The sit-in in Tahrir the first time around was nothing short of Utopia. Or so it seemed to many of us.
People from all classes and backgrounds of a segregated, elitist, and classist society stood side by side, shared food, discussions, and jokes, and took bullets for one another. Everyone looked after everyone else (though it got a bit chaotic during the larger protests on Fridays and Tuesdays). Women were not harassed. People were cleaning up after themselves. Medics volunteered their time and risked their lives to save lives and help those who have been injured.
I had hoped that we would be able to take this unspoken code of ethics we developed in Tahrir out into our everyday lives. Making our everyday lives utopia was not what I was expecting or hoping for, but I was hoping for a drastic improvement, a few steps towards a more permanent utopia.
Soon after, I realised that I was looking at the world through rose tinted glasses. We need another revolution specifically to clean the garbage and stop littering, and another revolution just for sexual harassment.
We took to Tahrir again, and I was looking forward to reliving this utopia. But I have not been able to find it. I am disappointed now that we are back to the square, we are unable to achieve the utopia we once had there.
I was harassed several times in Tahrir the last days. Even carrying supplies to the field hospitals, I was harassed. Now, are these thugs or police in civilian clothes, or normal agenda-free Egyptians (those who only have the “harass-women-agenda”)? I could not tell.
I wonder today, was Tahrir ever utopia? Or did we just want to see and experience utopia, and we thus imagined it? I feel that perhaps it was not as perfect as I remember it being. I just remember the perfection because of the circumstances then. Was I blinded by hope and optimism?
Thoughts of a Sapphist Living on the Nile 