CAIRO: “Aha! You are from Hamas! Why are you betraying Egypt with your foreign agenda?” During the days of the revolution, my friend Heba never expected to be standing outside our old apartment downtown, hearing these words from her landlord. During the days of phone and Internet outages between January 25 and February 11, I was hungrily trying to get a hold of friends in Egypt and find out the news on the ground. When I finally got in touch with my friend Heba, who was in Tahrir Square protesting daily, she told me news I was not expecting: “Mohamed (our landlord) saw my photo in the newspaper and kicked me out of the apartment.” Pleading for more details, unable to imagine how only a month ago, Heba and I was standing on the balcony of our old apartment on Talaat Harb Street, taking in the views of downtown crowds outside Cinema Miami. Now, in addition to fighting for Egypt's freedom from Mubarak's 30-year rule, Heba was facing the challenge of pursuing her own justice. “Mohamed called me on Thursday while I was in Tahrir Square and said, ‘What are you doing in those demonstrations? You have to leave my apartment.' He was adamant so I agreed but asked him to give me two days to remove my things from the apartment. But after only 15 minutes he called and threatened that if I did not come retrieve my things now he would change the lock to the apartment and I would not be able to return.” Heba took off panicked to the apartment, accompanied by two friends. She went and met many people in the building as one man dragged her upstairs, while others fought with her friends. When she reached the apartment, the whole building was watching. “Strangers were holding my passport and my laptop. Mohamed and his wife were there, shouting in front of everyone. By the time I arrived it was too late to do anything, the situation had already broken out into chaos. I started crying, not because I was afraid but because I didn't get to take with me the things I loved. Mohamed boasted to me, ‘Those people down there want to take your stuff, but I told them not to!' He expected me to thank him! I held back my anger just so I could retrieve my passport, computer and certificates.” Heba started to collect other personal items when suddenly people started dragging her out of the apartment, accusing her being a prostitute. One of them held a whip, and shouting, ‘You are from Hamas and Israel. You are destroying the country!' When Heba went downstairs, her two friends informed her that Mohamed had taken residents to the apartment and showed them condoms and birth control he planted in her room. “This has not only happened to me,” Heba explained to me, “it's happened to many protesters in the movement. How can you try to blame a few people for Egypt's demonstrations? Look at how many people were out there!” Heba continued: “It's easier to throw a male out on the street than a female for participating in demonstrations. That is why Mohamed framed me as a prostitute. Without that, it would be too cruel, no one would agree. I will sue him for saying I'm a prostitute. In Egypt, you cannot defame someone without evidence.” Summing up her feelings about the situation: “Truthfully, I am not mad at Mohamed for telling me to leave, but I am so furious for the way he treated me. In our contract it states that I will not do anything illegal, so he had to prove I was doing something illegal to get me out. This is not about Mubarak staying or leaving. This is about ethics. Mohamed kicked me out on the street, defamed me as a prostitute, and completely invaded my privacy. Even a gentleman that supports Mubarak wouldn't do this. This is not human.” Heba added, “I trust my friends who supported me through this, and will support me through this lawsuit. I know we will make him regret this.” As Egyptians do beautiful things to support a new age for their reclaimed country, times are still uncertain, and one might wonder what remains of the corruption that takes only these types of one-on-one encounters to continue. As Egypt searches for its own justice, individuals like Heba will work hard to fight for theirs. ** Danielle Feinstein is a Senior at the Elliot School of International Affairs at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. BM
