A panel of five UD professors spoke, giving very different perspectives on the changes in

Tunisia and Egypt.

Rudi Matthee, UNIDEL Professor of History urged caution mixed into our optimism. The
people in Tahrir Square were young, urban, English speaking and perhaps 50,000
people. The large majority of Egypt’s 80 million people are poor, rural and uneducated.
How will they react to the changes?

Muqtedar Khan, associate professor of political science and international relations. “I

don’t share Prof. Matthee’s pessimism.” He is rejoicing. These uprisings don’t just
transform the region, transforms the psyche of all Arabs. He has students changing their
career path as a result. No longer will Arabs assume they cannot do anything to change
their governments and the conditions under which they live.

Ikram Masmoudi, assistant professor of Arabic language and culture – she’s Tunisian.
She says she lands between the optimism of Khan and the caution of Matthee. Her
message was primarily upbeat, however. She sees it as important that the Tunisian
uprising was not ideological – not Nassarist (a kind of socialist nationalism in Egypt
under a ruler in the 1950s), not pan-Arabist (let’s unite all Arabs into one nation), not
Islamist (religious). Movements that began with strong political beliefs and then moved
to action failed to represent the needs of the people. She hopes this one, by not starting
with politics, will be more successful and widespread.

Yasser Payne, assistant professor of Black American Studies; faculty director of January
2011 Black American Study Abroad Program in Egypt. – He told the story of being in
Egypt as the demonstrations escalated. They were actually in Egypt to study the ancient
society. It was his first time in Egypt, and only his second time outside of the country.
The first thing they noticed was that everyone was talking about the Tunisian uprising.
Then it mostly felt like a crisis for him – violence, looked like chaos, cutoff of Internet,
tear gas. Finally they heard that the government had imposed a curfew and issued shoot
to kill orders. That was when they decided to leave. They had no idea that the uprising
would result in Mubarak’s expulsion.

Audrey Helfman, associate professor of the Leadership Program; faculty director of

January 2011 LEAD Study Abroad Program in Egypt. – She was also in Egypt. Rather than
tell her story, she read two emails from Egyptian students with whom she worked. One
was very active, in Tahrir Square from the second day of protests. “As days went by, and
the police got more violent, I got less hopeful. Then as more days went by, I got more
hopeful.” “I was sad that the state media was saying we were traitors.” This student was
incredibly hopeful. Her second student did not participate in the uprising, and was much
more hesitant. “It would have been more respectful for us to wait until the President
stepped down in September.” “I was afraid; I did not know what would happen. My
father and other men were patrolling our neighborhood at night because the police
were not there anymore.”
All agreed the big question is “what next”? Clearly Prof Khan is extremely excited, and
thinks that no matter what happens in the short term, no-one will think that “Arabs are
allergic to democracy” ever again. Prof. Matthee is worried about food, the economy,
and thinks of failed or unsatisfying changes like in Russia, Ukraine and Georgia. No one
was willing to predict what would happen in Bahrain (in which there were big protests
as we were meeting), Algeria, Yemen, or other places in the Middle East and North
Africa.