 The question I keep asking myself, was that worth it? This is Bashar. Ten years ago, he found himself at the heart of a revolution. Together with thousands of people, Bashar was part of the occupation of Cairo's main roundabout, also known as Medan al-Tahrir or Liberation Square. Internationally, the so-called Arabs bring promise to bring down dictators and replace them with democratic systems made for and by the people. And in Egypt, protesters demanded the stepping down of President Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years in power. We look for freedom and we will get it. A decade on from the Egyptian Revolution, I wanted to know how Bashar looks back on his time on Tahrir Square. It's something that I actively avoid thinking about. It brings out a lot of not just memories, but also emotions of complete devastation. There was a moment where we had it all and then it was just lost. I first interviewed Bashar in 2016, five years after the events in Tahrir Square. We met through friends of friends and he agreed to talk to me anonymously. It was very like it was something that we never lived before. And it was amazing, like imagine, like we were a bunch of teenagers, me and my friends. And yeah, we like we might as well change this fucking country and how it works. Mubarak's regime ended on the 11th of February, 2011. But the changes that followed did not spell democracy, human rights or an end to police brutality. Presidential elections took place in the summer of 2012 with the highly contested results giving the Muslim Brotherhood a narrow victory. But on the 3rd of July, 2013, following months of civil unrest, the military staged a coup d'etat. General Abdel Fattah, LCC, has been the president ever since, consolidating his grip on power by winning elections effectively and opposed. But what happened to the eve of the revolution? People took one of three directions, especially young people, youth, my age, you know, 20s. It's either being totally, it's being totally, it's being totally, it's being totally, it's being totally, it's being totally, it's being totally, it's being totally, it's being totally, it's either being totally pro-regime because they probably hated the days of the Muslim Brotherhood. Some people who are the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, they are totally anti-regime and whatever good or bad the regime does, you totally slam it. And the third portion, which is guys like me, who just doesn't give a shit because khalas, it's done. Today, Bashoy is living in Europe. But did leaving Egypt make it easier for him to re-engage with politics? Before I come here, I was like, okay, this would be a good opportunity to start thinking, how can we unify some opposition? But once I came here, I was like, actually, no. I just want to have a normal life, have a family, settle somewhere. That would not be possible in Egypt. One of the demands of the Egyptian Revolution was a fair economic system and wealth redistribution. But that didn't happen. Instead, Egypt has gone further into debt, receiving two loans from the IMF in 2016 and 2020, totaling $20 billion. Thanks to the government's severe austerity policies and the devaluation of the Egyptian pound, even the average family now struggles to survive. And it's increasingly dangerous to speak out against the LCC administration. The crackdown is worse than ever, worse than Mubarak now. There is literally no media, no NGOs, like all the little things that we were mad about even during Mubarak, now we don't have. Five years ago, I asked Bishoy whether he had any hopes for the generation that brought down Mubarak. His answer was simply no, but he noticed something changing in those younger than him. We used to have this big game when kids play on the streets. It's called the Askeru Haramaya, the police and thieves. Right after the revolution, I found the kids at my street playing at police and Thawragaya and revolutionaries. And the police were the people actually running from the revolutionaries. Maybe these people are the hope one day. Do you feel like there is possibilities within the younger generation for a shake-up? The fact that they grew up in all of this mess in 2011 and they saw on daily basis that things can just change from one day to the other and that you can actually say no to authority. This does make them quite different. So, yeah. I don't know how can this materialize, but that's the beauty of revolutions. You can never see it coming.