Amr Gharib

Amr was a 25-year-old graduate of the Faculty of Law at Ain Shams University in Cairo. He lived in Hadayek al Qubba, within walking distance of the Presidential Palace. (I used to pass through there on the Metro regularly.)

He was killed yesterday with two bullets to the stomach. His friends say he never ran even as bullets were flying. Thugs were blocking an ambulance and he was unable to reach it.

Hussien Taha

Hussien was a 19-year-old law student, killed at the Al-Qaed Ibrahim Mosque in Alexandria.

After Friday prayers on January 28 he exited the mosque and was struck in the heart by live bullets.

Ahmed Ahab Mostafa

Ahmed was 29 years old.

There is some uncertainty about the date on which he was first harmed. Some thought it was January 25, the first day of the uprising. But the database says this:

“Shot on Friday 28 Jan in Tahrir Square. Of 6 rubber bullets that hit him, 3 hit him in the face including 1 in the eye. He went into a coma died 3 Feb at El Hossein University hospital. When Ahmed first entered the hospital, they tried to record his death as an accident, but the family refused and forced the truth to be known.”

letter from an Egyptian woman

To a former AUC faculty member:

“It is a revolution lead by young intellectuals. It started as a virtual idea in the social media. They did not at the time, just ten days ago, think that it could lead to such an astounding uprising. One young blogger told me that they did not think that one can simply set a date and a time for a revolution, ‘we used to joke about it saying let us meet tomrrow at cilantro after the revolution, or we better do this or that thing ahead of the revolution.’ Although it started and was fed by the connectivity of the internet, once it started rolling, people already were connected even in the absence of the internet and the mobile phones. Awreness and beleive is a super network that connected people.

In the media they speak of an international community afraid of a power vaccum, they speak of a fear from Islamic radicalism, others speak of the absence of the building blocks of democracy. This is exactly because they do not undrestand the nature of this revolution, the people, literally for the first time in history, are taking the lead and deciding for themselves, the government will continue to make its concessions and offers, and the street is the judge. It is a different process where the voting is a continuous process, as the street reacts to the government announcements and measures

The absence of a person or a group of persons as a recognizable leadership group or figures is intentional. The intellectual young people who started all this are actually leading by spreading awareness among the people in the square, rather than by giving orders and this is making the pressure of the street crowds even more forceful. Simply because it is the people rather than this or that specific name who is reacting and deciding…

The story of the tahrir squre is not about who is with Mubarak and who is against, it is about a truely civilized, very peoceful people who decided to regain control of their destiny. This is a total super change. It means that they have given up their let go attitude, they have broken the seal of fear that has been stamped allover their bodies and soul. they will for ever be responsible and work to rebuild the whole country.”

Islam Bakir

No information is available yet on how Islam died, but it happened some time yesterday.

He turned 22 years old exactly one month before being killed. In 2010 he received his B.A. in European Culture.

Army shift?

“Al Jazeera reports that the Army is arresting pro-Mubarak agitators.”

reports of acid

There are reports of acid having been used the other day, thrown from rooftops onto Tahrir Square.

I received a document prior to last Friday, warning that groups of thugs were being organized to use acid. I didn’t post that particular point then because obviously I couldn’t verify it and didn’t want to slander anyone by implication. But much has happened in the past week to have shifted one’s sense of what it is possible for some people to do.

defiance

HalaGorani Just interviewed Egyptian FM Ahmed Abdul Gheit: told me President Mubarak will not leave, will die on Egytian soil. #Egypt

Sally Zahran

She was beaten to death by repeatedly being clubbed on the back of the head. Does she look like a security threat to you?

A friend of a friend writes: “we called her mom… and sally’s death is confirmed.”

Update: Sally was hit in the back of the head with a bat, on January 31 at Tahrir. She went home to lie down and rest, and never woke up.

New update: Sally’s friend Nour Essam writes as follows– “Sally magdy zahran born on the 16th of oct 1987 worked as an executive producer and voice over artist buried in sohag, egypt”

brave people

Anyone who stayed in Tahrir on Wednesday and Thursday.