#Jan25: The Man and the armoured vehicle

It is that time of the year and it comes in one hell of a time, the time of an economic crisis the country has not seen in ages.

It is the anniversary of the 25 January revolution or rather the start of the 25 January revolution that managed to oust one of the Middle East’s longtime strongmen solidifying the Arab Spring and relaunching it worldwide after its start in Tunisia from Cairo’s Tahrir.

It is 2023 and the quest for freedom, bread and social justice seems to be a faraway memory and yet it is the core of the Egyptian issue if not most of the Arab World and Africa as well as the third world's core issue till now

Anyhow, I am trying not to enter this Karballa-mood with the Egyptian Revolution anniversary and the same old discussions on what went wrong and the lessons we learned, let alone the favourite question of foreign journalists and post-graduate students to me and other Egyptians who lived those moments “Is it a social media network revolution ?”

Anyhow my own #Jan25 Karbala ritual is checking the photos from those moments online because it adds more to that history jigsaw.

Last year Egyptian photojournalist Tarek Wajeh released more photos recording that unforgettable moment of that Egyptian young standing bravely against a police armoured vehicle on 25 January 2011 in Downtown Cairo.

The Young man and the armoured vehicle of the police 

It was one of the iconic photos recorded in those 18 days. It was first published in Al-Masry Al Youm Daily where Wajeh works. Only in 2022, he released more shots of that moment. 

The young man was not alone on that street at 
that moment as there were other protesters 

He knows the identity of that young man who became a man now. 

The Man and the armoured vehicle

According to Tarek Wajeh, that man prefers to become anonymous. 

That's probably the only photo with a small part of his face appearing 

The incident took place at Qasr Al-Nil street. 

The Man and the armoured vehicle

The identity of this one is one of the enigmas in those 18 days and I guess it will remain so for some time. 

Here it was on video and yes this was the quality of videos from 12 years ago.

I just can’t believe I wrote 12 years ago !! It truly felt like last week.