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‘Tomorrow we’ll trample you with our shoes! Leave with honor, you disgusting bunch!’

I wish the American media were reflecting more of the pure democratic joy of the Egyptian revolution. And here is why we insist on calling it a revolution at this site: Because a year ago when my friends and I who were enraged by human rights violations in Gaza tried to take over Tahrir Square, or even demonstrate at its periphery, the thugs in the green uniforms laid into us and dragged us out of the roads in sight of the grand pink Egyptian museum, and passersby winked and silently encouraged us but walked by fearfully–and I walked away with orientalist theories about the pharaoh and the patriarch in Arab culture. But look what those brave people are doing for me and the rest of the world now. Egyptian political culture will never be the same; you will never crush this feeling; and we are all being liberated by the Egyptian imagination. Please watch this strong and poetic pink-clad woman lead a chant of human dignity. “Whoever imprisons his own people/is a traitor head to toe.” Also note the materialist theme in the chant– yes, people want to know where their money is! I’ll shut up now. Thanks to Saleema.

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