Cairo: When she first got involved with politics through the internet, Asma Mahfouz, 26, did not expect that the pro-reform campaign she carried out with her colleagues in the opposition April 6 Youth Movement would usher Egypt into a new era without Hosni Mubarak.
"After joining the group and publicising its calls through Facebook, I decided to go out and participate in protests on the street. In my first demonstration, I was very afraid. In the beginning, there was no-one whom I knew. But gradually, I felt enthusiastic," she recalls. "Having returned home, I described to people on Facebook what I saw and encouraged them to get down and join the street protests," Asma, a business administration graduate, adds.
Asma, made famous by a picture in which she appears flashing a victory sign, remembers how her family reacted with apprehension on learning about her political activism and tried to stop her.
"Like many Egyptian families, my family had reservations about my engagement in politics. They knew well about the brutal treatment by the security agencies of activists,'' Asma said in a recent press interview. "My family tried to dissuade me from politics, saying: ‘You're a girl who cannot stand rough treatment of the police'. But I told myself that if everyone remained afraid for his/her safety, the country would remain unchanged.''
When the anti-Mubarak protests started on January 25 and swelled nationwide, Asma's family relented. "They got enthusiastic and expressed admiration for my activism," she says.
During those days, Asma helped print and distribute leaflets in the working-class areas in Cairo urging the local residents to take part in the protests. "I used to talk to people in these areas about their rights and the necessity of their participation in order to bring about change."
There was a surprise in store for Asma. "The maximum I could dream of was that around 10,000 people would take part in the protests. But much to my amazement, the number of protesters went far beyond this.''
Camping out in Tahrir Square, the iconic plaza for the anti-Mubarak protests, Asma joined hands with other people to protect protesters from "infiltrators" — Mubarak's loyalists and policemen wearing plainclothes — during a series of the million-member marches pressing for Mubarak's departure.
Asma was one of several young revolutionaries, invited by the military council for talks. She was also a guest on several TV talk shows.
Despite this media attention, Asma, who works as an accountant at a private firm, does not cherish a political dream. "I don't have enough experience to be a politician. All what I want is to see my country having a better future."
