Revolution in the Arab World - Observation of a lost soul Blog

foreign policy • revolution in the arab world • 18 days
February 10: ‘We Need to Drag
Him From His Palace’
By Ashraf Khalil
Around 9 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 10, the tens of thousands of people
packing Cairo’s Tahrir Square were beyond euphoric as they reveled in a
sense of hard-fought communal victory. In one section of the vast public
space, a group of flag-draped young men danced around in a sort of conga
line, chanting, “Hosni’s leaving tonight! Hosni’s leaving tonight!”
Elsewhere, a second circle danced to a live drum as a young man sitting
on someone’s shoulders led them in chants of: “We’re the Internet youth/
We’re the youth of freedom.”
A flurry of early evening developments had stoked anticipation that this
would be the night that President Hosni Mubarak would finally surrender
to the demands of the protesters who had occupied Tahrir since Jan. 28
and announce his immediate resignation. State television had announced
that Mubarak would address the country at 10 p.m., and several respectable
news outlets were reporting that he would resign. Thousands more people
continued to stream into the square, determined to be in Tahrir to witness
the historic moment.
I spoke with a young veiled woman named May Gaber, a journalist who
writes for Ikhwanonline, the official website of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Gaber was sporting a large bandage on her face, thanks to a car accident on
Thursday morning. When she heard the news reports, she left the hospital
and came to Tahrir along with her mother and sister.
“I feel like we are halfway down the path. Of course it makes me very
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