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Gigi Ibrahim

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Gigi Ibrahim
Gigi Ibrahim in May 2011
Ibrahim in 2011
Born1986 or 1987 (age 37–38)
Long Beach, California,United States
NationalityEgyptian
Alma materThe American University in Cairo
Occupations

Gigi Ibrahim(also mentioned asGihan Ibrahim,born 1986 or 1987) is an Egyptiancitizen journalistandactivist.During theEgyptian revolution in 2011,she reported events about the protests and became a face of the events for much of theWestern media.

Ibrahim was born inLong Beach, Californiato Egyptian parents although she soon moved to Egypt, where she lived until she was 14. Her family subsequently returned to California, where she began attending a local Catholic high school. She graduated from high school in 2005, attendingOrange Coast Collegeat first before transferring toThe American University in Cairoin 2008. She became involved with theRevolutionary Socialistsorganization and graduated in 2010 with a degree inpolitical science.

Ibrahim became an organizer of the protests in 2011 and usedTwitterto document events that took place during the revolution. Her tweets additionally helpedhuman rights groupsto documentarrestsandstate violenceduring the revolution. Westernnews mediatreated her as a face of the revolution. After the2013 coup d'état,Ibrahim chose to stay in Egypt and continue her involvement in activism and protests. She later co-founded ashoe manufacturingcompany in Cairo.

Early life and education

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Ibrahim was born inLong Beach, Californiato Egyptian parents[1]in 1986 or 1987.[2]When she was a year old, the family moved back to Egypt. After her mother died, she went back to California[1]with her father and sister in 2001;[3]she was 14 at the time.[1]She enrolled in a localCatholic schoolas afreshman.[3]

While Ibrahim was in her second week of classes at the school, theSeptember 11 attacksoccurred. The next day,Federal Bureau of Investigationagents searched the Ibrahims' home, explaining that a neighbor had called atiplineto report the family. The neighbor's concerns were the fact that Ibrahim's uncle sometimes walked outside at night while speakingArabiconphone calls,and aU-Haultruck had recently been parked outside their house. As the onlyMuslimin her class, Ibrahim was also asked to give a presentation aboutIslamat her school despite the fact that her family was not very religious. The experience led Ibrahim to realize that her life was going to be different because she was Muslim and Egyptian.[3]

Over the years that followed, Ibrahim gained an increasing level of interest inpolitics.[3]She became involved in a group that advocated for the rights ofillegal immigrants to the United Statesin response to what she saw asdiscriminatoryenforcement of immigration law by localpolice officers,and was also involved inpro-Palestinian activism.However, she was largely unaware of political events in Egypt at the time, and visited Egypt only rarely.[4]

Ibrahim graduatedCornelia Connelly High Schoolin 2005,[5]and then attendedOrange Coast College.[1]ShetransferredtoThe American University in Cairo[6][7]in 2008[1]at the age of 22, where she became involved in the local politics of Egypt and participated in protests throughout 2009 and 2010. During this time, she became involved with theRevolutionary Socialists,[4]of which she is a member.[8]She graduated in 2010 with a degree inpolitical science.[1]

Involvement in Egyptian politics

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We coordinated the timing, place and the content of the demands... We started with 100 people, then we became thousands and thousands of people chanting against the regime

– Ibrahim in theUNESCO Courier,2011[9]

Ibrahim waving a small Egyptian flag in a crowd at a February 2011 protest
Ibrahim at a protest in February 2011

Ibrahim toldAl Jazeerathat her political activism began when she started talking to people who were involved in thelabour movement,and that her family was uncomfortable with her going to protests.[10]She became involved in theEgyptian revolution of 2011[2][11]as an organizer,[7][12]additionally engaging incitizen journalismby using social media includingTwitterwhile attending protests[13][8]"to spread accurate information and paint a picture at the ground".[14]Ibrahim and other Egyptian youth on Twitter played a leading role in organizingthe events of January 25, 2011.[9]Her tweets also helped to documentarrestsandstate violence[15]forhuman rights groups.[16]

In October 2011, Ibrahim reported that she had been briefly arrested while filming astrike actionbypublic transportworkers inCairo,and was released after agreeing to delete herfootage.[17]

By winter of 2012, Ibrahim had more than 30,000followerson Twitter, and was active in protests against theSupreme Council of the Armed Forces.[18]

Reception by Western media

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Time magazine cover with the headline "The Generation Changing the World" and a posed photo of a group of activists including Ibrahim
Timemagazinecover from February 28, 2011, with Ibrahim at bottom left.

