0:00:10.552,0:00:14.223
My name is Mona El-Sabbahy, I´m 18 years old.

0:00:14.223,0:00:18.810
I study architecture, and I´m in the No Military Trials for Civilians campaign

0:00:18.810,0:00:22.439
I´m also in the Popular Committee to Defend the Revolution.

0:00:22.439,0:00:28.195
My name is Hanan Sadek, 52 years old. I work in an oil company.

0:00:28.195,0:00:33.390
I heard about the 25th of January on the internet.

0:00:33.390,0:00:37.079
There was an event & everyone was talking about it.

0:00:37.079,0:00:43.335
I hadn´t decided to participate, until they posted a manual

0:00:43.335,0:00:47.881
in case of injuries or arrests, to do so and so.

0:00:47.881,0:00:56.848
So it was a bit reassuring, and I decided to participate a day before the protest.

0:00:56.848,0:01:01.019
And I started sending invitations out, but I was still afraid,

0:01:01.019,0:01:05.440
because I still didn´t understand it, and was hesitant about telling people.

0:01:05.440,0:01:09.236
Wondering if State Security will come to arrest me.

0:01:09.236,0:01:15.659
I told her "Be wise Mona, don´t get yourself in anything reckless"

0:01:15.659,0:01:22.958
But I wasn´t worried, I saw that the invitations were on Facebook.

0:01:22.958,0:01:30.302
"We will do the same as Tunisia" "A revolution on so and so date"

0:01:30.302,0:01:36.263
I felt it was a sort of a joke. Not that I took it lightly,

0:01:36.263,0:01:41.184
but felt it was like the Khaled Said protests that we hear a lot about

0:01:41.184,0:01:44.771
and we tried to join them in Alexandria and Cairo.

0:01:44.771,0:01:50.027
I didn´t expect anything more.

0:01:50.027,0:01:56.408
Mona was going with very high hopes, because she had been participating

0:01:56.408,0:02:00.245
for three days, kind of warming up. I wasn´t there.

0:02:00.245,0:02:04.529
I was just the mother worried for her daughter who is going to demos.

0:02:04.529,0:02:08.920
So on January 28th I took part for the first time.

0:02:08.920,0:02:17.369
People were chanting "freedom, human dignity" and stuff like that.

0:02:17.369,0:02:19.622
Fine, I didn´t say anything.

0:02:19.622,0:02:23.685
We started at the Mustafa Mahmoud mosque,

0:02:23.685,0:02:28.148
through Batal Ahmad street, there were a lot of people.

0:02:28.148,0:02:31.568
They started chanting "the people wants to overthrow the regime"

0:02:31.568,0:02:35.783
My daughter Mona was next to me, a young girl with her mother.

0:02:35.783,0:02:38.367
I told her "Hush, don´t chant that"

0:02:38.367,0:02:43.538
She look at me. For me it was the first time I hear this chant.

0:02:43.538,0:02:47.709
And I was startled, thinking if they´ll beat us or kill us.

0:02:47.709,0:02:50.879
The overthrowing of the regime is a big thing.

0:02:50.879,0:02:54.466
So she looked at me, she didn´t understand since she was living

0:02:54.466,0:02:58.097
different stages. I was still new and fresh.

0:02:58.097,0:03:05.769
I don´t know if she ended up chanting, but I remained silent.

0:03:05.769,0:03:14.514
Till the end of January 28th I almost didn´t chant at all.

0:03:14.514,0:03:20.597
Except when riot cops started to move on Asr El-Nil bridge

0:03:20.597,0:03:25.580
I then started to shout and swear.

0:03:25.580,0:03:33.922
They had 4 amroured cars with 3 or 4 rows of police in front of them,

0:03:33.922,0:03:39.354
dressed in black. They moved towards us, the birdge was full of people.

0:03:39.354,0:03:46.371
They were moving as if they were a machine, a moving robot.

0:03:46.371,0:03:51.805
A machine pushing in front of it the big mass of people.

0:03:51.805,0:03:59.948
It was as if they were a black giant walking wall.

0:03:59.948,0:04:03.869
As if those in front were not humans.

0:04:03.869,0:04:07.734
They were moving as if the street was empty.

0:04:07.734,0:04:14.166
My mom first went down on January 28th, I had been protesting

0:04:14.166,0:04:17.424
since Januray 25th. So I had experience.

0:04:17.424,0:04:20.927
I was telling her what to do and when.

0:04:20.927,0:04:25.892
At first I was leading her, but when the teargas started,

0:04:25.892,0:04:31.313
I couldn´t see anything, she was holding me and moving me around.

0:04:31.313,0:04:37.177
When the gas got really heavy she took me in her jacket.

