”It is amazing! I am ecstatic!! I can’t even describe to you the happiness that I feel inside. I feel like I want to celebrate.”
That’s the reaction of Thomas Jefferson School of Law 1L Asser Bassyouni after hearing the news that Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak has finally given in to the protestors and resigned.
“I spoke with several members of my family and it is like a huge party throughout all of Cairo everybody is so happy,” says Bassyouni who was born on U.S. soil in Puerto Rico to Egyptian parents and whose extended family are in Egypt, a place he has visited often during his life.
“Today is the new Egyptian Independence day and it was brought forward through the voice of all of the Egyptian people, regardless of class age or religion!” he says. “It’s a new day for Egypt. The people are finally free after 30 years of repression. I believe that this is a great important step, and I hope that since the army now has control, that they will help facilitate the constitutional reforms and help prepare the country for true free democratic elections. I believe that this step will reinvigorate the Egyptian people and give them a greater will to live, work and prosper in their own country, and I pray that true change does come and the transition is smooth.”
Bassyouni has been closely monitoring the situation since the protests began, speaking almost daily to friends and family in Egypt and watching news coverage when he can. He grew up in San Diego and his parents live here, having left Egypt in 1985 to find better opportunities.
Had the protests begun while he was last in Egypt, he would have been right there with them, he says. “I was with them in spirit.”
Since Friday’s historic resignation of Hosni Mubarak, Bassyouni has been confident that Egypt is moving in the right direction.
“I believe the majority of the people me included believe that the Army is really handling the process very well,” he says. “I see that they are trying to both give the protestors all they want while at the same time maintaining the countries security and trying to return it back to stability. I think that the timeline and propositions they have made are reasonable and are taking the right steps toward changing the constitution and bringing about fair elections and also holding the people that were corrupt before liable and bringing them to justice. “
