Growing up my mother taught me about fairness. She said all human beings are born equal, that a person’s worth is not measured by the amount of money they have, their profession, or their social class. She told me to treat people the way I would want to be treated… with respect.
As I grew older I realized what my mother taught me could not be further away from reality in Egypt.
I came to understand that people in my country are not only measured by their social class, but are defined by it. Citizenship rights are only attainable to those who can afford them.
When I turned sixteen and had to get my ID card I simply went to a guy, who knew a guy, who knew my family. He took me to the front of the line and asked the administrator to finish my paperwork and take my photograph.
In less than half an hour I walked out of the office, ID card in hand. All it took was a few folded notes disguised as handshakes.
Those who didn’t know someone who knew someone who could help them out, who didn’t have twenties to spare, waited in the back of the line either to be told to come back another time or to be treated with absolute disrespect by the person handling their papers.
It was more or less the same procedure for my driver’s license, and renewing my passport.
Some call it bribery; others call it charity, a way of helping those less fortunate.
Somewhere along the line, the helping hand began buying people reverence. An individual’s esteem was judged by the size of his pocket.
In the new Egypt, people will not be bought and sold. In the new Egypt I want to stand in line with others, to see everyone treated properly, not for their connections but for the simple fact that they’ve done nothing to deserve otherwise. Egyptians should not have to feel like foreigners inside their own country.
No one should be above the law, not the doorman and not the president. They will be equals, one and the same, praised for their good deeds, reprimanded for their mistakes.
The way Tahrir Square was between January 25th and February 11th is what the new Egypt should be like, a land of parallels, of equality, of equally important Egyptians, worth the same in each other’s eyes.
This I believe.
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