Wednesday, July 13, 2011

The Egyptian Revolution: Adel El-Daba's Personal Account

Photo Credit
I just got back from hearing Adel El-Daba (Chair, World Languages Department, Cairo American College) speak at the BYU Kennedy Center. He talked about his experience with the Egyptian Revolution. He said that he didn't want to talk about why it happened, the before, or the after he wanted to talk about what was happening in the moment of the revolution. I thought it was really interesting that he focused a lot of his talk on the unity that the revolution brought to the people in Tahrir Square. He said you could see Christians and Muslims praying together and women were seen as more of equals during this time, they were treated with more respect. So with their differences aside, they all stood together, in the cold, barely getting any sleep, people getting injured badly, but they were unified in their goal and this made them all stronger and willing to stand tall. The way he described it was really emotional and inspiring. He was a brilliant speaker. He also talked about the people who died for this cause. He saw a man, newly married, who was bleeding and about to die and this man told his friend not to leave Tahrir Square but to keep fighting (I don't remember the exact words) and then Adel El-Daba said that this really struck him and he knew that those people who died for this cause were one of the main reasons to keep fighting for it. Then he sang some verses from the koran for those people and it was really captivating. I think Arabic is actually a really beautiful language. I admire the Egyptian people for having the courage they did and still do to bring about a change for their country that will last forever. Pretty cool, I must say.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This was my Arabic teacher at CAC. He is an amazing person, who always told me to call him bubba, like a father-like figure. Always there for me. Miss you Adel!