Interviews with Sally Sami

In time, it´s the historical moments; they´re the moments when people are ready. It´s ripe for activism, I guess. The 2005 arrests were during the movement for the independence of the judiciary. It was the year 2004, 2005. 2006, it started to fade away. In 2007 a wave of protests. The first real protests against Mubarak, against the handing over of the power to Gamal. [Gamal Mubarak, Hosni Mubarak’s younger son, was widely viewed as being groomed to succeed his father in office.] And these were the beginnings.

I mean, these were– during these years, we pushed for a margin of freedom, you know, and we won a margin of freedom. It was crackdown, but still, we earned more vibrant media. We earned more information. And we earned a street that was ready for people to go down and protest. All of this was paving the way for today, in many ways. 2005, the Egyptian society was not yet feeling that it´s reached its limit.

People were not yet convinced that Mubarak is about to die. 2010, we are all waiting for Mubarak to die, and we don´t know what´s going to happen. Suddenly, and I have to link it again to Baradei. [Mohamed El-Baradei is an Egyptian politician, diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. He was a key figure in the Egyptian Revolution.] Suddenly there is an option. El-Baradei comes back.

There is an option of an alternative that doesn´t have to be from the Mubarak family. The economic situation was getting worse. People– even the middle class was being crushed. Even those who were lucky enough to have a good– people like me, they´re not poor or not very rich. But they also felt that they were vulnerable. So it´s all these– people felt more and more that they were losing their dignity. So it was a moment, a moment that brought everything together, plus, Khaled. [Khaled Saeed was a young Egyptian who was beaten to death by government security forces in 2010. His death helped to rally opposition to the Mubarak government.]

Sally Sami has been a human rights defender for nearly a decade. She was one of the main coordinators of the Front to Defend Egypt’s Protesters (FDEP) during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Sami continues to defend human rights, but has become involved in politics and currently is a leading member of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and has been elected its Secretary General for Civil Society Affairs.

Twitter: @salamander