Dear Egypt ... I want my voice!

For the past couple of months and like every single Egyptian in the whole world I’ve been following the drastic changes that happened and still happening in my country Egypt. If someone ever told me that I would live to witness a revolution, one that resembles those I used to watch in old Egyptian movies, or that this revolution would result the stepping down of Mubarak I’d say he or she is dreaming of LaLa land, but it did happen and I’ve witnessed a great revolution.

I still remember when I used to face situations where I encounter corruption and I would die to blog or tweet about it but my friends and family would worn me against it saying it could cause me trouble or put me in danger and that I’d never know who’s out there listening. Though I used be frustrated but eventually I would listen to them because deep down there was this fear clutching to my heart, fear of getting into trouble. Now and thanks to brave young men and women who stood up for themselves, for me and for all Egyptians I don’t have this fear inside of me anymore. Thanks to those brave youth who never feared to say No I got my voice back.

Today and though I am filled with hope for a better future I can’t help but feel frustrated for not being able to take part in the changes happening in my country and for not being able to use the voice I got back.

Hopefully all Egyptians today in Egypt will head to vote ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ to the proposed constitutional amendments which will have a great impact on our future as a country. However because I currently work and live abroad I can’t participate in the vote. I just don’t understand why the government couldn’t allow us to vote in the Egyptian Embassies around the world or create some sort of a web portal to give us the opportunity to express ourselves. Just because we live abroad that doesn’t make us less Egyptians.

For a long time I stopped caring about everything, I stopped caring about politics and didn’t bother knowing what’s happening in my country and who’s doing what because to me it was all in vain, nothing was going to change, so I took the easy way out and I quit. I quit believing in change, I quit believing in a better future, I quit believing in my country, but most of all I quit believing in myself and my ability to changes things.

But now it’s all different, the revolution made it different, I care now, I want to know and I want to use the voice given back to me to change things and make my own choices. That’s why I am really frustrated because I can’t express my opinion today and vote.

Nevertheless, today is a great day for Egypt, as we all witness true democracy taking place with the referendum. I am really optimistic and I have strong feeling that this time the result of the vote won’t be forged, and though I am not taking part this time, I trust my fellow Egyptians back home to participate and make their voices heard to shape our future and I trust that we all will respect the majority’s choice at the end because that’s what democracy is about after all.

Hopefully by the time the presidential election is due the government would have come up with a way for us Egyptians abroad to vote or else I'd have to take a 24 hours trip to Egypt to make my voice heard.

PS. For what it’s worth … today I would have voted NO