Sarah Elliott

Her Voice Counts

Bothiana Kamel, 49 shortly after graduating from Cairo University, her radio and TV career began. She hosted a nighttime radio show called “night confessions” which was suspended in 1998. She went on the host a TV show for ten years called “Please Understand Me” which was canceled this year. In 2005 along with two other women, she founded “We are watching you” a group to observe Egypt’s first elections. Kamel is currently the only female running for the presidential election, her slogan being “Egypt is my agenda.” “Kamel has made it her goal to listen to minorities. At a meeting she was discussing with her presidential team how to support the people injured in the demonstrations in Tahrir Square and Mohamed Mahmoud Street. “Simple young people are usually treated horribly, now they are hero’s. If they die, they think it’s ok, as it’s for their younger siblings and the next generation. From February, they stopped paying my salary. I have been arrested twice. The second time in court I was charged with insulting the head of the military council and the military council itself. Nothing can make me fear, I can’t turn off, I have no fear at all. The army is not democratic and they don’t believe in women. Women’s roles in the Revolution have increased, but it will be a long struggle with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis as women’s right’s were imposed by Susan Mubarak. I was present on Women’s Day for one or two hours, before I announced presidential run. In the square, no one looks at me as a man or a woman, but as a revolutionary.” Kamel does not wear a headscarf in public and is the first woman in Egyptian history to run for president.
Bothiana Kamel, 49 shortly after graduating from Cairo University, her radio and TV career began. She hosted a nighttime radio show called “night confessions” which was suspended in 1998. She went on the host a TV show for ten years called “Please Understand Me” which was canceled this year. In 2005 along with two other women, she founded “We are watching you” a group to observe Egypt’s first elections. Kamel is currently the only female running for the presidential election, her slogan being “Egypt is my agenda.” “Kamel has made it her goal to listen to minorities. At a meeting she was discussing with her presidential team how to support the people injured in the demonstrations in Tahrir Square and Mohamed Mahmoud Street. “Simple young people are usually treated horribly, now they are hero’s. If they die, they think it’s ok, as it’s for their younger siblings and the next generation. From February, they stopped paying my salary. I have been arrested twice. The second time in court I was charged with insulting the head of the military council and the military council itself. Nothing can make me fear, I can’t turn off, I have no fear at all. The army is not democratic and they don’t believe in women. Women’s roles in the Revolution have increased, but it will be a long struggle with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis as women’s right’s were imposed by Susan Mubarak. I was present on Women’s Day for one or two hours, before I announced presidential run. In the square, no one looks at me as a man or a woman, but as a revolutionary.” Kamel does not wear a headscarf in public and is the first woman in Egyptian history to run for president.