March 1, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — "For 18 days, the people of Cairo massed in Tahrir Square to bring
down their pharaoh," notes the Wall Street Journal. "Many carried signs ... Barbara Ibrahim, a veteran professor at the American University in
Cairo, wore large photographs of her husband -- Egypt's most famous
democratic dissident -- as a makeshift sandwich board. Her husband, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, couldn't be there. After being
imprisoned and tortured by the Mubarak regime from 2000 to 2003, he
went into a sort of exile, living and teaching abroad. But the day
Hosni Mubarak gave up power, Feb. 11, Mr. Ibrahim hopped a plane from
JFK International. Landing in his native Cairo, he went directly to the
square." (at left: Saad Ibrahim during an April 16, 2003 visit to DePauw)
Barbara Ibrahim is founding director of the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and
Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo and 1971 graduate of DePauw University. Saad Ibrahim taught sociology at DePauw from 1967 to 1974. An Egyptian human rights
activist and scholar, he was jailed from 2000 to 2003 after speaking out
against President 
Hosni Mubarak.
According to Saad Ibrahim, the uprising in Egypt "started as a series of challenges with individuals. With me, with [liberal opposition leader] Ayman Nour . . . What you saw is the accumulation of all these incremental steps that have taken place in the past 10 years," he tells the Journal. "But to give credit where it is due, the younger generation was more innovative and far more clever than we were by using the technology at their disposal. These guys discovered the tools that could not be combated by the government."
Dr. Ibrahim tells Bari Weiss that the Obama administration should "publicly endorse every democratic movement in the Middle East and offer help." He also recommends that the U.S. withhold "aid and trade and diplomatic endorsement. Because now the people can do the job. America doesn't have to send armies and navies to change the regimes. Let the people do their change."
Access the full piece -- "A Democrat's Triumphal Return to Cairo" -- at the newspaper's website.
In May 2004, Professor Ibrahim received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from DePauw. Learn more about him in this recent story.
Barbara Lethem Ibrahim was the subject of this article.