0:04:37.177,0:04:42.866
At some point we went to the front and met someone we know.

0:04:42.866,0:04:47.871
He was hurt badly, bleeding from his face and his body covered with blood.

0:04:47.871,0:04:52.375
He is tall, so since I´m tall too, I supported his body.

0:04:52.375,0:04:57.297
Even though I´m a woman and he is a man, but the others were short.

0:04:57.297,0:05:03.512
Till some people came and said they´d talk him to an ambulance at the other side of the bridge.

0:05:03.512,0:05:10.143
Mona and I know this person, he was Mona´s teacher at school.

0:05:10.143,0:05:15.857
Mona collapsed. She was scared and crying really hard.

0:05:15.857,0:05:19.653
I remember I held her and told her not to be afraid.

0:05:19.653,0:05:21.571
She told me "he is going to die"

0:05:21.571,0:05:24.908
I told her "No, he is fine"

0:05:24.908,0:05:32.374
I had seen his injury, his elbow was hurt and some around his eye.

0:05:32.374,0:05:36.753
But he was conscious and he knew what he was saying.

0:05:36.753,0:05:42.092
But this terrified her.

0:05:42.092,0:05:47.847
People around us were shouting at me, telling me to take her home.

0:05:47.847,0:05:52.185
They felt I was a harsh on her, telling her that he will be fine

0:05:52.185,0:05:55.776
and that she should pull herself together.

0:05:55.776,0:06:02.696
I felt then that if I had taken her home, she won´t be able to continue.

0:06:02.696,0:06:05.115
And she needs to continue, and she has to know that

0:06:05.115,0:06:08.368
people will get hurt, people will fall, people will die.

0:06:08.368,0:06:11.426
But if we don´t continue it won´t work.

0:06:11.426,0:06:16.126
If I get scared and transmit this fear to her, she won´t be able to continue.

0:06:16.126,0:06:18.439
And she is the one who has to go on, we are old

0:06:18.439,0:06:22.882
and thanks to God it´s enough that we´ve witnessed this day.

0:06:22.882,0:06:26.219
I was in the security committee in (Tahrir) square

0:06:26.219,0:06:29.639
I was even at Lazoghli

0:06:29.639,0:06:33.893
We were in charge of checking people on the entrances,

0:06:33.893,0:06:36.896
to see if they have weapons or the like.

0:06:36.896,0:06:42.819
I felt this was humiliating. When I was the one being searched it was totally fine.

0:06:42.819,0:06:50.368
When I was doing the searching, it was uncomfortable to open their bags.. touch them.

0:06:50.368,0:06:55.846
A big part of my participation was outside the square.

0:06:55.846,0:07:03.173
Bringing things to the people there, Mona was more the one participating.

0:07:03.173,0:07:08.261
When she would be in the sqaure, I´d feel she is happy

0:07:08.261,0:07:10.638
and that she feels safe among the people.

0:07:10.638,0:07:13.350
The real problem was me at home not being able to sleep.

0:07:13.350,0:07:18.542
During the Shafik sit-in there was attack on the church in Sol, Atfih

0:07:18.542,0:07:23.693
We heard that there were lots of people, and things were tense (at Maspero)

0:07:23.693,0:07:31.117
It was a bit strange for me, surprised that the Christians are organizing protests

0:07:31.117,0:07:35.080
So I went there (to Maspero) and there were lots of people.

0:07:35.080,0:07:39.250
People who looked like it was their first time at a demonstration.

0:07:39.250,0:07:43.505
People were like "Some were chanting here, others there. What shall we do?"

0:07:43.505,0:07:46.582
And I was like "just go and join"

0:07:46.582,0:07:49.928
So I sat there, and met lots of people.

0:07:49.928,0:07:52.514
At first I got some weird looks.

0:07:52.514,0:07:55.916
First because I´m a girl and it was already late at night.

0:07:55.916,0:07:59.104
Second because I´m veiled, so people thought "what are you doing here?"

0:07:59.104,0:08:02.732
"You must be an infiltrator"

0:08:02.732,0:08:09.239
But I spoke to many and then went back to sleep in (Tahrir) square.

0:08:09.239,0:08:14.074
But after that, when they started the sit-in there (at Maspero)

0:08:14.074,0:08:18.123
They had women in the middle and men on both sides.

0:08:18.123,0:08:22.710
With ropes dividing them. I felt that was strange.

0:08:22.710,0:08:29.718
At first I was with the men, then they told me "go with the women"

0:08:29.718,0:08:35.348
So I felt if I say no, being a veiled woman, it will be too confusing for them.

0:08:35.348,0:08:37.934
And I didn´t want to do anything wrong.

0:08:37.934,0:08:40.270
So I went to where the women were.