Ibrahim became a face of the events in Egypt for much of themedia.[19]She regularly appeared onCNN,[3]sometimeslivefrom the 2011 protests, and additionally reported live from the protests onAl Jazeera.[20]Her political views were rarely mentioned in Western media.[19]

Judy Woodruffdescribed Ibrahim as "a symbol of the uprising" onPBS NewsHour.[21]OnThe Daily Show,Ibrahim toldJon Stewartthat she initially joined the protests because of a class she took at the American University in Cairo called "Social Mobilization under Authoritarian Regimes."[22]The New York Timesconducted aninterviewwith her usingSkype,[23]and a February 2011Frontlineepisode titled "Gigi's Revolution" examined her relationship with her elite Egyptian family and "her attempts to convince her family of the righteousness of her cause."[24]On February 14, 2011, she appeared on anAl Jazeera Englishtalk show alongsideAlaa Abd El-FattahandMohamad Wakedto discuss the events in Egypt after the fall ofHosni Mubarak.[25]She was also featured on the cover of the February 28, 2011 issue ofTimemagazine,later criticizing the related article in that issue by saying that theWest"needs to believe that we could not have [made revolution possible] without their digital toys."[26]

After the 2013 coup in Egypt

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In July 2013, manymilitantsfrom the revolution chose to leave after the2013 Egyptian coup d'état,but Ibrahim stayed.[27]As of July 2013,Ibrahim was living inNasr Cityand continued to participate in activism and protests.[28]In August 2013, she was part of a group called the Third Square that met in Sphinx Square inGizato protest both themilitary governmentand theMuslim Brotherhood.[29]

After the 2013 coup, Ibrahim's husband went intoexilebecause he wanted to remain a journalist, while she founded ashoe manufacturingcompany in Cairo.[27]In January 2021, she toldJeune Afriquethat it was dangerous to protest and to be a journalist who didn't work on behalf of theregime,explaining that "We now live under a dictator worse than Mubarak [...] Any protest is punishable by sanctions. The protest is now being done underground."[27]

Shoe manufacturing career

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After the 2013 coup in Egypt, Ibrahim founded a shoe manufacturing company in Cairo.[27]A September 2021 article inThe Nationalidentified Ibrahim as the co-owner of Cairoshoe manufacturingcompany Bulga, founded in 2016, along with artisanMona Sorour.Ibrahim managesadvertising,public relationsandsalesfor the company, which is named after the traditionalbalgha.The shoes are designed through collaboration withindigenousgroups in various regions of Egypt and manufactured in multiple workshops across the country, using exclusively Egyptian materials and labor; Ibrahim cited the decline of traditionalcraftsmanshipresulting from the increase inmass-produceditems as a major factor in the creation of Bulga.[30]

Ibrahim has aUnited States passportand could leave Egypt. In October 2021, she explained her decision to remain in the country toThe New Yorker,saying that "Maybe here I’m a second-class citizen as an Egyptian woman, but [in the U.S.] I’m a second-class terrorist."[3]

