A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Saturday, April 9, 2011

After a Bad Night in Tahrir: First Year Arabic Students at UT Sing "Sawt al-Hurriya"

Bad stuff seems to have happened last night/this morning in Tahrir Square, and the situation iS still unclear. After a day of protests demanding that Mubarak be tried and other issues, some military officers, apparently, joined the protest, and at this point the Army moved in to arrest them. Clashes ensued, and while the Army seemed to succeed for a while, in the end the people apparently retook the square. This is going to increase tensions with the Army, which still seems uncertain of its real role.

While this sorts itself out: One of the great folk anthems of the Egyptian Revolution was "Sawt al-Hurriya," (In every street of my country/the voice of freedom is sounding). I posted it on Feburary 11, the day Mubarak stepped down. It has an inspiring beat and inspiring words. The original video is here:



The words are in some ways pretty easy for beginning Arabic students, and now the University of Texas First Year Arabic Students have done their own version for YouTube:



If I'd had that in my first year of Arabic, I'd probably have learned the language with less pain and struggle.

I'll be celebrating my daughter's birthday this weekend, so I'll see you Monday.

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