video below
original post on mainboard
http://www.bgol.us/board/showthread.php?p=9470771#post9470771
Asmaa Mahfouz is a small frame woman, who does not cut an intimidating figure. But looks are deceiving. Born in Egypt in 1984, she is a graduate of the business management school of the American University in Cairo. She's 26 years old. She was mentioned yesterday, not by name, in an MSNBC report by Richard Engel. Curiosity drove me to find her.
Asmaa Mahfouz witnessed and deplored what happened to Alexandria's Khaled Said. And she also witnessed the self immolations that took place in Tunisia, and subsequently in Egypt. In an interview she granted MEMRI, she expressed the fears that her peers felt about 'doing something' in the face of a regime that had kept its people oppressed, oftentimes beaten, tortured and killed.
In the spring of 2008, Asmaa had seen a successful support of workers strike in the industrial town of El-Mahalla El-Kubra on April 6th. Using social media, Asmaa and two other bloggers Ahmed Maher and Ahmed Salah contacted participants, security services to inform them of their activity, as well as lawyers to ensure their protection. This became known in Egypt as the April 6th Youth Movement.
She was determined to seize the moment as Tunisia showed the Arab World that it was possible for a popular uprising to defeat a dictator. Her primary 'weapon' of choice was Facebook. She was angry that no one wanted to do anything:
'Yes. I wrote that whoever is worried about this country should come with me, and that anyone who is worried about me or thinks that I am mentally ill should come in order to protect me. If anyone thinks I might set fire to myself – I have no such intentions. If the police wants to burn me – fine, I will be at Tahrir Square in half an hour.
There were lots of messages saying: Wait until January 25. I said: There is no reason to wait for the 25th. I went to Tahrir Square and raised a sign. Three guys from the political movement joined me. My sign read: 'Four Egyptians have died from humiliation and poverty.'
I began to shout at the top of my lungs in Tahrir Sqare: 'Egyptians, four people set themselves on fire out of humiliation and poverty. Egyptians, four people set fire to themselves because they were afraid of the security agencies, not of the fire. Four people set fire to themselves in order to tell you to awaken – we are setting ourselves on fire so that you will take action. Four people set themselves on fire in order to say to the regime: Wake up. We are fed up. We are setting ourselves on fire in order to convey a message.'
Then I began to talk about thirty years of corruption'
Then she took to the airwaves, and broadcast an urgent appeal to her Egyptian brothers and sisters, saying 'I am going down to Tahrir Square on January 25th'. Tell your friends to tell their friends. Clearly she understands viral marketing. She was able to mobilize the million that turned up in Cairo and the thousands that showed up in other cities like Alexandria and Suez.
As expected in a dictatorship, she and her family were subjected to harassment by Egyptian security forces. When the new government was announced by Hosni Mubarak last week, they requested to meet with her, a request she declined.
Continue reading on Examiner.com: Meet Asmaa Mahfouz: the woman who organized Egypt's historic demonstrations - National Foreign Policy | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/foreign-pol...egypt-s-historic-demonstrations#ixzz1CsRQgrzk
