Sixteen months since the January 25 revolution, nothing has changed and the revolutionaries' demands haven't been met. All that has happened is that many young people were martyred during the revolution. The martyrs' families are grieving for their loved ones who died, in order to achieve justice and freedom for all. But this has yet to happen. Successive governments have neglected the martyrs' right to financial compensation, as well as failing to provide treatment for the injured. The martyrs' families want the killers of the demonstrators to be swiftly punished, as well as social justice. “We are waiting for the new president to give us our rights,” says the family of one of the martyrs. “Our sons died so that others could enjoy freedom and justice.” “My martyred son has a baby, born after he died in the revolution. He was our family's only breadwinner. Now, we have no-one to feed us,” the mother of another martyr, who has left four children orphaned, told The Egyptian Gazette. “The first task for the next president is to meet the martyrs' families' demands,” Rania Shawqi, the Chairwoman of the Martyrs and Victims Committee of the revolution, told the same newspaper. “I was one of the volunteers who collected information from the families of martyrs and injured. “We have suffered a lot, because the families of martyrs have only been paid LE30,000 of the LE100,000 they are meant to have been paid,” Shawqi added. “I lost my child, Sayyed, 12. He was my only son,” Hajja Um Sayyed, from Imbaba, told the same newspaper. “I can no longer have children, but I consider all Egyptian children who are killed to be my sons,” she said. “I have only one thing to ask of the new president: that he kills those who killed our sons. I don't care about the money; I want revenge,” she added. I wasn't martyred in the revolution but I did lose my left eye. All the governments since the revolution have given false promises,” Mohamed Salim, 29, told this newspaper. “The President will have a lot to do, but he should solve our problems. He should not be greedy for power; rather, he should achieve freedom and social justice,” Salim said.
