Interviews with Nora Younis

So I found myself moved by human rights. Human rights violations would hurt me very much. I know– like agitate me. And I would want to do something. I would want to fight back. And I found myself selecting the– we called them the loser cases, like the cases that no one would stand up to, and no one would take. I mean if you were a lawyer and you know it will fail, you wouldn´t take the case. These were the cases I was taking.

So for example, I was with the Sudanese refugees. I witnessed and documented when the police raided the camp of Sudanese refugees, and were more than 2,000 refugees camping in Mustafa Mahmud Square in front of the U.N. HCR Office in Mohandessin, upscale neighborhood. And there was a U.N. HCR office. And 2,000 Sudanese refugees were in a sit-in, in front of the thing. No, the camp was there for two months. And the U.N. was fed up with it. And they kind of, in my interpretation, they kind of green light the ministry of interior to take these people away. So on the New Year Eve, and it was very cold– they started blocking all the streets leading to the camp.

So I got in. I heard this, so I got in. And then they turned all the lights off of all the neighborhoods. They turned the lights off. And they had packed a lot of public buses. So I started taking pictures of the public buses and their plate numbers and all the stuff. And then they showered them with water cannons. There were women and children. And they were screaming. And then there was a round of negotiations. And then water cannons, and negotiations. And then hot and cold water cannons, and negotiations. And then they made a complete circle against the camp.

There was not a single opening. And I took pictures of this, because I climbed on a building, a high building, and I took pictures from above. It was dark, but you can see the helmets of the security police. And they were hyping up, the soldiers were hyping up, saying like, “Allahu Akbar [Arabic: God is great], Egypt! Egypt!” It´s like as if they are fighting an enemy. It was just crazy. And then the circle started narrowing, narrowing, and then they would attack. And then they would drag bodies, women. And then there was a woman who was, like, carried, and I mean she could not carry himself.

She was carried by two men. And I don´t know if she was alive or not. And there was a baby, like, running after her, and clinging to her foot. And whoever they got out of this circle, big circle, they would drag them, drag them, drag them, and then put them in the public buses. And all the way from the circle to the public buses, the police would spit, scorn, say bad words, beat, an arrested person, a helpless arrested– not just a person, he´s a refugee.

So I took pictures, took notes, and then– this started at 10:00 PM and it finished at 5:00 in the morning the next day. They put them in the buses. I followed the buses. They took them to detention camps outside Cairo that are illegal detention camps. They are where the soldiers should live, not the civilians. And then I came back to the camp side, took more pictures. And then I went home. I wrote my testimonial. I put it on my blog.

Nora Younis is a human rights activist, journalist and blogger who is now working as the website managing editor of Al-Masry Al-Youm Daily Independent, one of the best known newspapers in Egypt.

As a human rights activist, Ms. Younis won the Human Rights First (HRF) thirtieth anniversary award in 2008 for her work using new media tools to expose human rights violations and police brutality.

When she started blogging in 2005 she focused on addressing the information vacuum on protest movements in Egypt. Before Twitter came into being, she was continually sending mass text messages to human rights activists, political groups, and journalists, informing them of rallies, arrests, state violence and police brutality.

After Twitter became established among Egyptians, she moved into visual documentation. Most recognized is her video of the textile workers’ strike in Mahalla in September 2007 that soon grew into a nationwide movement known as the April 6th strike. One of her most famous blog posts includes her testimonial about the brutal police raid on a Sudanese refugee protest camp in Cairo in 2005 where at least 27 men, women and children were killed. Her testimonial was translated by fellow bloggers and activists across the world into more than seven languages. It was used in law suits and human rights reports condemning the Egyptian government.

During the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Ms. Younis played a major role in documenting and reporting events. Using improvised communications methods, she filmed and disseminated to global audiences the demonstrations and crackdowns in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Before she took up her position as website managing editor of Al-Masry Al-Youm Daily Independent, Ms. Younis covered the Middle East for The Washington Post (2008) and for other international newspapers.

Twitter: @NoraYounis 

With a history dating back to the 10th millennium B.C., Egypt has long played a central role in the Middle East. Egypt is the largest Arab nation and has an influential voice in Arabic and Middle Eastern culture. Egypt has a diverse economy, but has struggled to create sustained economic growth and opportunities for its population of 84 million people.

The country has little experience with representative democracy. From 1956 to 1970, President Gamal Abdel Nasser ruled Egypt with a strong hand, nationalizing the Suez Canal and taking the country into conflict with the new state of Israel. Upon his death, Anwar al-Sadat became president. Together with other Arab nations, Sadat launched the October War against Israel in 1973. In 1979, Sadat signed a groundbreaking peace treaty with Israel.

From Sadat’s assassination in 1981 until the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Egypt was governed by President Hosni Mubarak. For all of Mubarak’s time in office, and for much of the time since his resignation, Egypt has been under “Emergency Law,” which allows the government to suspend constitutional rights, including limiting political activity and restricting free speech. Emergency Law also allows the government to use summary arrests against political opponents.

For four successive terms, Mubarak was reelected in referenda without an opponent. In 2005, under domestic and international pressure, Mubarak proposed a constitutional amendment to allow Egypt’s first multicandidate presidential elections. Because the amendment would have imposed severe restrictions on the eligibility of opposition candidates, opposition groups boycotted the vote. Mubarak claimed to have won the September 2005 presidential election with an official 88 percent of the vote, amid widespread allegations of fraud and vote rigging. The main opposition leader, Ayman Nour, was subsequently prosecuted by the government for forging signatures on petitions and was sentenced to five years in prison, provoking protests from the United States and other democratic countries.

Following the example of the Tunisian Revolution, large protests swept Egypt in early 2011. The military, led by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), withdrew its support of Mubarak. On February 11, 2011, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had resigned. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi then assumed power in Egypt. SCAF dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution.

In November 2011, Egypt held parliamentary elections that were reportedly fair and democratic. In June 2012, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi was elected President, in part because liberal and secular forces failed to coalesce around a single candidate. Morsi’s popularity declined as he declared his orders immune from challenge, removed judicial review processes, and was accused of taking steps towards the implementation of Islamist policies. Conflict arose between those supporting Islamist policies and those seeking a more liberal and secular government. Protests occurred throughout his presidency until Morsi was ousted by the military in July 2013. Muslim Brotherhood leaders were arrested and their camps and offices raided. Until new elections are held, a SCAF-installed provisional government led by acting President Adly Mansour is in control.

In its most recent report, the independent watchdog group Freedom House classifies Egypt as “partly free.” On its scale where 1 is the most free and 7is the least free, Egypt earned scores of 5 in both the civil liberties and political rights categories.