CAIRO | Egyptian Seed Mostafa Fahmy (Camp 1999) and his friends filmed, edited and recorded a music video during a two-day period last week. The song, called Sout Al Horeya (The Voice of Freedom), has received over 1,750,000 views on YouTube since it was released on February 10, the day before President Mubarak’s resignation. It is one of the 30 most-watched videos on YouTube this week, and the No. 7 music video on the site.
Mostafa filmed during the protests in Tahrir Square, and despite losing two video cameras to police, never gave up. After the second camera was taken, he received encouragement from Seeds of Peace co-founder Bobbie Gottschalk. “She gave me the push to go film and not stop,” Mostafa says.
“Our only goal was to create a video that might increase the hope for our people,” he says. “As you see, it has been spread. We were inspired by what we see every day in Egypt. We smelled freedom and we couldn’t resist doing something.”
Mostafa’s cousin survived being shot in the chest by police during a peaceful protest, an incident Mostafa witnessed and that motivated him even more.
“I used passion and all my abilities to peacefully defend what I believe in,” he says. “We made the song with love and pride. We wanted to make our voices loud—really loud—for all the world to hear.”
Mostafa shares the excitement of many young people in Egypt about the changes he sees and the “lesson in peace and the power of people” that brought them about.
“I really can’t believe what’s happening around me these days. My Egypt is back, the Egypt that I’ve always dreamed of. Now I can talk out loud in the street about the president—I can say whatever I want—and most important to me, film whatever I want.”
Update: The video has aired on major Egyptian TV stations, as well as the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, and Democracy Now!, and was linked to in Wired and Thomas Friedman’s February 15 New York Times column. In a 60 Minutes interview on CBS, Google executive and imprisoned protest activist Wael Ghonim introduced the video to correspondent Harry Smith, and agreed with Smith that Sout Al Horeya “is the best song to come out of the revolution.”
Read more about reactions by Seeds to the Revolution ››
Sout Al Horeya/The Voice of Freedom lyrics
I went (to go protest), vowing not to turn back.
I wrote, in my blood, on every street.
We raised our voices, until those who had not heard us could.
We broke down all barriers.
Our weapon was our dreams.
And we could see tomorrow clearly.
We have been waiting for so long.
Searching, and never finding our place.
In every street in my country,
The voice of freedom is calling. (x2)
We raised our heads high into the sky.
And hunger no longer mattered to us.
Most important are our rights,
And that with our blood we write our history.
If you are one of us,
Stop your chattering,
Stop telling us to leave and abandon our dream.
Stop saying the word, “I”.
In every street in my country,
The voice of freedom is calling. (x2)
(poem)
Brown Egyptian hands
Are outstretched amidst the roars (of the crowd)
Breaking barriers.
Our innovative youth
Have turned autumn into spring.
They have achieved the miraculous.
They have resurrected the dead,
Saying: “Kill me,
But my death will not resurrect YOUR country.
I am writing, with my blood,
A new life for my nation.
Is this my blood, or is it spring?
In color, they are both green.”
I do not know whether I smile from happiness,
Or from my sadnesses.
In every street in my country,
The voice of freedom is calling. (x2)
(Translated by Egyptian Seed Mariam Bazeed.)