MAHMOUD (3rd year university student) participated in many demonstrations (Ring, down town, Hamra, Verdun), since the early beginning of October 2019 and until he was beaten up
by the security forces and severely injured, with a broken jaw, a surgery, and months of recovery.
A typical demonstration / road-blocking day would begin after coordinating on a WhatsApp group, created by the main organizers, to set the date and the location of the gathering, it would start with small grouping, they would march together, meet other groups, until reaching the final destination point. Confrontations with security forces happened when demonstrators tried to block the roads especially at Ring area, and when they tried to reach the parliament area, then security forces would try at first to push them away by force, and then they would probably use tear gases; demonstrators will choose to leave this area, and to change their locations. Protestors were not equipped to withstand tear gases, they would faint, cough. Spaces full of tear gases resembled a war field, canisters were falling around all over, after being arrested, beaten up and injured, Mahmoud did not participate to any other demonstration, he said that the security forces succeeded in a way to prevent him from being part of future demonstrations. they broke his capability from going back down there.
Mahmoud perceives the city now as a space where he can’t work or participate in trying to fix anymore, he just lost his opportunity after the accident happened.
“So when walking in the city, my perception of the city changed in a sense that this is a city that I was trying to defend, this is a city that I was trying to work to make a better, to give it a proper future. And now all I can do is to watch people doing what I was working for”
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