Interviews with Samar El Hussieny

Actually, when the – when the government – the regime has shut down the Internet service during the revolution, I think this is the their fatal mistake because when they just shut down the Internet service, most of the people who were supporting the revolution but they were staying at home and trying to following up what’s happening and collecting some information from some social networkers, from some websites, they will not – they weren’t able to get this information, so they has to go out to the streets, participate and know what’s happening.

And that’s how in the 28th of January it was like millions and millions in the streets fighting. And this is the specific moment when the regime was (whew) done. And in – I think in one hour between 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., on the 28th of – in January 2011, there wasn’t any institution in our country can lead this country. The ministry of interior collapsed. The – Mubarak and his followers, they didn’t know what to do and this is – this is when the solution of the military has pop up to the situation. OK, we are going to have the military in the streets. And they started ruling the country from this point.

Samar El Hussieny grew up in a politically oriented family in Egypt. Her father was a socialist opposition politician. She studied political science and has worked in the human rights field since 2005. She participated in several student awareness activities for youth during her college years and has been active in various civil society projects concerning human rights education, election monitoring and minority rights. She is a Program Officer at the Andalus Institute for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies and is pursuing a master’s degree in political science.

Samar has been an activist in the Egyptian Revolution that began on January 25, 2011. She continues to work to promote freedom and support democracy during her country’s transitional period. Samar has also been intensively engaged on initiatives related to elections in Egypt. In addition to monitoring elections and the political process, she is involved in projects relating to minority rights, social media, and transitional justice in Egypt. Samar seeks to support reform movements and non-violent revolutions in the Arab World and beyond.

Samar was among the inaugural group of the George W. Bush Institute’s Women’s Initiative Fellowship Program in 2012, a leadership program designed to empower and equip women to catalyze change.

Samar hopes to be elected to national office and is planning to run for President of Egypt one day.