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“...It's not
considered very bad yet I was shocked by the level of poverty and I was shocked by the
embodiment of the idea of economic openness contrived by Al-Sadat. Al-Sadat had promised
the people in 1973 that since that was the last war they would live in abundance. Of course, he
could not achieve abundance. In 1974 he formulated the laws of economic openness... during
that period men started to leave the country, so many of the men of the village I worked in
were in Iraq, and some Gulf countries but the main bulk was in Iraq. So women did everything,
they farmed, they bred poultry, they made cheese, made butter and if someone had a cow or
some cattle women would raise them. The level of poverty was so drastic that, in the past
people in the countryside used to make their own bread at home, but they didn't even have
wheat so they were fighting over subsidized bread from the government. It became hard to...
poultry for example, only a few people could raise poultry, most of the people would...”
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“...connected to a cause that isn't
exclusively Egyptian and it doesn't have to do with the sustenance of the people, contrary to
that, people were donating from their own sustenance, and yet it found so much solidarity. In
2003 during the invasion of Iraq the same thing happened, there were calls for protests
TAPE 2
Magda Adli: if there was any, and the calling for protests wasn't very open back then, we didn't
have social media websites back then, there were cell phones maybe, or maybe there weren't.
Nonetheless, the call was successful and the state security couldn't intercept it before it
happened, and Tahrir square was full, full to the brink, on the day of the invasion, it was clear
that it was going to happen and we said that in case America invaded Iraq we would be on the
streets on the same day. And we were. We were not just the elites, I don't like that word, "I
don't like to be elite"... and the sit-in in Tahrir continued until dark, and people held protests
the next day, and for security...”
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“...the human rights agenda or the women rights
agenda, never. And whenever the political agenda clashes with the rights agenda, the political
agenda prevails. And all the tours Condoleezza Rice used to make in Mubarak's days regarding
the issue of democracy, with promises that they needed the Egyptian airspace to strike Iraq, all
which diminished with pressures for democracy. They wanted Mubarak to stay to keep the
stability of the region, they didn't understand that Mubarak was the reason of the domestic
unrests that could happen, their vision is so limited. So, they created a show about democracy
and women rights and whatnot, and human rights, but when they needed the oil of Iraq the
Democracy agenda was developed and they supported Mubarak again and Ms. Rice made less
tours in the region. All during Mubarak's term, in fact, and things are still the same and he is
doing the math, how to change the region in order to guard his personal interests and Israel's
interests, which he calls "peace"...”
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“...women rights or anything else, it's pretense, and I don't accept "double measures", as I told my
colleagues before, he who hits his wife cannot defend the people, either you really believe in
every person' right on this earth, not only Americans and Israelis, everyone on earth, to have
their dignity and not to be killed in an unjust war, be it a civil war or an international war, like
what happened in Iraq and what is happening in Syria, anywhere, or just stop talking, it's better
that you keep silent, because this kind of people doesn't have credibility. Women around the
world, in Egypt and elsewhere, can fight together for their rights. In Europe and America,
American women without Obama, American feminists, European feminists, Asian feminists,
African feminists, we can do that, we don't need your pretentious interventions... this is meant
to go on the record, I don't have any problem with the American administration hearing this,
even if I visited the States again and visited Amnesty...”
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