Sure, we've all heard about the Arab Spring and what it supposedly meant for the people of the countries where the revolutions took place. We listen to the news about this region and we tend to conclude: "Well, nothing has really changed after all". Or has it?

Hani Shukrallah starts his volume by stating that he never saw the Arab Spring coming. "Certainly, the protest call this time around had come in the wake of a most inspirational event, the Tunisian revolution", he writes. "I still could not believe that the Tunisian example, inspiring as it had been, was sufficiently potent to trigger a domino effect in the rest of the Arab World, let alone in Egypt, the biggest, and, indeed, most self-contained of the lot", he continues. 

Then, why did this happen and why now? 

We have to go back a little bit to make sure we understand it better.

Let's go back to January of 1977.  During this month hundreds of thousands of egyptians took the streets in order to protest against the suspension of the subsidies given by the State to lower classes in order to face the payment of basic products such as bread (aish) and rice. The measurement was part of Anwar al-Sadat's economic policy of accepting loans of the World Bank to face the payment of the debt and boost the liberalization of egyptian economy, according to the guidelines of the International Monetary Fund. 

 Protests all over the country were baptized as "the bread revolts". Tahrir Square was one of the centers of the unrests. Egypt wouldn't see another opposition movement like this until 2011. 

After Sadat was assasinated, Hosni Mubarak was his successor. He relied on the military to keep himself in power and constantly favored officials and chiefs to maintain his orders. He also became an ally of Israel and The US, supporting the "Desert Storm" operation against Irak. In return, Washington promised the remission of egyptian debt. He also kept the Gaza border closed and controlled (each and every single time Tel Aviv ordered so). 

His economical reforms lead to the privatization of public companies, which meant an increase of unemployment. This reform also included a series of drastic cuts to social aid, as well as in education and public health. 

During the Second Arab Intifada in 2000, thousands of palestinians protested against the israeli occupation of their territories and this echoed in Egypt, too.

The support of Egypt towards the palestinian cause extended to 2001 and 2002. But it wasn't until the latter, were the first slogans against president Mubarak were heard. 

The next big moment for social movements in Egypt happened in 2006. I'm talking about the strike at the Misr yarns and fabric factory in Mahalla el-Kubra, an industrial city about 70 kms away from Cairo, which didn't receive a lot of media coverage, but was probably one of the main elements of the 2011 Revolution. How come? The labor class came together for the first time in a solid labor union. The strikers knew they faced jail, dismissal, torture. But there was no turning back. 

On one of the many interviews conducted by spanish journalist and war correspondent Olga Rodríguez, author of the book "Yo muero hoy: revueltas en el mundo árabe" ("I die today: revolts in the arab world"), Karim el-Beherey, who worked and lived at Mahalla and became a very important activist, told her: "When the fear disappears, the human being awakens".

Activists like Hossam el-Hamalawy and Kamal Jalil, among others, tried to establish a  communication between the dissatisfied urban middle class and the labor class. In this way, the path to the big revolts of 2011 started.

Groups like Kifaya, the 20 March Campaign and the April 6 Movement had also their share in paving the way for the Revolution. 

Kifaya (which means "Enough" in arabic) was the first group in opposition to Mubarak.They were also the ones who organised the first protest against his regime. The 20 March Campaign was created after the march against the Invasion of Irak in 2003. And last but not least, the April 6 Movement played a big role in the protests of 2011. The group was created after the strike of April 6, 2008 by launching a Facebook page which was followed by over 70,000 users in record time. 

2011 was the moment that all the previous movements, protests, campaigns led to. Kicking off the year with the killing of 21 Copts in Alexandria was quite a bad omen for what was to be the moment of truth.  "A new Egyptian nationalism was catapulted across the land from Tahrir Square, taking it literally by storm. Rooted in a most profound hatred of opression and a passionate yearning for freedom, it was a discourse of human rights, democracy, and equality. It spoke of fairness and justice, and, above all, of dignity, the innate dignity inscribed in our very humanity", so Hani Shukrallah in the Introduction of 'Egypt, the Arabs and the World'.

"Raise your head up high, you're an egyptian"

"Alive with dignity or I die here"

"Almost everyone who has observed the Egyptian revolution has commented on it: its unyielding pacifism paradoxically conjoined with immeasurable courage and boundless self-sacrifice; the self-discipline that saw hundreds of thousands packed like sardines into a few square kilometers, yet not a single incident or brutality was observed, not a single attack on persons or property, no scuffles or fighting, but rather an astonishing tolerance and camaraderie; the spirit of tolerance and brotherhood that saw the crescent embracing the cross on hundreds of banners and posters with Copts standing guard around Muslims performing their prayers, and Muslims hoisting the Bible along with the Qur'an, and which saw women, young and old, veiled and unveiled, in blue jeans and flowing robes, taking part in occupations, demonstrations, in confrontations with anti-riot police and bands of thugs, prominently present in the leadership of the youth movements and no less involved than their male comrades in the organization, planning and communications. And, as almost everybody has remarked: no sexual harassment", quoting Shukrallah in the introduction of his volume.

 This still doesn't answer the question of why now. The answer is: nobody knows. Maybe it was Mubarak's authoritarian regime and his repression towards protesters, the cumulative effect of many small protests over the past 5 o 6 years, youth movements in and out of cyberspace, the model of the Tunisian Revolution. Maybe it was all of this combined and 2011 was simply the tip of the iceberg. From January 25, the Day of the Wrath,  to Mubarak's resignation on February 11, to the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi on July 3, 2013 to the past elections of May where Al Sisi was elected (just three weeks after I left the country), Egypt has seen no rest and is still shaping its future. After all, we sometimes forget that the meaning of a revolution is to put in effect great transformations in a very short span of time, according to Shukrallah. 

Whenever I think about the first months of 2011 I must look back at these events. Probably everything concerning the Arab Spring and the protests across the Arab World marked me so much to the point that it influenced me to make one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made. In early 2012, after I finished school in December, I started studying journalism at the University. It is a decission which until this moment I don't regret. Visiting Tahrir Square was one of the moments that brought me to a deep reflection. After all, I'm a few months from finishing my studies, so it couldn't be a better way to look back at my decisions so far. 

I want to finish this post by quoting Shukrallah once again:

(On February 11)"There, we joined hundreds of thousands of Egyptians, young and old, men and women, singing and dancing and chanting slogans, in what was doubtlessly the most joyful day any of us had seen in our lifetimes. In the midst of this, a thought struck me. Following my heart attack I had nearly been cheated of living to see this day, a day I had been waiting for all of my life. Congratulions exchanged among members of my generation were invariably accompanied by the refrain,