Victims: Journalists vs the Public

We were always taught in university that journalism is the "fourth estate", a watchdog on those in power, a force that challenges them and keeps them alert for they know someone will hold them accountable. But, more importantly, this "fourth estate" is on a noble mission to give voice to the voiceless, bring attention to the unnoticed, and shed light upon what's been cast in the dark. Our professors told us time and time again that: journalism should reveal wrongdoing, raise awareness and demand justice - it is an active (and much needed) player in democracy.

And so journalism suddenly became the most intriguing thing that I ever came across, especially that this happened after the 2011 revolution when the whole country was bubbling with enthusiasm.

I was quite lucky to have worked with colleagues in on-campus newspapers who were (and some still are) vehement believers in such values of journalism. They were extremely enthusiastic about the potential impact news can make. We reported night and day on stories, interviewed tens of people, discussed scenarios and plans for hours - thinking this was our next journalistic breakthrough, that we'd be our university's Woodward and Bernstein.

It was all about "let's do some real journalism" - and to me, this "real" journalism was always about the story. We wanted to find the important stories, the good stories, work properly on them and get them published.

However, I started to feel recently that it isn't actually always about the story. A lot of the time it's more about the journalist. And this issue can have a lot of elements to look at and factors to consider. But what really drew my attention recently is how reporters are treated with superiority when it comes to situations where they are jailed, injured or killed.

The argument is that journalists are out risking their security to inform everyone else of the truth. And if you arrest or kill a journalist - you're silencing a channel of vital communication. And so the significance of the crackdown is doubled - you do not only trespass over a human being's freedom, but you deny the public the important service this journalist is giving them.

Inside Egypt's Muslim Sisterhood

Supporters of Morsi shout slogans as they continue a sit-in protest outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo (Photo: Reuters)

[This story was originally published on Ahram Online on 7 October 2013] 

As army tanks came to a halt in front of a group of protesters lying in the road, the air thick with teargas, Wafaa Hefny didn’t hesitate.

“I walked up to the soldiers standing on each tank and said ‘your mothers will curse you. Do not fire at your brothers - go back,’” she recalls. “All the tanks moved back.”

Hefny, 46, is a university instructor and an active Muslim Brotherhood member. Speaking at home, she wears a crimson traditional dress, her hair streaked with a few grey lines. 

When security forces began to disperse a sit-in by supporters of Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi at Rabaa Al-Adawiya on 14 August, Hefny and her husband immediately went there.

Hefny had spent several weeks camping at the Rabaa protest with her family. When she arrived at the site - in Cairo's Nasr City - she found no way in. So she joined people going to nearby Al-Tayaran Street where they forced tanks to retreat. 

After her encounter with the tanks, she spent the night transporting dead bodies out of the ruins of Rabaa. 

Women on the streets

Hefny was not the only female member of the Brotherhood who took to Cairo’s streets when the protest camps were dispersed.

Though the Brotherhood, an 85-year-old Islamist group founded by Hassan El-Banna, is seen as a male-dominant group, it has a lot of “sisters” who participate in different roles. They may not, however, reach leading positions or rise to the fore after a lot of the men were arrested recently.

“Women are more active on the street than men,” Sameh Eid, a former member of the Brotherhood, tells Ahram Online. 

“They engage actively in public relations and elections campaigns; they are passionate and enthusiastic members,” he says.