Many modern Egyptian mothers want to show that they have an important role to play in society while also considering their children as their first priority. Among these women is Samia Jaheen, a member of the Freedom to the Brave campaign, an activist, and the mother of a five-year-old child, Fatma. Jaheen says that her instincts a mother appeared even when she was taking part as an activist in the 25 January Revolution. “I often see my daughter's picture in front of me when I am demonstrating,” she says. However, Jaheen has also felt the need to make difficult trade-offs between her role as a mother and what her political conscience has told her to do. During the Mohamed Mahmoud Street clashes between the security forces and protestors in 2011, for example, she was standing with other protestors and helping them recover from tear gas. She suddenly felt the need to leave in order to be with her daughter. “Motherhood is stronger than all other things,” she says. “But I took part in the 25 January Revolution for my daughter,” she adds. Jaheen explains that if in future Fatma asks what her mother did during the revolution, she will be able to tell her that she did all she could. She recalls that during the first 18 days of the revolution before the toppling of ousted former president Hosni Mubarak, she could not stay in Tahrir Square because she had to look after Fatma, just two years old at the time. She and her husband used to switch shifts, she says. Jaheen says that even if she, like other women, cannot always participate physically in protests, women can have different rolls to fulfill. She takes part in events related to human rights, for example, one of them being the Freedom to the Brave campaign that she is currently working with that helps the detained through collecting information about them, including on how they were arrested and whether they have been mistreated. She has also volunteered to help those injured in the revolution, including the families of those who died and detainees' families. Jaheen tries not to expose herself to danger for the sake of her daughter. However, she believes that this is not always possible. She recalls that she was beaten while the police were dispersing a protest organised by the No Military Trials for Civilians group on 26 November last year in front of the Shura Council in Cairo. “I never thought someone would specifically target me. But when he did so, I fell to the ground,” she said. She knows that participating in demonstrations places her in danger and that she runs the risk of arrest at any time. Jaheen says that she does not necessarily want her daughter to follow in her footsteps. “She is the one who will decide what her priorities are and what morals she wants to hold onto.” However, she wants to teach her daughter how to express herself and the importance of knowing that her happiness will only come when those around her are also happy. Jaheen started “intensively” to protest after the 25 January Revolution, though the first time she took part in a protest was at Cairo University during the second Palestinian Intifada and during the Iraqi war. “I was never that politically active,” she says, “but I used to participate when the cause touched me personally.” However, she has always been attracted to cultural events, possibly also a form of political participation. In her first year at university she used to go to poetry events about poets Salah Jaheen — her father — and Fouad Haddad, she says, Egyptian poets who wrote about ordinary people's lives. In this case, life equals politics, Jaheen explains. The writer is a freelance journalist.
