I was invited yesterday to iftar at the Kafr Abu Goma’a village, by the Qalyoubiya real estate tax collectors. After the meal was over, one said: “Metgamma3een 3and elnabi inshallah (Hopefully we’ll gather again in the presence of the prophet – in reference to pilgrimage).” Someone answered back: “And in Jerusalem.”
Dozens of Duweiqa residents have started a sit-in, Sunday night, in front of the Cairo Governorate HQ in Abdeen. The residents are complaining from corruption, nepotism and severe delays that mar the process of the distribution of alternative housing units… The residents are also complaining from arbitrary arrests by the police among the neighborhood’s youth, which usually last from few hours to a couple of days full of intimidation… Central Security Forces trucks are parked at the corners of Abdeen Square, but no clashes have occurred up till now, unlike the previous day. Police officers and informers, however, are hovering around them, urging them to leave and promising that their problems would be solved. The response is usually angry shouts from the women: “We had enough of your lies! You do not have any integrity.”
The protesters were happy to see journalists present in the scene, and several of the women were begging the journalists and photographers not to leave. The police “are not attacking us because you are here,” one of the women said. “If you leave, they’ll eat us. They only get scared of the press.”
I hope fellow journalists, photographers and bloggers would be able to pay them a visit and keep some media presence as much as possible.
