An advocate for justice and equality on the playground of his grade school, he honed his knowledge of global social movements and used the tactics of non-violent change as an activist at the April 6 Youth Movement in 2008 and he co-organized the mobilization of protesters at the occupation of Cairo’s Tahrir Square which led to the toppling of the Mubarak regime.
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- Stories
- Basem Fathy
Basem Fathy
Basem Fathy
Freedom Fighter, Advocate, Thinker, Pro Democracy
Alexandria & Cairo, Egypt
Freedom in Tunisia
White was crowned Miss Albany State in the fall of 1961, but was forced to decide between accepting the title and its accompanying scholarship or continuing her involvement as a civil rights activist. White chose to help end segregation, a decision that led to her suspension and eventual expulsion from Albany State University as well as the loss of her Miss Albany State crown.
A Turning Point
White was crowned Miss Albany State in the fall of 1961, but was forced to decide between accepting the title and its accompanying scholarship or continuing her involvement as a civil rights activist. White chose to help end segregation, a decision that led to her suspension and eventual expulsion from Albany State University as well as the loss of her Miss Albany State crown.
Age 5
As a young boy, Fathy learned the importance of reading from his father.
PROTESTING IN TAHIR SQUARE
In violation of a curfew, thousands of protesters assemble in Tahrir Square on January 28, 2011, the most violent day of the demonstrations yet. Despite early efforts to organize the protest, Fathy found that the demonstration took on a life of its own.
AHMED MAHER
Ahmed Maher, the political activist and founder of the April 6 Movement, made an early attempt to organize Egyptian protest groups. Maher was a source of inspiration for Fathy, and the two worked together beginning in 2008.
TAHRIR SQUARE PROTESTERS
A group of peaceful demonstrators sit on an Egyptian army tank in Tahrir Square on January 29, 2011, several days into the revolution.
CELEBRATION IN YUGOSLAVIA
Protestors celebrate in Yugoslavia after their success in ousting President Slobodan Milosevic. The Otpor Movement served as a leading model of successful organization of fragmented opposition groups for Fathy and other Egyptian activists. Fathy made contact with the group’s leaders to learn from them. Egyptians even adopted the Otpor Movement’s symbol of a fist, visible in this photo.
2008 PROTESTS
A protester tears down a poster of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak during the second day of protests in April 2008. In response to the eventual failure of the demonstration, Fathy wrote a detailed analysis of the strike and posted it on the internet. In the coming months, he began connecting to other activists to prepare for a more organized protest.
APRIL 6TH MOVEMENT
Riot police fire tear gas and beat protestors on April 7, 2008 in Mahalla. The April 6th Movement marked the beginning of Fathy’s intensive activist work. For three years, it consumed his life. As a leader of the movement, he was beaten and detained on more than one occasion.
PROTESTS IN THE STREETS OF MAHALLA
Egyptian workers protest the government in the streets of Mahalla on April 7, 2008, continuing the demonstration begun the previous day. Fathy remembers the importance of the youth movement in organizing the protest, spreading the call by using the internet.
HOSNI MUBAREK
A 2008 photo of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose decades-long rule of Egypt was finally ended by the demonstration that began in Tahrir Square on January 25, 2011. In August 2011, Mubarak went to trial on charges of corruption and ordering the killing of protestors.
TAHIR SQUARE
Protestors in Tahrir Square stand atop an Egyptian Army armored personnel carrier. As the demonstrations continued day after day, thousands of Egyptians assembled in the square.
YOUNG FATHY
Basem Fathy at two years old.
TODDLER
Fathy as a toddler.
AT HOME, AGE 3
Basem Fathy as a four-year-old. He grew up in a middle-class household. Fathy remembers that his parents, both Arabic language teachers, believed in keeping politics out of their lives.
FOUR YEARS OLD
Basem Fathy as a four-year-old. He grew up in a middle-class household. Fathy remembers that his parents, both Arabic language teachers, believed in keeping politics out of their lives.
YOUNG ACTIVIST
A five-year-old Fathy. His earliest memory is organizing a “strike” in his kindergarten class to protest “an unjust situation” incited by his teacher.
LEARNING
Fathy at nine years old. It was around this age that he first read the works of Ahmed Matar, an Iraqi poet who wrote about politics, freedom and justice in the Arab world.
NONTRADITIONAL TEENAGER
A teenage Fathy rides a horse in front of the pyramids in Egypt.
AGE FIFTEEN
By this age, he had already begun to think seriously about politics and justice in society, a topic which most Egyptians avoided.
CROSSING THE KASR AL NILE BRIDGE
Riot police fire water cannons and clash with protestors on January 28, 2011 as they try to force their way across the Kasr Al Nile Bridge in order to join the demonstration at Tahrir Square. Fathy was in the crowd near the front line and witnessed fellow demonstrators beaten and killed. He and others eventually made it to Tahrir Square.
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