What They Mean When They Say “the Barrier of Fear”

Egyptian blogger 3arabawi on the old fear of Mubarak:

Mubarak has always been a big taboo. You could not talk about him in public without looking around lest someone was ear dropping, you couldn’t chant against him in protests or else you’d disappear, couldn’t crack jokes about him over the phone coz they were tapped, and could not even write a mild criticism of him in any newspaper. I recall times when I chanted against Mubarak, only to find protesters behind me had started running for their lives out fear. Each demo we organized in the 1990s against Mubarak and the first years of this millennium, usually meant we did not sleep in our homes after, went into hiding for a week or two to avoid arrest.

Food for thought while watching him being tried in public..