Shima'a Helmy rises up, on film and beyond
Egyptian activist Shima’a Helmy joined filmmakers Micah Garen and Marie-Hélène Carleton onstage at PopTech 2011 to talk about their collaboration on the upcoming documentary film, If, which explores what it’s like being a young revolutionary through the eyes of four different Egyptian women, including Helmy.
Following their talk, we had an opportunity to sit down with Helmy one-on-one in Camden to get her thoughts on where the revolution is headed. We've excerpted the interview here:
If the iconic image of protest in the 60's is a hippie slipping a flower into a gun barrel, the image for this generation's protest may be a Muslim woman wearing a Hijab and holding up a cell phone.
Shima'a Helmy is one of the young Egyptians who led that country's uprising in January of 2011. Using social media, street canvassing and her own steely determination to change her country for the better, 21-year old Helmy forewent her studies to help galvanize a revolution. The rest is quite literally history.
PopTech: Can you speak to the dichotomy between being a devout Muslim and being an agent for change? How do these things influence each other, guide each other?
Shima'a Helmy: I think if you look deep inside the real essence of Islam, you'll see that it revolves around the fact that the Muslim is supposed to be a positive person in his or her society. They should help others, they should be cooperative, and they should try to be as positive as they can.
The situation in Egypt was against the real essence of Islam. You had corruption, you had social injustice, you had torture, you had everything against what a Muslim is supposed to be like and what the ideal of Islam is supposed to be. When I was growing up, I was trying to be a good Muslim at the same time as being a good citizen. You could say that being an active person is an essential part of being a Muslim. It’s the combination, and that following the guidelines of Islamic teachings is at the core of what people in the modern world are trying to do. All these concepts of democracy and human rights are actually found in Islam. It’s just that people don’t know.
What did it feel like, that moment of decision for you, when you decided that you were going to get involved in the uprising?
I didn’t imagine something like this happening in Egypt. I didn’t believe in my country. I felt like I was just here for a particular period of time and then I was leaving forever. I was focusing on my studies, trying to study something very complex like biotechnology, only to distract myself from how terrible the situation in Egypt was. And then, when this whole thing started, I wasn’t sure if I was going to participate. But I went with my sister, and then when we saw people around, and we saw it’s not really that hard, as soon as you cross the line of fear it just happens.
Have a look at contributor Michelle Riggen-Ransom's complete interview with Shima'a Helmy from PopTech 2011.
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This is a wonderful interview and one that brings attention to an important voice in the Egyptian revolution, or uprising, as Helmy would put it. Helmy sheds light on the realities on the ground and also highlights the current limitations of social media for mass mobilization. I was, however, a bit disappointed with the first question. The framing of it sets up a (false) dichotomy between devout Islamic practice and being an agent for change. Can you imagine asking that of any other religious or social group? "Can you speak to the dichotomy between being a devout Christian/Democrat/mother and being an agent for change?" There are specific challenges to being a change agent depending on the social group one comes from. And, there is no denying Muslims have their fair share of challenges in this regard. However, to pose it as a dichotomy, just reinforces and even reifies these challenges.
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