Interviews with Mahmoud Afifi

We had wide activity in the streets through our groups. We were trying to organize awareness campaigns almost everywhere, at the university, in factories, in public squares, and we were trying to gather public opinion against the regime itself.

We used to organize demonstrations, we weren’t convinced with many laws, besides that there was also a general hatred for the regime. Thus, we used to conduct demonstrations at different times against the regime, or a particular decision, or a particular law. We used to gather through demonstrations, sit-ins, and through our presence in the middle of the street yelling “Step Down, Hosni Mubarak “[Hosni Mubarak was the former Egyptian President who was deposed during the Arab Spring uprising].

We were trying to make it snowball so that the day comes when all the people come out in the streets and say “Step Down, Hosni Mubarak” without fear and without having any problem. We were trying to make a large snowball and break the barrier of fear that people have through, for example, standing in front of the Office of the General Attorney, or at the stairs of the Union of Journalists yelling “Step Down, Hosni Mubarak .” We were a group of 50 or 100 people at most, so people used to look at us surprised that few number of youth in their 20’s or 30’s are yelling “Step Down, Hosni Mubarak” but we aimed to break the fear in people.

Sometimes, we used to work on the demonstrations surprise strategy in popular areas and lower-class areas. We used to make it in a day without announcing any details, a group of our members gather, for example, 100 or 150 and go to lower-class areas and make a demonstration against high prices, unemployment, and low wages. We used to shout slogans against the regime and stir up public discontent in populous areas.

This was of course, in addition to organizing awareness campaigns, fairs in the university, focusing on the crimes committed by the regime, so that we show the extent of the brutality of this regime. For instance, the crime of torture committed against Khaled Saeed and Sayed Belal [separate incidents of young Egyptians who were beaten to death by Egyptian security forces].

We used to participate in all the stands that were called for by other political forces through coordinating with them so that we make political crowds and general discontent on the regime and to break the barrier of fear that people had.

Mahmoud Afifi is an Egyptian democracy activist with the April 6th Youth Movement, a group formed in 2008 to support striking workers; afterwards, it transformed into a nationwide opposition network against Hosni Mubarak’s regime. Today, Afifi serves as the Director of the April 6th Youth Movement’s Information Office. He is a lawyer by profession and graduated from Banha University in 2006.

Afifi joined the April 6th Youth Movement in 2009 and founded the group’s chapter in Egypt’s Qalyubia governorate. There he rallied youth to take part in various awareness campaigns and street protests against the government. As part of this strategy, he engaged the poorest segments of the population and strengthened their voice in the political arena. Following his success in Qalyubia, Afifi worked to organize April 6th Youth Movement campaigns at the national level. As the government cracked down on these demonstrations, Afifi was arrested several times and even abandoned in the desert.

Prior to the Egyptian Revolution that unseated President Hosni Mubarak, Afifi coordinated with other organizations encouraging citizens to participate in a January 25, 2011 demonstration in Cairo. On that day, Afifi marched to Tahrir Square with thousands of others demanding Mubarak’s resignation and a free Egypt. The protests intensified and expanded nationwide. Almost three weeks later, on February 11, 2011, Hosni Mubarak stepped down from power ending his 30 year reign.