I was on @ForeignPolicy's 'First Person' with @SarahAWildman

For me, it's hard to think of a story sadder than what happened to #Egypt from 2011 to 2013. I try to tell that story from my own perspective of being there in key moments

Listen to it here 👇🏾megaphone.link/PPY4576503808

I remember what it was like that night on February 11, 2011. I was in Tahrir Square earlier that day when the announcement came that Mubarak was stepping down, when the murmur of the crowd became a roar. As the memory grows more remote, I sometimes wonder: did it *really* happen?

That night, Egyptians were dancing in the streets. They had done it. They were proud. I remember thinking to myself, this is what it must feel like to not just be free, but to *feel* free. I had never seen Egyptians so joyful

It's one thing to study a revolution; it's another to be in one, in the flesh. But it's also one thing to study a massacre, and another to watch hate and hysteria build into a terrifying moment that I worry Egypt will never be able to recover from, at least not for decades

What does it feel like to watch a people destroy themselves, willingly? It was never my country, as my relatives in Egypt would never hesitate to remind me. I was an outsider. It was their choice. This is what they wanted. Now they have it. What is there to really say to them?