On the 9th of October 2011 a protest march of Copts in Cairo ended in a massacre. At least 27 people were killed and more than 300 wounded when the peaceful protest was violently dispersed by the army.
Mariam, one of my students from back in my teaching days, was there, and saw army tanks drive over civilians. Tears well up in her eyes as she tells me about what she saw that evening.
“One of my classmates asked me if I wanted to join a march going from Shubra to Maspiro, the state television building in down town Cairo”, she begins her story. “They wanted to protest the burning of a church a few weeks earlier. I thought it was a good cause, so I decided to join her.”
