CAPS #1 Anne Johnson

It’s difficult to transplant yourself into other places. Obviously, this is not only a physical reality, but also a mental problem. Realities in the United States are not so different as those in other countries. However, sometimes it feels as if the news reported from other countries is from a whole other world. This feeling is based on an individual’s position and cultural identity in our global community. Identities are shaped by culture and background. Martin and Nakayama ask how people develop senses of their identities. They go on to explain that “an individual’s identity develops over a period of time and always through interaction with others.” (Martin and Nakayama, p. 179). Since the 2011 revolution, Egypt appears to have reached a calmer, but not close to satisfied, ground. I am focusing on the identities and current intercultural relationship between former Egyptian revolutionaries and the current military government.

            NPR featured an article entitled, “Three Years Later, Tahrir Protesters Drained and Defeated”. It perfectly depicted the personal identities and relationships that the former revolutionaries have to their government and their past revolution. NPR writer Leila Fadel starts off the identities with religion, by describing the revolutionaries as “young secular activists.” This is important because it is a stark difference between the youth and their religious parents. National, age, religious, and class identities are the prime socio-cultural identities that I believe are in play here. National and class identities are critical. The revolutionaries took their nation and what they wanted from it into their own hands. According to Fadel (2014), they protested “against President Hosni Mubarak, then against human rights abuses under military rule. [They] took to the streets again last year to protest what they saw as the increasingly autocratic style of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.” The revolutionaries recognized their position in society, and recognized that their society was unacceptable to them and their personal beliefs. Age is an important factor here, with Fadel (2014) reporting that the, “25th of January 2011 was an attempt by the younger generation to undo the mistakes of their parents and their grandparents." Many intersecting identities influence and define the young revolutionaries.

            To conclude, looking at the pivotal and revolutionary identities of some young Egyptians has helped me clarify my primary identities. In different cultures, different needs and wants take priorities. By taking a step back and critically thinking about other cultures, we can learn more about ourselves and our own lives and experiences here in the United States. Because there are a wide variety of identities at play in this article, we are more likely to connect and engage with the subjects of the article, finding common ground in similar beliefs and identities, even across the world. From this article and blog post, take away a more thorough sense of the factors at play in these Egyptians’ lives. Now that we have learned about their possible motivations and backgrounds, we can engage with their news more aware.

References:

Fadel, Leila (January 25, 2014). Three years later, Tahrir protesters drained and defeated. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2014/01/25/265944805/three-years-later-tahrir-protesters-drained-and-defeated

Martin, J.N. & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts (6^th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/25/265944805/three-years-later-tahrir-protesters-drained-and-defeated