Since the revolution two years ago, Egypts has witnessed every kind of protest imaginable: demonstrations, sit-ins, and million-man Islamic and revolutionary rallies in numerous forms. What has become as diversified as the demonstrations are the various street vendors found at every demo, whether pro or anti-regime.

Sometimes they stand in the middle of gathered demonstrators. Some accuse the peddlers of being thugs, while others consider them agents of security services.

People stopped eating

Since the revolution two years ago, Egypts has witnessed every kind of protest imaginable: demonstrations, sit-ins, and million-man Islamic and revolutionary rallies in numerous forms. What has become as diversified as the demonstrations are the various street vendors found at every demo, whether pro or anti-regime.

Sometimes they stand in the middle of gathered demonstrators. Some accuse the peddlers of being thugs, while others consider them agents of security services.

People stopped eating

Mohammad Ahmad Abdurrahman is a 38-year-old pitchman present at every protest in the revolutionary square in downtown Damietta, 200 kilometers north of Cairo. The father of three sells bread and Egyptian cookies, which he transports on his bicycle.

Abdurrahman said he tried different jobs after earning a vocational degree in 1992. After trying, in vain, to get a government job, he decided to become a pedlar about ten years ago.  He took this job, he said, to rid himself of employers’ domination and underpaid employment, in addition to long working hours of up to 16 hours a day.

“In the beginning,” said Abdurrahman, “selling of bread and local pasties could hardly provide enough substance for my family. However, things have become even more difficult and my income has greatly diminished since the revolution; it looks as though people stopped eating. I used to sell three loads of bread and cookies a day, while today I hardly sell a single load.”

Participation for a modest life

Abdurrahman believed that the revolution was made for him and all the Egyptian poor with slogans of sustenance, freedom, social justice, and human dignity. But two years since the revolution, nothing has changed, and none of those goals have been achieved, according to Abdurrahman.

Abdurrahman’s coming to the revolution square aims to achieve two goals he says: participating in political activities, and making considerable money by selling bread and cookies to demonstrators. But this is not necessarily an easy life; he is often harassed and sometimes driven out of the square when riots erupt. Abdurrahman says he has faced harassments at the hands of some political movement supporters who level charges against others without any evidence, branding them as thugs— especially street vendors. “In our quest to earn an honest living,” said Abdurrahman, “we face harassments and endure all circumstances starting with sweltering summer heat and ending with cold wintery weather. If we were thugs, we would not wander around to earn a living; thugs have other ways to make money.”

Deferred dreams

Concluding his story, Abdurrahman wished that the present regime learned the lesson and thought a little about the poor who, judged by poverty standards, were considered ‘war victims’. “We have neither sources of income, nor health insurance, nor pension, nor anything else in this life, except to dream of a dignified living. I, together with the 40 million Egyptian poor, will continue dreaming of achieving the revolution’s goals. I will keep crying out “sustenance, freedom, social justice, and human dignity” and pray to see my children one day enjoy their rights and dignity in their own country.”