Egyptian-US engineer Mohamed Radwan (c) speaks to the media after he and his parents met with Egypt's Foreign Minister Nabil Elaraby in Cairo April 3. Radwan was released April 1 after a week in detention in Syria for filming last week's protests in Damascus with a mobile phone. Radwan had been working in Syria for his father's company. Photo: picture alliance / © dpa.

I had returned home from the doctor’s clinic on Saturday evening fidgeting with anxiety. My surgery was scheduled for the next day, and naturally my mind started contemplating the results. If all goes well I should be alive and in a better condition than I am in now. If not … Well, I didn’t want to dwell on the possibilities.

Caricature drawn by Sara Abd El Azim during the revolution, Photo: Sara Abd El Azim (Twitter @lujee), http://lewjee.blogspot.com

In the run up to the toppling of the then president Mohamed Hosny Mubarak, his parasitic group in power did their utmost to keep him in place. Government-controlled media took up mass propaganda by fabricating stories and advocating the ex-president’s merits.

The loyalists were using a message they thought would make most people quiet down, a message that had proven effective in the past – the president is your father.

It was a clever card to play, addressing the strong emotional bond between Egyptians and their families. A family in Egypt is widely seen as the building block of society, and its well-being is the number one priority to all its members.

An Egyptian Military Police soldier (R) collecting documents in front of the Egyptian Internal Security Services building in Alexandria, Egypt March 4, 2011. According to local media reports, Egyptian protesters tried to enter a building of the Internal Security Service in Alexandria March 4, Photo: picture alliance / dpa

I wanted to talk but they silenced me, I wanted to know but they banned me and I wanted to work but they stood in my way. I wanted to breathe but they polluted the air, I wanted to be but they classified me and I wanted to explore but they bound me.