7.ASMAA MAHFOUZ
The sharp rhetoric of Asmaa Mahfouz played a crucial role in galvanizing the Egyptian revolution’s massive protests in Tahrir Square. The activist and co-founder of the April 6 Youth Movement famously posted a video to YouTube challenging Egyptians to join her in Tahrir Square on Jan. 25, 2011, to protest the human rights abuses of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime: “If you think yourself a man, come with me on Jan. 25. Whoever says women shouldn’t go to protests because they will get beaten, let him have some honor and manhood and come with me.”
Mahfouz may have helped topple Mubarak, but she still attracted the ire of the military junta, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), that came after him. In August 2011, she was court-martialed by the SCAF and charged with inciting violence, disturbing public order, and spreading false information through social media. Later that year Mahfouz was honored for her persistence when the European Parliament named her a co-recipient of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
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