Kenyon junior Helen Zuckerman, a religious studies major with a focus on Islam, had been studying abroad at Alexandria University, located in the coastal Egyptian city of Alexandria, since the fall semester. The revolution in Egypt forced Zuckerman to relocate to Beirut, Lebanon, where she shared her experience via Skype:
The Kenyon Collegian: What originally drew you to Egypt? Why did you want to study abroad there?
Helen Zuckerman: A combination of factors. I'm focusing my major in Islam, so obviously I wanted to go to a place with a concentration of Muslims, and Egypt, with a population 97 percent Muslim, fit the bill in that respect. Then there was the language. I took freshman Arabic at Kenyon, but I knew that two semesters was not even close to sufficient for this language, so I had to get to a place where I could study Arabic, and I was informed by multiple and varied sources that Egyptian colloquial Arabic was the closest form to traditional [Modern Standard] Arabic, and that it was widely understood. That, as I learned very quickly after arriving, was a horrible lie.
TKC: Because there are so many regional variations of colloquial Arabic, right?
HZ: Exactly. I think the official count is 14. … As a student, you begin to feel that this language is really unattainable. … It's kind of my quixotic impossible dream — that one day I'll be able to speak Arabic.
TKC: Are you able to speak Arabic in Lebanon now?
HZ: Well, they laugh at me a lot for my accent and my dialectical Egyptian vocab. I have a good Egyptian accent, but apparently to the Lebanese, it's the equivalent of speaking with a deep southern drawl.
TKC: So, back to your time in Alexandria: did you feel mounting tension leading up to the riots, or were they unexpected?
HZ: I didn't feel anything at all. I felt, instead, just the opposite.
TKC: So were you really shocked, then?
HZ: Whenever I asked Egyptians about the November parliamentary elections, I was met with a remarkable apathy. And as far as the presidential elections that were scheduled for this September, they were all pretty bitter and resigned to [former president Hosni] Mubarak or his son just stealing the election for good, so I was definitely shocked.
TKC: Wow, that's really interesting.
HZ: Is it? I feel bad that I can't tell you, "I knew it was coming, and here's why."
TKC: Did it feel really different from the media hullabaloo that always precedes American elections?
HZ: In some respects the same, because of course the candidates advertise, so their faces are all over the streets in Alexandria and Cairo and the TV and the radio. But there was a definite sense of inevitability to the elections. No one had any expectations of change or much sense of civic duty and responsibility. Remembering how excited I had been in 2008 when I cast my first vote in the presidential elections, I was shocked. And that's part of the thrill of these protests. It's been amazing and cheering and heartwarming from the beginning to see that Egyptians are really passionate, more passionate than most people, about their freedom — that they are willing to die, to fight, to go without sleep and food and comfort and shelter for what they believe is right, and what they know they deserve. I was surprised by the protests, but it was the most uplifting and inspiring surprise I could have imagined.
TKC: I remember in 2008 the incredible feeling of "living history" when Obama was elected, and now, even here in Ohio, there is that same feeling about what's going on in Egypt. What's it like to be in the middle of it?
HZ: I'm sorry to say that I was not in the middle of it. I was in Dublin, on what was supposed to be a two-week visit with family before I returned to Egypt on Jan. 25. When the protests started, I was glued to my TV and my computer, checking in with my friends, foreign and Egyptian … and checking online news constantly. But I missed the revolution.
TKC: How did your program or university respond to the crisis? And did the U.S. government get involved? Many Americans who were in Egypt at the time, which of course you weren't, were evacuated.
HZ: The government did get involved evacuating Americans, and most of my friends waited it out a few days, leaving when things started to get really out of control, around Feb. 2 and 3. My roommate from last semester, who had returned to Egypt on Jan. 23 and didn't evacuate until Feb. 6, says it was a scene. Apparently, it really wasn't dangerous on the streets except after curfew and in Tahrir Square [in Cairo] and after Mubarak and [vice president Omar] Suleiman sent their thug policemen out.
TKC: So from Dublin you went straight to Lebanon?
HZ: Exactly.
TKC: Are you at a university there now?
HZ: I'm at American University of Beirut. I had to withdraw from Kenyon to attend, because of State Department safety warnings.
TKC: Do you have any plans to return to Egypt?
HZ: I'm hoping to — I want to see the new world. And there were some places I wanted to go to this semester that I had put off last semester because I thought I'd have more time.
I'm also looking at ways to stay in the Middle East this summer, and Egypt is definitely on the table. Of course, things are balancing on a knife edge there. With elections scheduled for November, an interim military government and protesters, police and tanks still in the streets, nothing is certain about Egypt's future.
TKC: It seems that uprisings have spread all over the Arab world. What is the climate like now in Lebanon?
HZ: Interesting you should ask about Lebanon, actually. I just got back from a massive memorial to the Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafic Hariri, who was assassinated by car bomb on Feb. 14, 2005. He's been all but deified here and there have been inquests going for six years into who was behind his murder. The first suspect was Syria, Lebanon's longtime enemy, then Hezbollah claimed that Israel was behind it and now Rafic Hariri's son, Saad Hariri, is standing by evidence provided by a new inquest that Hezbollah was behind it. Saad Hariri was at the rally, and they screamed for him like he was all four Beatles in one.
Grown men wept openly when Rafic Hariri's picture came on screen. It was really beautiful, and really powerful. Strange, though — his picture is omnipresent, and his presence is powerful.
TKC: That's incredible. Did he speak?
HZ: Saad Hariri did speak, and from what I understood of the Arabic, which was admittedly no more than 40 percent, he was very eloquent, very passionate in his call for "Truth for Lebanon at last" and very proud of his father.
TKC: Do you know if he was as beloved while in office?
HZ: Well, I don't think anyone is quite as well-loved when they're alive as after they've been martyred, but he was very popular, especially for his strong Lebanese pride stance.
TKC: Do you have any last thoughts on the revolution in Egypt? Or its application to Kenyon coursework?
HZ: Life in Egypt was hard — any Egyptian would tell you so, and certainly any foreigner — but the amazing thing is that after more than 30 years of just buckling down and bearing it, Egyptians have risen to their feet and claimed their country.
Insha'allah, meaning God willing, or hopefully, they will be able to make something out of it that they can be proud of. And I am proud to have been part of Egypt, even for as little time as I was there, and to have seen what all this really means in a very personal way.
And let's see more Arabic and Islamicate studies at Kenyon. I know [Professor of Religious Studies] Vernon Schubel is doing amazing work to increase the field at Kenyon, but students should really take an interest in this incredibly important part of the world and really push the networks and opportunities at Kenyon to get involved in the Middle East.