HADEER MEKAWY / Journalist / Egypt
We will follow your every step. Until the Motherland embraces all its children. Until people who were forced to fl ee their homeland for fear of oppression, death, hunger and arrest return to their homeland… We will continue to write until the good days come.
Although many painful years have passed, we still want our right to life. An honorable life is the right of every person without being subjected to humiliation and oppression. The right to life is the ability of an individual to provide for his/her daily sustenance, needs, the needs of his/her family and home. It is the ability of the children to continue their education and meet all their needs.
I remember well the slogan of the Egyptian revolution: bread, freedom, justice and human dignity. Bread means, for me, a person’s work pays off. Every
person in society should have a job where one gives time and health. They should be paid according to their needs. Not even the middle of the month has arrived, one should not have to think about what to eat, what to wear, where to meet school needs, the october tuition fee for their children, home rent, where and how to pay electricity and water bills.
BREAD AND JUSTICE
No one should be below the poverty line. No one should not be deprived of daily food and clothing. No one should be homeless. A shelter for homeless people should not be the sidewalk.
No one should use their infl uence to intimidate someone else’s freedom. Everyone should have economic, social and political freedom. A person should be able to get whatever is a must for life. A person should be treated fairly throughout his life, without political and social persecution. If this slogan is realized, freedom and human dignity will become the basis of a just life. I deeply believe in the essence of this slogan.
Although many years have passed since then, nothing has changed. All the slogans we said hang in the air. There is a need for brave people to bring this to life. The situation is getting worse every day. Despotism and cruelty have settled down thoroughly. Along with poverty and hunger, greed and theft have also increased in the country. The society has become a victim of these corruptions, which are carried out in a conscious way.
The situation is so bad that a large segment leads a more miserable life than the one in which the forest laws apply. It’s almost impossible to live like this. When those at the head of the country put aside their despotism, cruelty and ignorance, that’s when the years of change will begin. Now many of us are paying the price as victims of these wrong policies. Me and supporters of change like me, as we promised, think about the future of our children. Although
we have written the facts and fled our country due to the risk of arrest, we will never stop telling the truth.
We will work to end this march, which we started until the last moment of our lives. Even if we will not be able to return to our homeland again, we will continue to dream of good days.
I will continue to dream of a future for every child living in their homeland without even knowing their rights that have been taken away from them. We will not let Egypt and other despotic countries steal our dreams. We will try everything until we get a livable world like we dream of, and we will try everything.
We will work until we find a world where there is no cruelty and corruption, or where few people are trying to realize their personal interests on behalf of others. As Free Journalists, we will write until we see our countries in a livable state.
We will watch until there is a country where the soldier retreats to their barracks and does the duty of protection, does not interfere with the administration. As soon as the managers who are not qualified for their job stop deceiving the public in the name of their interests, each of them will easily happen.
FOR A LIVABLE COUNTRY
If governments had listened to them instead of arresting young people who think differently from themselves and extinguishing their lives, detaining journalists and lawyers for doing their job, and imprisoning citizens for opposing persecution, that land would have become more livable.
I wish the teacher wouldn’t worry about making a living while teaching at school. Think about how beautiful the country would become a livable place if the laws that would deter corruption, theft, rapists and abusers were followed, I wish children’s hospices cease to be ‘places of torture’. I wish the authorities do not take the word ‘homeland’ into their mouths for their personal interests. I wiish prisons are not a burial place for criminals. I wish the thinkers, economists, politicians, lawyers and journalists of a country get the position they deserve. I wish the dignitaries of the country were not in dungeons, but standing next to us. I wish these people, whose freedoms have been taken away, are released as soon as possible. A father who is considering suicide in order to take a piece of bread home will never stop doing this until he spends more time with his child…
We will follow your every step. Until the Motherland embraces all its children… Until people who were forced to flee their homeland for fear of oppression, death, hunger and arrest return to their homeland… Until the moment when we will write in social networks and newspapers without fear…
Until they are stopped to be refuted in prisons… Until they get the rights of the martyrs who gave their lives for the beautiful dreams they created… In the name of humanity, we will continue to write and dream in spite of all the suffering until the good days come.
WHO IS HADEER MEKAWY?
The Egyptian journalist began her journalistic profession in 2012. She was arrested and released in Egypt. In addition to journalism, she also works as a human rights activist. She was part of the team that started the ”Journalism is not a crime “ movement. She left her country and settled in Europe.