0:08:40.270,0:08:43.285
When I was passing under the rope separating men from women

0:08:43.285,0:08:48.069
my veil fell off, and there was a moment of clarity.

0:08:48.069,0:08:51.448
I joined the women and the veil went back on my head.

0:08:51.448,0:08:56.703
Concerning my daughter sleeping in Tahrir, this was of course

0:08:56.703,0:09:00.290
a revolutionary decision. I think.

0:09:00.290,0:09:04.322
This is from the effect of the revolution on our way of thinking.

0:09:04.322,0:09:10.842
I´d remind her that during the Shafik sit-in I took part without any problem.

0:09:10.842,0:09:14.345
But after that the March 9 sit-in was evicted,

0:09:14.345,0:09:23.062
followed by another sit-in that was forcefully evicted by the army on April 9

0:09:23.062,0:09:28.026
I wanted to join the sit-in and she didn´t allow me.

0:09:28.026,0:09:31.696
She started telling me that I was a girl..

0:09:31.696,0:09:36.534
I was confused, asking her "how could you say this to me?"

0:09:36.534,0:09:42.582
Very confused. I told her "You never said this before"

0:09:42.582,0:09:48.046
She told me "we live among people who think this way, and we have to live by their rules"

0:09:48.046,0:09:55.261
I was really really upset with her. Very upset.

0:09:55.261,0:10:01.726
We spent a day upset at each other, then I came to her,

0:10:01.726,0:10:05.814
and asked her if she really believed in what she told me.

0:10:05.814,0:10:07.982
She said "of course not"

0:10:07.982,0:10:11.402
I want to say something really important,

0:10:11.402,0:10:14.586
it is not to remind her because she doesn´t really know it.

0:10:14.586,0:10:18.409
The Mona we knew before January 25th no longer exists.

0:10:18.409,0:10:23.104
Mona became a totally different person after January 25th.

0:10:23.104,0:10:33.675
Mona before Jan 25 was a very shy person, she couldn´t talk to people

0:10:33.675,0:10:39.013
without planning it really well before. "Shall I talk or not?"

0:10:39.013,0:10:43.393
And most of the time ended up not talking to them.

0:10:43.393,0:10:47.605
She used to do Karate exercises to build her self-confidence

0:10:47.605,0:10:52.341
Stuff like that, but now she is totally different.

0:10:52.341,0:10:56.864
Now she is a person who knows what she wants, who knows

0:10:56.864,0:11:05.957
where she is going in life, and has enough convictions and arguments to defend what she believes in.

0:11:05.957,0:11:20.054
This is a transformation that wouldn´t have been possible in such a short time without a revolution.

0:11:20.054,0:11:31.149
I see that the arguments between us have to do with the youth wanting

0:11:31.149,0:11:39.282
everything quickly and the way they see it. Without flexibility or compromises.

0:11:39.282,0:11:46.748
This coming period, the youth who took part in the revolution, not just Mona,

0:11:46.748,0:11:55.173
have to slow down and decide what they want to accomplish

0:11:55.173,0:12:01.596
and plan 1-2-3 steps to get there and how to get there.

0:12:01.596,0:12:05.461
Not just go "Nah, we don´t want this" and that´s it.

0:12:05.461,0:12:08.387
It will take some time and they should accept this.

0:12:08.387,0:12:12.148
But this is all part of growing up.

0:12:12.148,0:12:15.818
O.k. I agree we are asking for a lot of things,

0:12:15.818,0:12:19.072
but I´m not saying we want to build a city in the desert in 3 days.

0:12:19.072,0:12:23.910
I´m sure this will take time, but there are stuff we demand that don´t need time at all.

0:12:23.910,0:12:28.581
Like demanding freedom for the detainees. So free them.

0:12:28.581,0:12:35.838
Of course I tell her. I do tell her.

0:12:35.838,0:12:43.554
I see that she should know, because Mom and I are friends

0:12:43.554,0:12:46.557
we tell each other everything.

0:12:46.557,0:12:54.571
Because the way she is not entitled to prohibit me from something without a valid argument,

0:12:54.571,0:13:01.142
I should tell her everything I´m doing so she knows what she is prohibiting me from.

0:13:01.142,0:13:05.965
I think that the revolution starting... no not that.

0:13:05.965,0:13:14.669
I think that if we remain silent after all those people had taken to the streets, and in the end nothing changes;

0:13:14.669,0:13:19.858
is much worse than if no body had protested in the first place, and we were still waiting for them.

0:13:19.858,0:13:24.137
Unfortunately, we are leaving behind a very complicated task to our kids,

0:13:24.137,0:13:32.917
not easy at all, but in God´s will they will do a good job! The job we couldn´t do.