The Night Circus - ANTHEA

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER SIX: THE PHARAOH
Samira Ibrahim, a sales manager at a cosmetics company in Upper Egypt, traveled for eight
hours to get to Tahrir Square in early 2011. The protests had already started. Although
only 25 years old, she had been attending demonstrations and marches since she was
a girl. Once she arrived in Cairo, she didn’t leave. For days, she camped out among the
crowds. She was there when President Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11th,
and for the raucous celebration that followed. But, even after Mubarak was gone and
most people had returned home, Samira stayed. She was among a group of roughly 1,000
demonstrators who believed they must camp out in the square as a reminder to Egypt’s
generals, who had now assumed control of the country, of the promises that remained
unfulfilled. The revolution, in her mind, was incomplete. So, on the afternoon of March
9th, nearly a month after Mubarak fled Cairo, Samira was still there.
The violence began a little after three o’clock. A large group of thugs gathered near the
roundabout in Tahrir. They were shouting at the demonstrators, peaceful protestors
like Samira, yelling, “The people want the square cleared! Evict them from the square!”
These thugs, many of whom carried wooden sticks and metal pipes, began to circle
the roundabout. When they came close to the entrance of the metro station, they
started throwing stones and pavers from the street at the protestors. They charged the
demonstrators’ encampment in the middle of the square, tearing down tents and beating
up those who stood in their way. “We started sending SOS messages over Facebook,
trying to get others to come and help us,” recalls Ahmed Amer, a 24 year-old activist who
was in the square at the time. “Our numbers started to grow and the newcomers were
helping to defend our tents. The thugs attacked us using blades, and we would defend
ourselves with stones.”
When the demonstrators first saw military units arrive, they thought they were coming
to their defense. After all, the Egyptian military had been their liberators during the
revolution. Army officers had kept watch over the square, and when the hour finally
came, the military sided with the people, not Mubarak. It was when the soldiers entered
the square that Samira realized something was wrong. The soldiers were not arresting
the thugs; they were arresting the demonstrators and looking on as the armed attackers
chased people out of the square.
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