My life has been greatly affected by the current events. The Brotherhood’s time in power had a negative impact on Egypt. The Egyptian pound has been depreciated by 20 per cent since Morsi came to power. The dollar exchange rate has increased from around 5 to over 7 pounds per dollar, reducing the pound’s purchasing power and making an income of L.E. 1,000 (€106) pounds actually equal to that of L.E. 700 (€75). I am surviviving but many others cannot.

My life has been greatly affected by the current events. The Brotherhood’s time in power had a negative impact on Egypt. The Egyptian pound has been depreciated by 20 per cent since Morsi came to power. The dollar exchange rate has increased from around 5 to over 7 pounds per dollar, reducing the pound’s purchasing power and making an income of L.E. 1,000 (€106) pounds actually equal to that of L.E. 700 (€75). I am surviviving but many others cannot.

We are still living the aftermath of a revolution. It is not a coup when 30 million citizens are in the streets calling upon the military to interfere. Morsi should have respected the people’s will and stepped down, but the Brotherhood, knowing their popularity had dropped, refused to have new elections.

I believe that the Brotherhood has ended as a political movement. The late President Anwar Sadat committed a grave mistake when he tolerated this group. If you see how Afghanistan has changed since those who claim to be Islamists came to power, you will understand what I mean. These are anti-civilization groups.

When a sit-in stops being peaceful, it becomes an armed crowd. I live very close to the Nahda Square in Giza and we saw more than 20 corpses being removed from the place even before the sit-in was dispersed. The protestors used weapons against the police which practiced the highest level of self-control. Moreover, we all heard the threats made by the sit-in in the Rabia Neighbourhood on TV.

Despite all of this, the sit-in was, from my point of view, broken up legally. For more than a month, the Brotherhood had turned down all mediation and negotiation attempts. Residents of Rabia, some of whom are acquaintances of mine, were terrorized. Some protestors would even knock on doors asking to be allowed to have a bath and when met with rejection would come back in huge numbers to threaten the house owner.

I hope that General Abdul Fattah el-Sisi becomes the President. I am not afraid for freedoms when a military man assumes power. Freedom here has a different meaning from that in the West and goes only as far as allowed by religion. I do not think that any governor with whatever background can expand or restrict it. The idea that people with military backgrounds are dictators is irrational since some civilian leaders were far worse than military people.

I demand the government back the new revolution and re-Egyptianize the state after a year of Ikhwanization. I will not ask for more because I know this is a provisional government, but I ask the coming government to alleviate poverty and make the poor rise to the status of middle class.