The episode (7/9/2020) of the "The Story of the Rest" program sheds light on the conditions of Egyptian youth, as thousands of different backgrounds and ideas, brought together by the slogan of the January 2011 revolution and its dreams of livelihood, freedom and human dignity, have been forced to leave Egypt in search of safety since the coup of 3 July 2013. After engaging in public political action and expressing a dissenting opinion on national issues has become taboo.
Thousands of them made their way abroad against their will, many of them promising young men with a high-class education, who would have formed a pillar in building Egypt's future if they had not been excluded, marginalized, criminalized and persecuted.
Egyptian political activist and former leader of the April 6 Movement, Muhammad Kamal, said that if the situation before the 2011 revolution was questioning the outbreak of a revolution, it now requires 100 revolutions, explaining that everyone who addresses public affairs in Egypt has been killed, imprisoned or exiled.
Kamal explained that the reality of Egyptians now is that the revolution has not been completed, because half a revolution means a cemetery for those in charge.
He added that Egypt now lacks the concept of the state, and there is only a "republic of officers or a republic of fear."
Sahar Aziz, a law professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, agreed with what Kamal said, stressing that the causes that led to the 2011 revolution are very similar to the current conditions, including economic suffering, high unemployment rates, increased inflation, and so on.
She pointed out that the Egyptian people for decades, and since 1952 specifically, have suffered from the absence of freedom, and even during the monarchy era, freedom was lacking.
As for the former member of the Revolutionary Youth Coalition, Moaz Abdel Karim, he said that democratic transformation needs many years to be achieved, especially in light of the existence of great political corruption and deteriorating economic conditions for millions of Egyptians.
And Abdel-Karim considered that whoever rules Egypt now does not have an ideology or vision, but is only looking for control over the country's capabilities and goods in order to ensure control of power.
Success despite defeat
For her part, sociology researcher and doctoral student Arwa al-Tawil considered that the generation of the January revolution had achieved success by being able to say "no" in the face of tyranny, although saying "yes" could have brought many benefits.
The former leader of the April 6 Movement, Muhammad Kamal, returned to confirm that the Egyptian people were subjected to dictatorship, oppression and very severe hardships, citing what is happening now in terms of demolishing thousands of homes and removing their residents from them, which only happens in occupied Palestine, he said.
Kamal emphasized that the Egyptian people responded to all calls for the revolution and to confront the tyranny of ousted President Hosni Mubarak and then the Military Council, and participated in all the electoral events after the revolution.
The law professor at Rutgers University pointed out that the election of the late President Mohamed Morsi as the first elected civilian president in the history of Egypt was not approved by the United States of America, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
While the researcher, Arwa al-Tawil, attributed the current situation in Egypt to the army’s control by force of arms, noting that the Rabaa al-Adawiya massacre caused a rift in the Egyptian society that could not be healed soon, the former member of the Revolution Youth Coalition, Moaz Abdel-Karim, believed that the current Egyptian crisis will only be resolved through dialogue. With state institutions.