As I've watched the images from Taharir Square on CNN this week, I am struck by irony. This is the same square I walked across 26 years ago with my soon-to-be husband, his brother, and a friend of his brother's, who would be the second witness at my marriage (I don't even know his name). A huge, institutional looking government building housed the room where Egyptians who wanted to marry foreigners had to go to get registered - i.e., legally married. My husband had to fill out five identical copies of a three-page form by hand, in Arabic. I said the Shehada - the Muslim commitment of faith. My husband's brother and his friend signed the all papers as witnesses, and we were married. Osama had to pay me a marriage "gift," according to Islamic law. The minimum amount was equivalent to about a quarter of a U.S. dollar. Osama convinced me that it was better to write down the minimum amount, because we would have to pay a tax on it. The next day we went to the post office so Osama could call my father in the United States (the only place you could make international calls in those days), to ask for my hand in marriage.
Last Monday that same brother's daughter, now an archeology student in university in Cairo, and our daughter, who was in Cairo on a foreign exchange program from the U.S., went through the National Egyptian Museum together - the museum in that same Taharir Square that houses Egypt's most precious antiquities, including the treasures from King Tut's tomb. The next day, Tuesday, January 25th, the demonstrations for democracy began.
I decided to start this blog - finally - for several reasons. First, to spare my friends the agony of having to listen to me trying to articulate what is happening in Egypt without overwhelming them with my intensity. If anyone wants to know anything from now on - or if I want them to know something - I can just refer them to my blog and they can read (or not) at their leisure.
Second, I decided to start this because I have been privately writing about Egypt and my life for years, planning to "someday write a book...." But the demonstrators have made me realize that someday might never come. The only time we have is now (that's the thought that's kept me up all night writing this first blog entry).
But third, and most important, those pro-democracy demonstrators, who have included my Egyptian sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews, have inspired me to move beyond the fear that has so far prevented me from sharing my stories and thoughts.... fear of publicly criticizing a regime because it might have ugly consequences for my Egyptian family.... fear of conservative Islamists who would take exception to many of my thoughts about Islam. We have all moved beyond fear this week, Alhamduh Li'llah - thank God!
Thomas Jefferson has always been my favorite American patriot, for his brilliance and for his fatal flaws. He knew his struggle was only the beginning of a process that would have to continue in America, and then around the world. "The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time," he said. But he also said "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
The fight for freedom is now in Egypt. It did not really start in Taharir Square last Tuesday, and it will not be over when the regime finally falls. I have been living that struggle in the decades since I married, and my Egyptian family and their fellow citizens have been living it for far longer than that - since Napoleon first invaded Egypt in 1798.
This blog will be the stories of our struggles - past, present, and future. It will be my story - a now 57 year old woman raised on a farm in Maryland; a Unitarian Universalist who left her farm, went to college and out to discover the world - France, Thailand, Peace Corps in Benin, back to Washington, DC to work and continue graduate school, and finally to meet the young doctor in Egypt who won her most important commitment. It will also be the story of him and his family, a story that has been turned upside down since last week, and that finally needs to be told.
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