Imma Vitelli, International Correspondent for Italy´s Vanity Fair and author of the new book Tahrir: I giovani che hanno fatto la rivoluzione (Il Saggiatore, 2012) spoke about her experience in Egypt during the revolution and her motivation for writing her book.
She described the deep poverty and disillusionment she witnessed in Egypt and also the hope, optimism, and courage of the population, in particular, a whole segment of youth who, she argued, ´woke up´ after the U.S. invasion of Iraq and began to fight for a better life. She was intrigued by them and wanted to tell their story.
The Egyptian revolution was led by Middle Class youths, who harnassed new social media tools to organize - and were even, initially, surprised by their success - and who demostrated tremendous courage. Their struggle was a struggle, primarily, for human rights. Vitelli movingly described teenagers who went down to the public square with their parents´ names and phone numbers written on a piece of paper in their pockets, in case they were killed, illustrating their deep level of commitment. She also humorously recounted interrogation episodes in which ´old school´secret service agents, inexperienced with new technology, tried to get to the bottom of "Who is behind this ´Facebook thing´ ", as if their interrogation victims could point to one specific person.
Protesters´ hunger for freedom, for basic human rights, is something that Europeans and Americans have a hard time understanding, Vitelli argued. One of the things that surprised her most upon her return to Italy, she said in response to a question, was how much Italians take for granted.