References

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  1. ^abcdefSandy et al. 2013.
  2. ^abOurdan 2011.
  3. ^abcdefStack 2021.
  4. ^abAbu Hijleh 2011,p. 11.
  5. ^"Gigi Ibrahim '05".Cornelia Connelly High School.Archived fromthe originalon June 22, 2020.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  6. ^Mackey, Robert (January 27, 2011)."Interview With an Egyptian Blogger".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on June 17, 2021.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  7. ^ab"Egyptian activist to speak at this year's CWA".University of Colorado Boulder.March 16, 2011.Archivedfrom the original on May 22, 2021.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  8. ^abFleishman, Jeffrey (February 14, 2012)."After revolution in Egypt, women's taste of equality fades".Los Angeles Times.Archivedfrom the original on July 24, 2021.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  9. ^abMellor 2014,p. 91.
  10. ^Naib, Fatma (February 19, 2011)."Women of the revolution".Al Jazeera.Archivedfrom the original on May 22, 2021.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  11. ^"Egypt unrest: Alert as mass protests loom".BBC News.January 28, 2011.Archivedfrom the original on May 22, 2021.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  12. ^Smet, Brecht De (2015).A Dialectical Pedagogy of Revolt: Gramsci, Vygotsky, and the Egyptian Revolution.Boston:Brill Academic Publishers.p. 309.ISBN978-90-04-26266-9.OCLC900277006.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  13. ^Allen, Bennett (April 4, 2011)."Citizen Journalism: Life on the Ground at the Egyptian Revolution".Vanity Fair.Archivedfrom the original on April 13, 2016.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  14. ^Rogers, Tony (January 28, 2011)."Citizen Journalist Gigi Ibrahim Uses Tools of the Web to Spread News of Cairo Protests".About.com.Archived from the original on July 1, 2012.RetrievedMay 21,2021.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  15. ^Hidalgo, Alonso."Redes sociales, política y activismo"[Social media, politics and activism](PDF).Quehacer(in Spanish). Centro de Estudios y Promocion del Desarrollo: 99.Archived(PDF)from the original on April 7, 2021.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  16. ^England, Phil (May 2011)."A digital revolution in Egypt and beyond".New Internationalist.ISSN0305-9529.Archivedfrom the original on January 12, 2022.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  17. ^Tarek, Sherif (October 2, 2011)."Activist Gigi Ibrahim to keep filming drivers' protests despite military arrest".Ahram Online.Archivedfrom the original on May 22, 2021.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  18. ^Woods, Elliott D. (2012)."The Faces of Tahrir Square: Last spring's protests were only the beginning of a much longer struggle".The Virginia Quarterly Review.88(1): 98.ISSN0042-675X.JSTOR26446367.Archivedfrom the original on May 22, 2021.RetrievedMay 22,2021– viaJSTOR.
  19. ^abTufekci, Zeynep(July 2013).""Not This One": Social Movements, the Attention Economy, and Microcelebrity Networked Activism ".American Behavioral Scientist.57(7): 858–859.doi:10.1177/0002764213479369.ISSN0002-7642.S2CID145744470.Archivedfrom the original on November 16, 2020.RetrievedMay 22,2021– viaSAGE Publishing.
  20. ^Bebawi 2014,p. 18.
  21. ^Hermida, Alfred(2016).Tell Everyone: Why We Share and Why It Matters.Toronto:Doubleday Canada.pp. 106–109.ISBN978-0-385-67958-9.OCLC957224135.
  22. ^Anderson, Lisa(2012)."Too Much Information? Political Science, the University, and the Public Sphere".Perspectives on Politics.10(2).American Political Science Association:389.doi:10.1017/S1537592712000722.ISSN1537-5927.JSTOR41479557.S2CID145613815.Archivedfrom the original on May 22, 2021.RetrievedMay 22,2021– viaJSTOR.
  23. ^Bebawi 2014,p. 131–132.
  24. ^"Gigi's Revolution"(video).PBS Frontline.February 22, 2011.Archivedfrom the original on May 22, 2021.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  25. ^Bebawi 2014,p. 64.
  26. ^Srinivasan, Ramesh(2017)."5. Taking Back Our Media".Whose Global Village?.New York University Press.p. 221.doi:10.18574/nyu/9781479873906.003.0009.ISBN9781479873906.Archivedfrom the original on May 24, 2021.RetrievedMay 24,2021.
  27. ^abcdJachmann, Luis (January 25, 2021)."Égypte – Gigi Ibrahim:" La contestation se fait désormais dans la clandestinité ""[Egypt – Gigi Ibrahim: "The protest is now done underground" ].Jeune Afrique(in French).Archivedfrom the original on March 17, 2021.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  28. ^"Gigi Ibrahim Discusses What Happens Next in Egypt with Tim Pool".Vice News.July 5, 2013.Archivedfrom the original on August 1, 2021.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  29. ^Parvaz, D. (August 23, 2013)."Between Tahrir and Rabaa: The Third Square".Al Jazeera.Archivedfrom the original on May 22, 2021.RetrievedMay 22,2021.
  30. ^Tabikha, Kamal (September 2, 2021)."How fashion label Bulga is reviving traditional Egyptian shoes with an artisanal touch".The National.Archivedfrom the original on October 2, 2021.RetrievedOctober 2,2021.

Works cited

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