Gihan Ibrahim

Who is Gihan Ibrahim?

Gihan Ibrahim, nicknamed Gigi, is an Egyptian journalist, blogger and socialist activist. She has been credited as being a part of a new generation of "citizen journalists" who document news events using social media. For this she was featured on a cover of Time magazine as "one of the leaders" of Tahrir Square during the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. Ibrahim however states, that while the internet was important for coordinating people in the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak, "it was the battles on the streets that were crucial ... [i]t was their power that made the revolution."

She is a graduate from the American University in Cairo where she earned a political science degree. Prior to university, Gigi has had no direct links to the workers protests and opposition movements that had previously been occurring in Egypt. It was a lecture on "Social Mobilization under Authoritarian Regimes", where her future husband Hossam el-Hamalawy was a guest speaker, that provided her with insight about activism in Egypt. The contact with el-Hamalawy, a member of the Revolutionary Socialists, led her to decide to join the movement.

Aside from Time, she has also appeared in Frontline, BBC, Al Jazeera and The Daily Show.