Abeya El-Bakry conveys the views of Egyptian children on sociopolitical transformation A three-year-old sat on her father's shoulder among the crowds, waving the Egyptian flag and enthusiastically crying Tahya Masr (Long live Egypt); many days earlier, a thirteen-year-old boy had been shot, one of the revolution's martyrs. What goes on in children's minds is a question their sincerity and enthusiasm instantly raises. "What's going on in our children's minds?" asks Dr Afaf Owais, lecturer at the Faculty of Early Childhood in Cairo University, who represented her faculty during the Cairo Children's Film Festival at the Cairo Opera House. Research conducted on 48 children, girls and boys, from rural and urban Egypt showed deep-seated convictions concerning the place of women in contemporary Egypt, impressions about the army and police officers, and Muslim-Christian relations. The pictures they were shown to start a discussion included children standing in crowds during the revolution, a Christian priest and a Muslim Sheikh hand in hand, women during the demonstrations, unveiled women during the demonstrations, young men shaking hands with the army, and an old man kissing a young police officer. "Demonstrations will happen again and we're the ones who will go out to defend Egypt," said one small boy. Referring to the protests, another added, "We go to see how Egypt will become." According to a third, "Everyone should go, it doesn't matter how young they are." A fourth boy said these demonstrations happened so that Egyptian children could lead a good life like everyone else. But the girls in the study had different views. One argued that "the father takes the whole family, and whoever will die, will die." With the number of martyrs rising every day on television during the 25 January demonstrations, the girls could only think of martyrdom and death thinking about the Revolution - "they might die", "there are martyrs", "to become martyrs" were their catchphrases. Regarding Muslim-Christian relations, older boys were more tolerant of Christians than girls and younger boys. "They fight on our side," one of the older boys said, and "they protect the Muslims when they are praying," another said. "We have the Koran and they have the Bible" was also heard. Christian children were also conscious of the potential conflict: --they want us to hate each other"; "there are no problems at all in the school or in the club". Another said, "If a Christian boy loves a Muslim girl that is wrong and because of that churches will be torn down." Some of the children did say that "if the Christian people help us, then they are nice". Then again, they turned out to be uncertain about even the idea of nationality. They simply say, "They [the Christians] don't like Egyptians." Others had similar views: "they're snobs" and "they don't celebrate our festival"; even "they hate us". The children prove to be a far cry from previous generations in which next door neighbours all around Egypt used to share their festival bakes, and to freely invite each other to weddings and willingly attend each others' funerals: memories which are keenly remembered by parents and grandparents when they witness tragic events resulting from religious differences. These children have different social backgrounds, which affects their views and calls for further research, and certainly requires efforts to raise social and religious awareness. Owais says that to ask their views about Muslim-Christian relations, she had to look familiar -- especially in rural areas where the children are unused to seeing women without hijab. "I had to wear a traditional long dress and a head scarf among the village children, otherwise they wouldn't have spoken to me," she argued. Even gender issues were at stake. Boys disliked the idea of girls participating in demonstrations -- a view especially predominant among the younger boys in the countryside. Girls naturally disagreed with this point of view, while older boys supported it. "I don't know why they've (the girls) gone out," one boy said. "They don't know how to fight." In fact the view was further affected by females not wearing hijab. Unsurprisingly, girls did not express a clear opinion as the boys -- old and young -- disapproved of unveiled girls' participating in protests. Taking into account that the demonstrations had the reputation of being safe for girls and free of harassment, especially during the 18-day sit-in, and the fact that hijab is a personal choice in Egypt, the boys' views prompt attention. Christian participants understood the idea of personal choice, even if one child commented, --But now since Parliament consists of the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis, they should all wear the veil and cover their faces." Without clearly developed knowledge of personal freedom and institutional legislation or how they affect family relation and actions, gender issues may become strained in the near future. How women are represented in literature and the arts is a cause for concern; stronger media coverage should be created to strategically offset misconceptions about women's role in society. "The army fulfills the revolutionaries' demands" and "it is the people who force the army not to like them" are examples of the girls' positive views on the army's role and its relation to the people. Yet, boys were more negative regarding that relationship, with younger boys more vocal in expressing their views. "Sometimes I like them, and sometimes I dislike them," one said. "The army has killed the people"; "the army doesn't love the people"; "they're not taking care of the country": all were heard. "During the revolution they were nice, but now there are so many martyrs." And it was nearly the same with the police forces. Among girls at the intermediary stage in the countryside, there were positive feelings for the police; not so among the boys, especially the young ones. Yet ultimately their formal role in catching thugs and the fact that some of them died in Tahrir Square as well as their being also people, their only difference being in education, were redeeming qualities which made them acceptableE Such impressions raise questions about the children's knowledge base -- and their understanding. Their views, however clearly stated, are not based on a factual account of events but rather are formed by their shifting memories: what they see on television, what they hear from their families, accounts of events conveyed in school and in the community. Yet they are valuable responses. Their actual growth and critical understanding is being affected by adults isolating them as children, and not listening to what they have learned from the revolution, which may be locked up in the child's memory all the way into adulthood. From a psychological perspective, this memory extracted from the conscious mind through open discussion and listening will help, socially, politically, educationally and institutionally, to develop a better grasp of with the issues at stake with a view to more effective integration and socio-political development.
