get away, the activists pounded his shoulders, flipped him around and
spray-painted a message on his back: “I’m a harasser”
(NewYorkTimes.com). What really got me interested in the Egyptian revolution at
the time was that a society that no one saw revolting, overthrowing a dictator
that was so deeply embedded in the government and creating a new society. That at
first this seemingly disorganized rabble, quickly unified and created a
powerful civil society that had not only the power to bolster each other in
such tumultuous times, and to overthrow a regime, but a society who would also
defy the norms of sectarian conflict in the MENA region to do what they thought
was right, to bring some sort of just unification to all people of Egypt; which
they are continuing to do with the shaming of police who do not arrest harassers
of women, and punishing those who harass them. Yes, the good of vigilantism is debatable;
however, what these citizens of Cairo are doing is something that for so long the
government and the police have refused to do.
To
me the acting out of vigilantes against the harassment of women is just a
positive step from an autocratic regime to a fair, free democracy. Above all
these vigilantes are making a difference they are taking the past norm of
non-retaliation against those who would hurt their fellow Egyptians and are
frankly saying with their actions that it is not ok. I remember in the
documentary there was a man in a coffee shop who wanted to bring back Egyptian pride,
to restore the pride of the Egyptian people. At the time I wrote him off as
some sort of Egyptian radical nationalist, but in my ignorance I was unaware of
what the deeper meaning to that was. That “restoring Egyptian pride” wasn’t some
ignoramus call like “the south will rise again” or “M’erica” but it was a cry
to restore Egypt as a respectable nation. To demolish the old ways of the
autocratic regime and to replace them with a new sense of unity, a new sense of
freedom and most of all a unification of civil society on a grand scale, no
folks not just the unification that it took to topple a regime, but a
unification that can build Egypt into a just, modern, and better nation; not
that Egypt is bad, all nations could use a lot of bettering.
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