CAIRO-Asmaa Mahfouz recently got involved in political life, rather than just being a spectator, who watches what unfolds on the political arena with her arms folded. She did so via Facebook, the most popular social networking site. "Facebook is a useful tool for participating in political life, because it is available for most people," Asmaa, a 25-year-old political activist, told the Egyptian Mail. "The situation is different in Egypt with respect to freedom of opinion. Facebook quenches our thirst, allowing us to express ourselves freely without any restrictions whatsoever," she added. Facebook users are growing and growing, because of the services and activities offered via many groups, taking into account the variety of ages and purposes of each user. Some forms of youth participation have no less political significance, importance or impact than participation in official events. Chief among the electronic tools for this participation is the Internet. International statistics and reports indicate that youth are the biggest category using the Internet as a source of information, because it is one of the cheapest and fastest tools at hand. "Facebook is basically a social network for people to get to know each other, so they can help each other in their daily problems," said Asmaa. "It is the biggest gathering of young people on the Internet, which is why I myself and many others have chosen it to start our political activity." Online activists and bloggers, as well as the participants in Facebook and Youtube, are now behind political action in many parts of the world, and it appears that the extent of the success of so-called “electronic democracy” now rests largely on young people. But success must always be measured against a government's practices through its laws and legislation -" and these are often inadequately developed in many countries. "It is a social site in the first place, which makes it easy for everyone to get to know each other, enabling them to share ideas by logging on," Youssra Nagati, a 24-year-old translator, told this newspaper. "The Government, in one way or another, is always curbing the freedom of young people to express themselves. So they try to indulge in political life to confirm their existence in this arena. "There is no so-called political life in Egypt, and there are many restrictions on the political parties. We are trying to create a real political atmosphere which may lead to reform, justice and welfare," she added. Nevertheless, the Internet ��" under a variety of regimes including Egypt's ��" has significantly contributed to expanding the scope for freedom of personal and individual expression and breaking official organisations' monopoly of channels of communication. "Facebook had a pioneering role in urging people to do something positive in the famous case of Khaled Saeed in Alexandria," Asmaa said, referring to the death of an Egyptian blogger last July allegedly at the hands of two policemen. Their trial will resume on September 25. "This was also because of the videos published on the Youtube, the popular site for videos,” argues Asmaa. "Facebook is also a tool to teach the citizen how to communicate and interact with others, how to express himself freely and how to demand his legal rights," Sherif Hafez, a specialist in political science, told this newspaper. "All the ingredients for a real political life are available; what we need to do is seize the chance to reform our society and political life. I do believe that youth can make some progress via the Internet." There are around 13 million Internet users in Egypt, according to 2009 statistics. This means that almost two out of every eight citizens goes to the Internet for information, business and personal usage. This is an increase of almost threefold since 2005, and for many Egyptians logging on has become a daily practice. This also means that the number of daily Internet users in Egypt is much higher than the number of newspapers readers, according to experts. "This is the very tool we have long been searching for a long time," said Asmaa. "There are many tools on the internet, such as Facebook, Twitter . "There is an activity on Facebook called events that enables the members of an event to meet with each other and to share ideas, discuss problems and offer solutions," Hafez, the specialist in political science said. "The important and eye-catching thing about Facebook is that it is something youth want to use in order to participate in political life. After all, Facebook has been used by public figures like Barack Obama for campaigning.
