By Safaa Abdoun
CAIRO: It was when she watched protesters being hosed down as they performed prayers on TV on Jan. 28 that Kholoud Khalifa decided to get on a plane and fly back to Cairo.
“I felt it was crucial to … become an integral part of this change and an integral part of the downfall of the regime,” Khalifa, a student at Kings College in London, said.
While most people might have put little emphasis on Jan. 25, the first day of protests, as more and more people became involved nationwide; it was becoming clear that history was unfolding.
This drove many Egyptians living abroad to come back to their motherland and help rewrite history.
In Switzerland, Mohamed Torki, describes the mixed emotions he had as he watched the news. “Anticipation filled with worry but so much optimism at the same time. Seeing Egypt on the verge of a major change and not being part of it was killing us, so my wife and I decided we have to go and take part of that unprecedented event,” he said.
“I can’t say that I played a big or leadership role in rallying the people to come out of their shells and join the revolution but I was very satisfied knowing that by going to Tahrir to join the rest of the protesters I might appear as another black dot on the screen of whoever is following the scene in Tahrir,” Amr Elkashashi, told Daily News Egypt from Switzerland.
Elkashashi said that it is this huge gathering that made ousted president Hosni Mubarak realize that his days are numbered.
“I believe that every individual counts and when you stand firm in what you believe in then your presence will certainly make a difference … [Supporting] the revolution required more than just sitting in front of your TV screen and chanting with the crowd,” Khalifa said.
Seventeen-year-old Youssef El-Sadat flew back to Egypt from Scotland, where he goes to school, straight to Tahrir Square where he gave out food and blankets and chanted with the people.
“The feeling there was indescribable, while people abroad thought [it wasn’t safe] the youth actually set up checkpoints at all entrances of the square searching people that are entering, and to stand off against the pro-Mubarak paid bullies,” he explained.
“Just being present there increases pressure on the government,” El-Sadat said.
For some, taking part in the demonstrations in the country where they reside wasn’t enough.
“I went to the protests here [in Paris] for the first time I felt this rush, a euphoria that came from speaking out against injustice, a luxury that I simply never enjoyed back home. But then again I was in Paris and I still wanted to be able to do it on my own turf, I wanted my voice to be heard at home,” said Heba Makhlouf, a 28-year-old banker who moved to Paris last year.
Others also saw that representing Egyptians abroad also had a strong impact. Hanya Fahmy, who currently resides in Geneva, Switzerland, and came back to Cairo on Feb.3, finds that her presence abroad might have had a bigger impact in a different way.
“I joined a peaceful demonstration in front of the UN office [in Geneva] and being the only Arab, let alone Egyptian, in my office where we have 20 nationalities made the people around me personalize the event and come to my office every morning to get the news from me…the local and personal touch to the story,” she explained.
After president Mubarak stepped down, Egyptians returned to their lives abroad with a renewed sense of pride, faced with a newfound respect by foreigners.
“My professor told me ‘I wish we Americans had the same courage as your people in standing up for our rights’ [and] another wrote to me ‘Congratulations. Once again Egypt is where civilization begins’,” recalled Abu Bakr Shawky, who is doing his MFA in Film Directing at New York University.
“We have become the idol of Americans in the way this revolution went: peaceful, resilient, passionate. The word ‘Tahrir Square’ has become an internationally known word for fighting oppression,” he noted.
Karim Attia, 29, who flew out from Geneva and spent a week in Tahrir Square, said the Egyptian revolution gave the entire region a “facelift.”
“It provided them [foreigners] with a fresh, peaceful, and very civilized facelift of the entire region; otherwise stereotyped as uncivilized and oppressive,” he said.
“People here started relating to Egyptians, they came to realize that we were essentially asking for the same values such as democracy and equality that they define so dearly as part of their identity,” Attia explained.
As a long road of economic, political and social reform lies ahead, many are calling on Egyptians living abroad to return and help rebuild their country in this crucial time.
“I believe this is the time I have been waiting for, to take part in this new Egypt that I always imagined myself living in. I believe that we should do our part as Egyptians to come back and help this country get back economically in order to show the world that even in the presence of a unjust regime that is capable of destruction and devastation, there is also the power of the people that can bring the country back to its days of glory,” said Walid Ahmed, 32, a business consultant who has been living abroad since he was 12 and returned from Qatar to take part in the demonstrations.
Twenty-three-year-old Helmy Aboubasha is already well on his way. “Upon returning to Canada I immediately joined the efforts of Egyptian-Canadians to spread the word, we organized university talks, street demonstrations and television interviews that hopefully helped our revolution be heard loud and clear.”
Some people, like Omer Elyousfi, 38, who has been living in San Francisco for the past 20 years, have already outlined projects to be implemented in the coming period.
“The [revolution] has been an unbelievable marketing opportunity for Egypt as people all over the world have been glued to the TV for the past three weeks watching Egypt so we need to capitalize on this,” he explained.
