Post date: Feb 05, 2011 2:12:53 PM
Women are helping how they can, distributing food, water and working in makeshift clinics as Tahrir Square resists in the twelfth day of protests in Egypt.
CAIRO, EGYPT (FEBRUARY 5, 2011) REUTERS - In Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo, protesters keep chanting and roaring against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak almost around the clock for the twelfth consecutive day on Saturday (February 5).
Demonstrators occupying the usually busy intersection in the heart of the city said they were not giving up, despite continuing tensions with Mubarak loyalists who attacked them earlier in the week.The majority of the protesters are men but there are some women showing their solidarity.
They can be seen helping distribute food and drink and some are helping out in the makeshift medical aid clinics and helping to keep the area as clean as possible.
Hajji Siham has been protesting the square for the past four days with her two young children. She says is protesting to guarantee a better future for her children. Four of her children are university graduates but are unemployed.
She says educated people at the square are now selling koshari, a local Egyptian dish made of rice, lentils and pasta to their fellow protesters.
"We have architects here who can't find work and are selling papers instead or selling koshari. All of these young people are university graduates and unemployed. I have been staying here for the past four days but I went home a couple of times," Hajjeh Siham said.
Nahed, another woman protester, said she is sharing shifts on the square with her friend.
"We clean up and remove garbage from the square, we all have roles here. I am not afraid. I want to die a martyr. I tell God make me a martyr. I'd rather die in dignity than without it," she said.
Aida Ibrahim, who works in the makeshift clinic, says she feels it is her duty to help after both her nephew and her son were hurt during the demonstrations that pitted pro and anti-Mubarak supporters over the last few days.
"I have been here since yesterday, I have been awake for two days with no sleep. I have not slept or moved my place here; all this for my children's rights and the rights of these people here. We just don't want him," she said, referring to Mubarak.
The United Nations estimates 300 people have died in the unrest, inspired in part by protests in Tunisia which forced veteran strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee last month.
The unprecedented challenge to Mubarak has rallied many different strands of society -- professionals and the poor, secular and religious, Muslims and Christians, internet-savvy youth with members of the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist movement.