Egyptian Chronicles: Love in time of Revolution

Potential presidential candidate Bothaina Kamel , the first woman presidential candidate married the famous reformist judge and her advisor Ashraf El Baroudi last Thursday night

The potential presidential candidate and long time political activist Kamal called all her followers to attend the marriage ceremony which was held at the Rafai mosque last night Thursday officially on twitter after news in the media began to circulate.

منتظرة اقتراحاتكم لهتاف الليلة و شكولاته لأفضل يافظة مستنية كل حبايبي في مسجد الرفاعي بعد صلاة العشاءless than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® Favorite Retweet ReplyBothaina Kamel
bothainakamel1

The reformist judge who exposed the elections fraud left on the same day a very romantic tweet really to be seen in our loud intense revolutionary Egyptian twitter universe.

مصر كلها حكاية حب. بنحب بعض في الله وفيها ربنا يسعدكم كلكم ويوعدكم بتحقيق كل احلامكم قادر يا كريم ويهيء لنا من امرنا رشدا.مليون الف شكر.less than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® Favorite Retweet Replyashraf el-baroudi
elbaroudi

All Egypt is a love story , we love each other for God sake , may God give you all happiness and fulfill your dreams. May God guide us and million thousands thanks.

Of course Egypt is a love story , a big one full of hope especially after the revolution.
The marriage of Kamel and El Baroudi came after one week of another political revolutionary love story : Basma and Amr Hamzawy.
You know Hamzawy of course but you may not know Basma. Basma is a famous actress who started her career as TV host in the Egyptian TV still she got a very interesting political activism background. Basma is the granddaughter of famous Youssef Darwish , the leftist Jew lawyer who converted to Islam from many decades and also the the daughter of famous feminist mother and journalist father so politics and activism are not strange on Basma at all. Already last year the Mubarak regime unleashed its journalists to attack Basma and speak in a bad way about her Jewish ancestry after announcing her support to Dr. ElBaradei last year if you remember.
The Basma Ahmed and Amr Hamzawy love story was much louder and dramatic than Kamel and El Baroudi. From fours weeks ago I heard news that Ahmed and Hmazawy are an item , I thought it was a rumor but the rumor turned to be a truth when both Basma and Hamzawy were robbed while they were together in 6th of October by unknown thugs.
The robbery was the talk of the town not because the robbery itself because it happened to two political activists and some people believed it was a deliberated message. “I began to believe so especially after the attack on Muslim brotherhood’s members Abu Baraka and El Baltagy in the same way in matter of days”
Of course gossipers found golden opportunity as expected , you got the Basma and Hamzawy’s relation from one side and what happened to Basma from another side. What made things even more worse in my point of view is how Hamzawy denied to have a relation with Basma at first before admitting to the whole world the world that he loves this woman in his column in Shorouk Daily.
For the first time in the history of Egyptian press we find a politician admits his love to a woman in his daily column in this way. Hamazawy wrote “I doubt” admitting and defending his love to Basmaa and calling her the “Lady of my heart” in front the society.
It was an official and loud confession after denial that many admired , many attacked and many mocked.
Many admired Hamzawy and how brought his love story with Basma in daylight , many admired his romantic eloquent style. Many mocked it online especially on twitter and made jokes about it. Many attacked for different reasons : it is a late confession after a week of denial, nobody gives damn for them and they are adults, he seemed to be justifying his love to Basma as an actress to the society , his column in Al Shorouk is a political one not for personal issue !!

Of course he it is worth to mention that Hamzawy wrote a part of piece as true Upper Egyptian “oh yes Hamazawy is originally Upper Egypt” whom Basma should thank God that he leaves her and wants to continue his life with her !!
From her side Basma refused to comment about the column saying her private life is a “red line”. Still she and Hamzawy appeared officially later together in Iftar of El Dobara church as an official couple.

Anyhow Back to Kamel Bothaina Kamal was married to current minister of culture Emad Abu Ghazi , they were divorced quietly earlier this year after the revolution. Kamal got one daughter Mariam from Abu Ghazi while El Baroudi got two boys from another marriage.
To be honest I was not amazed when I heard the news of El Baroudi and Kamal because in the past couple of months I felt that there was mutual admiration between these two over twitter.
Love and marriage are not crimes nor that they are shame that should not been kept in the dark.
I wish all happiness and best luck to Bothaina Kamal/Ashraf El Baroudi and Basma/Amr Hamzawy