Egyptian children and a teacher talk about the revolution (Note: this was shot before the military’s recent attacks on protesters)
Story Transcript
RABAH SALAH EL DIN, TEACHER (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): Sit here for just a minute to get your pictures taken. Where’s your paper?
SALAH EL DIN (ENGLISH): My name is Rabah Salah el Din. I am a teacher. I teach science for middle school and high school. I come here many times. But this time I’ve chosen to work with children because I’ve seen many children that come into Tahrir square with their parents or sometimes without. Sometimes people come–children come without their parents knowing. When I chose to come here to work with children, I thought: what better than drawings and stories and things like that?
NOHA MOHAMMED IBRAHIM MORSY, AGE 7 (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): My name is Noha Mohammed Ibrahim Morsy. I’m eight years old and in the second grade. I drew the Egyptian flag here. And the person that lives in this house lives in Tahrir Square. So people stay in this house during the day, then go out and chant “down with the regime”.
SALAH EL DIN: Amazingly, children are the best people who get the idea of the Revolution. When I teach, and if I’m talking about science, which is my subject at school, children are not as interested as if we talk about politics. They are completely attentive. They really want to express themselves. They really want to know your ideas about politics. I like to work with children. They understand the situation in Egypt. But they have much more faith in–that Egypt will become better, even more than adults.
HATMA HAMED IBRAHIM, AGE 9 (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): My name is Fatma Hamed Ibrahim. I’m in the fourth grade and I’m nine years old. Tahrir Square is a nice place, except for the sun. The Revolution has removed the heads of the regime and other bad people in Egypt. But people need to continue because they have not yet finished their journey. They have to continue until the end.
ESLAM MOHAMMED IBRAHIM MORSY, AGE 11 (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): My name is Islam Mohammed Ibrahim Morsy. I am 11 years old. Right now we’re in Tahrir Square, so I decided to draw a picture that shows the revolution, the square, and everything happening now. “The people want to overthrow the regime”, and this is what the revolutionaries used to chant when they want to overthrow the ex-president, Hosni Mubarak. I think people should stay in the square until all their demands are met. It’s true many things changed, but there is still corruption. When the corruption is gone, maybe then the protesters can leave. But they have to finish what they started.
End
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