This was translated from Arabic. It was written on the 26th of May, 2014.
"'Youth are the pillars of the country, and the hope for the future.'
This sentence was instilled in us and we always heard it in schools, universities, media, and celebrations.
They always praise the youth, and prose about their importance, and how there's no thriving of the country without their talents, abilities, and hard work.
They always talk about helping the youth, developing them, and give them opportunities to show their abilities, and to prove their worth, and to help the country.
Twenty six.
Twenty six is the number of the imprisoned students in my case.
Six is the number of engineering students from different public and private universities.
One is a medical student.
Five are high school students.
Three are girls.
And the rest are in different universities and ages.
In developed countries, they take care of prodigies and geniuses and help them reach their maximum potential. They benefit from them in raising the country, and present them with anything that will help in benefitting from their genius.
In Egypt, they prevent them from travelling, label them as terrorists. And when they react in the only normal way by not wanting to return to Egypt for their fear, they get attacked and accused by disloyalty to their country.
In Egypt, when Harvard was recruiting Dr. Ahmed Zewail to teach there, Alexandria University was sending him expulsion warnings.
When will this nation, which fights against success with all its power, understand that we are the future?
As long as we are imprisoned, Egypt's future is imprisoned."
YOU ARE READING
I'm more than just a number
Non-FictionThis work doesn't belong to this author. This work is a collection of letters sent by prisoner of conscience Abdelrahman elgendy and published by his family on his official page on facebook . Abdelrahman Elgendy was arrested on 6th of October 20...
