Interviews with Nora Younis

My name is Nora Younis. I was born in Cairo, grew up in Cairo, studied English literature in Cairo. I´m now 34 years. My relationship to politics actually started with the Palestinian movement. I was part of the Egyptian Committee to Support the Palestinian intifada. And I was participating in a lot of meetings, demonstrations, and all the group activities. But then I was completely– I don´t know what to say, shocked with the U.S. invasion of Iraq, or maybe depressed. In a single moment, just was the invasion of Baghdad, I decided not to watch news anymore.

I completely disconnected. I no longer listened to the radio. I did not read newspapers. I didn´t want to know what was happening because just I couldn´t take it. Later on, I realized that I missed so much, because I later learned that on the 20th of March, 2003, there were 20,000 Egyptians demonstrating in Tahrir Square. And this was the largest ever demonstration that Egypt witnessed. And later, I felt that I missed so much because I did not participate in it just because I wanted to shut my ears off. Thank God I witnessed a revolution, and even bigger demonstrations. So– something paid back at the end. But after years of disconnection, like this was from 2003, I returned back to politics in 2005.

It was a whole– like I was working in a project in Venezuela. I was completely disconnected from what´s happening in Egypt and the Middle East. And I was still in this state that I didn´t want to know what was happening. And I felt like I will not be able to change it myself. So I didn´t want to know. I returned to Egypt.

I had an opportunity to work on a project with a film crew from PBS. They were making a documentary about the state of democracy in Egypt. And I found myself in the middle of all those interviews with all those political leaders and activists and dissidents in Egypt. I was listening to everything, translating, you know, helping with everything. And then I just found myself digesting so much information. And I realized that there is so much happening now in the country that completely brought me back.

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