Photo essay

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PORTRAITS OF FREEDOMHEROES OF TAHRIR SQUARE

PICTURES BY PLATON

F E AT U R E

1) April 1, 2011: Egyptians return to Tahrir Square inCairo for a rally to "save the revolution" and protect theirright to demonstrate. 2) Ahmed Seif al-Islam, 60, is aveteran Egyptian lawyer, activist and former politicalprisoner and founder of the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre,which since 2008 has been the leading Egyptian NGOproviding legal assistance to protesters. 3) Heba Morayef,the Cairo-based researcher for Human Rights Watch,covering Egypt. In the middle of the demonstrations andviolence during the Tahrir protests, Morayef visitedhospitals and morgues to document the civilian death tollfrom government attacks and sniper fire. 4) Sama Lotfy,2, Neama el-Sayed, 26, Yassin Lotfy, six months, thechildren and widow of a protester killed by Egyptiansecurity forces during the Tahrir Square demonstrations.1

Images from Cairo’s Tahrir Square have become iconic symbolsof the struggle against oppression and have helped inspire the fightfor human rights across the Middle East and beyond; but many goalsof the Egyptian Revolution are yet to be fulfilled. Repressive laws remainin place, the military continues to detain its critics and prosecute themin military courts and the torturers of the old regime have gone un-punished, prompting thousands to return to the streets to demandgreater reforms. For a look at some of the Egyptians who helpedbegin the process of change in their country, EXECUTIVE presentsin the following pages portraits of men and women from allwalks of life who joined the movement to end HosniMubarak’s 30 years of repressive rule. All photos taken by Pla-ton in April 2011, commissioned by Human Rights Watch.

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OF FREEDOMPORTRAITS

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1) Hossam Bahgat, 31, is the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which he founded in 2002. He has long played a prominent role in exposing human rights violations in Egypt, including the government’s failure to prosecute sectarian violence against Coptic Christians. 2) Muslim-Christian unity youth organizers, from left to right: Moaz Abdel Kareem, 28, from the youth wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and a participant in the Tahrir Square protests. Sally Moore,33, psychiatrist, feminist and Coptic Christian youth leader. Mohammed Abbas, 26, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s youth movement and a leader in TahrirSquare who worked with secular counterparts and the April 6 movement in planning protests. Mohammad Abbas and Sally Moore drafted a “birth certificate of a freeEgypt” shortly after Mubarak’s resignation. 3) Wael Ghonim, 30, the Google regional marketing executive who administered the “We are all Khaled Said” Facebookpage after the young Alexandria man’s brutal killing by police. Ghonim’s passionate appearance on Egyptian television after being detained for 12 days by the security police helped energize the protest movement. 4) Nawal el-Saadawi, 80, an Egyptian writer, veteran women’s rights advocate, psychiatrist and author of morethan 40 fiction and non-fiction books, many of which address the persecution of Arab women. Saadawi’s decades-long struggle for women’s rights and against femalegenital mutilation helped pave the way for the adoption of a historic 2008 law that banned the practice in Egypt.

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1) Sondos Shabayek, 25, a writer for independent Egyptian newspapersand magazines and a “citizen journalist” who participated in and tweetedthe story of the Tahrir Square protests. 2) Sarrah Abdel Rahman, 23, a so-cial medi activist who reported from Tahrir Square with her popular “sar-rahsworld” YouTube commentaries. 3) Laila Said, the mother of 28-year-old Khaled Said, with influential Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim. Speakingout about the torture and murder of her son by Egyptian police in June2010, Laila became known as the “Mother of Egypt” and as an emblem ofthe consequences of endemic police torture and impunity. 4) Alaa al-Aswany, an Egyptian writer born in 1957 and author of acclaimed novelThe Yacoubian Building. He was a founding member of the political oppo-sition movement Kefaya (“Enough”). 5) Ramy Essam, 23, a charismaticsinger, guitarist and songwriter who became famous during the TahrirSquare protests as “The Singer of the Square”, was detained and torturedby the Egyptian military after President Hosni Mubarak fell.

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