Egyptians living in exile reflect on uprising 10 years on

Taqadum al-Khatib, an Egyptian academic in Berlin, is living in exile.Ten years after Egypt's pro-democracy uprising, he's one of an estimated thousands who have fled abroad to escape the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi that is considered by some even more oppressive than its predecessor.He first protested, and then worked in the nascent political scene after 2011.

He was researching Egypt's former Jewish community in Germany when he learned that returning to his homeland was no longer an option.The Egyptian cultural attaché in Berlin summoned al-Khatib for a meeting, and an official questioned him about his articles, social media posts and research.He was asked to hand over his passport, which he refused to do, and shortly after was fired from his job at an Egyptian university.

The Egyptians who took to the streets on January 25, 2011, knew they risked arrest and worse.But as their numbers swelled in Cairo's central Tahrir Square, they tasted success.Police forces backed off, and within days, former President Hosni Mubarak agreed to demands to step down.But their success did not last, with interim military rulers following Mubarak into power.

In 2012, Mohamed Morsi, a member of Egypt's most powerful Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, was elected as the first civilian president in the country's history.But his tenure proved divisive.Amid massive protests, the military - led by then-Defence Minister el-Sissi - removed Morsi in 2013, dissolved parliament and eventually banned the Brotherhood as a "terrorist group."

A crackdown on dissent ensued, and el-Sissi won two terms in elections that human rights groups criticized as undemocratic.No one knows exactly how many Egyptians like al-Khatib have fled political persecution.

Data from the World Bank shows an increase in emigres from Egypt since 2011.A total of 3,444,832 left in 2017 - nearly 60,000 more than in 2013, the years for which figures are available, but it's impossible to tell economic migrants from political exiles.

Some relocated to Berlin, Paris and London, others have settled in Turkey, Qatar, Sudan and even Asian countries like Malaysia and South Korea.Human Rights Watch estimated in 2019 that there were 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks Egypt third, behind China and Turkey, in detaining journalists.El-Sissi maintains Egypt has no political prisoners, but the arrest of a journalist or a rights worker makes news roughly every month.

Many people have been imprisoned on terrorism charges, for breaking a ban on protests or for disseminating false news. Others remain in indefinite pretrial detentions.El-Sissi maintains Egypt is holding back Islamic extremism so it doesn't descend into chaos like its neighbours.

"Sissi wants not only to abrogate the rights of the opposition and to prevent any critical voice from being uttered, Sissi doesn't actually believe, not only in the opposition, but he doesn't believe in politics," says Khaled Fahmy, an Egyptian professor of modern Middle Eastern History at Cambridge University.

Fahmy believes this is the worst period in Egypt's modern history for personal rights.He's seen outspoken expatriates have their Egyptian citizenship revoked.

"It's much more serious, it's much deeper and much darker, what Sissi has in mind," he said.

Journalist Asma Khatib, 29, remembers the heady days of 2011, when young people thought they could bring change.A reporter for a pro-Muslim Brotherhood news agency, Khatib covered Morsi's short presidency amid criticism the group was using violence against opponents and seeking to monopolize power to make Egypt an Islamic state.

After Morsi's ouster, his supporters held sit-ins for his reinstatement at a square in Cairo. A month later, the new military leaders forcibly cleared them out, and more than 600 people were killed.Khatib documented the violence. Soon, colleagues started being arrested, and she fled Egypt - first to Malaysia, then to Indonesia and Turkey.She was tried in absentia on espionage charges in 2015, convicted and sentenced to death.

Now, she and her husband Ahmed Saad, also a journalist, and their two children are seeking asylum in South Korea.They expect they'll never return, but also realise they're lucky to be free.On the day the ruling was announced, she remembers telling herself: "You don't have a country anymore."The exiles have had ample time to think about where Egypt's uprising failed.

The broad alliance of protesters - from Islamists to secular activists - fractured without a common enemy like Mubarak, and the most extreme voices became the loudest.The role of religion in society remained largely unanswered, and liberal secular initiatives never gained traction.No one accounted for how many people would embrace former regime figures, especially in a crisis.

Most Egyptians abroad have not been politically active, fearing for family and friends back home.But some have continued on the path begun on January 25, 2011.Ahmed Saad has a theory about how many of them are now abroad - of those who protested on January 25 take those who are now inside prison. The rest, he says, are the fortunate ones who could leave.They are trying to cope in strange lands. Asma Khatib and her husband aren't sure what to say to their young children when they ask where they're from.Al-Khatib, the academic, feels lucky to be able to work toward his doctorate in Germany but misses Cairo's bustle.

"I couldn't go back to my home, it's a very difficult situation and it is hard to describe it, in a way, it's very hard, actually," he says.