Posted by CODEPINK Staff
February 17th, 2011
Washington D.C. to celebrate the resignation of the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak. There was a great showing of Egyptian Americans as well as others who came to express their solidarity with the peaceful Egyptian people who made this beautiful revolution possible.
Medea Benjamin and Tighe Barry from CODEPINK opened up the night with an incredible slideshow presentation of their experience in Cairo during the protests. They showed pictures that captured the rollercoaster of emotions felt by the Egyptian protesters: peacefulness and happiness, determination to achieve their goal, pain inflicted by Mubarak’s thugs, anger at Mubarak’s refusal to step down, and ultimately euphoria when he resigned. The pictures included many profound moments of solidarity the CODEPINK peace delegation had with the Egyptian people, sharing their moments of both joy and sorrow while celebrating their common humanity and desire for peaceful change. They also made it a point to mention the hypocritical policies of the United States government, which claims to strive for democracy throughout the world, yet sends billions of dollars in military aid to dictators like Hosi Mubarak.
After Tighe and Medea spoke, Hana Elhattab from the DC Egyptian Youth Organizers spoke for a few minutes about her personal connection to the events in Egypt. After her, Mokhtar Kamel from the Alliance of Egpytian Americans offered a few words about his take on the revolution. His talk was followed by one given by Hossam Mansour, a young man who played an instrumental role in facilitating the organization of local solidarity actions here in D.C., specifically in front of the Egyptian Embassy and the White House. This success of these events can be attributed largely in part to his adroit use of social networking tools, specifically Facebook, which reached out to hundreds of people and allowed CODEPINK to get in touch with him and plan events together.
After the speakers CODEPINK awarded several organizations with Pink Badges of Courage for their part in the Egyptian struggle. These groups included Amnesty International, Al Jazeera, and Human Rights Watch. Before the awards were even finished, the Arabic music was blasting and people were out of their seats singing and dancing in celebration.
Congratulations Egypt!