The Defender

By day, Motaz Attalla is an education policy specialist who is heavily involved in community and alternative education initiatives. By night, he is a standup comedian who has performed in a variety of venues, most recently at the 2010 Amman Stand-Up Comedy Festival in Jordan. After 18 days of demonstrations, Attalla is now a veteran protester and survivor of what he calls the ‘Battle for Tahrir.’ He doesn’t consider himself to be a political activist, just someone who shares the same urge for reform as everyone else. With a bachelor’s degree from the American University in Cairo and a master’s in international education policy from Harvard University, Attalla believed that he was better suited to improve the country from a different front, one that tackles reform on the ground level, such as his work in educational development. Before January 25, he attended protests as a way of showing solidarity with those calling for reform. “I would go just to be there with the people and show that I share their concerns,” Attalla says, “yet I was always pessimistic that reform can actually happen at the top level.” It was that sense of solidarity that sent Attalla out to join the street protests on January 25 and into Tahrir Square every day afterward to witness the revolution unfolding. The climax of his participation came on Wednesday, February 2, when Mubarak supporters mounted on horses and camels tried to charge into the square. The assault escalated into an hours-long melee between pro- and anti-government supporters. Stones were hurled by both sides, and as the night progressed, Molotov cocktails rained down from rooftops and gunshots were heard. “I was with a group of people at the Omar Makram entrance trying to block it off,” recalls Attalla. “Later, I went to the Abdel Moneim Riyad entrance and did whatever people there were doing, carrying stones and throwing them at the front.” The only conversations he remembers from that night were about how to organize to defend the place and respond to attackers. Beyond that, he says, the feelings that engulfed the people at that time were of betrayal and shock at peoples’ cruelty. As the hours passed, the numbers inside the square started to dwindle, and protecting all the entrances became a more daunting challenge. Attalla says that every time clashes broke out at one front, everyone was drawn there to protect it, leaving other entrances poorly guarded. “The longer I stayed there, the more I realized how disadvantaged we were,” he says. “Had more thugs been sent during the night and attacked from two different entrances, they would’ve definitely broken through — and that would’ve been really ugly.” Attalla and the people with him had a sense that if they could hold the line just until the morning, they would win. They knew that all they had to do was survive the night and by morning the entire country would be on their side. Despite the overwhelming horror and sadness pressing upon the protesters, there were two very important factors playing on their side. Although some protesters left after the attack and did not spend the night, there were still many more who held their ground. Attalla believes the numbers would have been on their side had it come to an all-out confrontation. The second, and probably more important, factor was that the people in Tahrir Square felt that truth was on their side. “Unlike the thugs, we had a cause to defend,” says Attalla. “This wasn’t just a neighborhood fight, it was a serious battle.”