In terms of the everyday life of the people, nothing has changed in Egypt after the revolution. There are many economic problems remaining in the country because the whole economic system was corrupt before the revolution and built on a few businessmen who were close to the power. Most of them are now in prison.

Basem Fathy, a board member of Egyptian Democratic Academy and an activist of the Egyptian revolution expressed such an opinion when speaking to "Hetq".

"Of course, we want to institutionalize the revolution and laws and everything. Five months is a very small period for getting these gains," he added.

During the anti-regime protests in Egypt that started on January 25 and ended on February 11, resulting in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak and his 30 year reign, more than 800 protesters were killed by the Egyptian central security forces and their hired thugs.

Basem Fathy says it's really a problem in Egypt that those who killed the protesters haven't received any punishment so far because the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, formerly affiliated to the Mubarak regime, remains in power.

During 18 days of protests, 15,000 people were wounded because live ammunition was used against them. About 1,000 people lost their eyesight either completely or partially because the police intentionally shot at the eyes of protesters with rubber bullets in order to stop them.

At the same time, Basem Fathy says that after the revolution, on the level of freedom in people's minds and dignity, the situation is totally different in Egypt.

"We don't have the same threats. I and all the activists were under constant 24 hours watch by the secret police. We got threats from the secret police and now we don't, and this is one of the achievements on the political level," the Egyptian revolution activist said.

He had been detained 3 times before the revolution for his political activities and released after several days.

In Egypt there were a lot of reasons for a revolution and not just one. 40% of Egyptians live under poverty line.

Basem Fathy says that the other reason was the brutality of the police. In Egypt it's common to read that every day somebody has been detained for no reason or tortured in a police station.

The first day of Egyptian anti-government protests came 11 days after the revolution in Tunisia. This was great inspiration for Egyptians, who thought - "As long as the Tunisians did it, why shouldn't we do it?"

Another reason for the revolution, in Basem Fathy's words, was that parliamentary elections, which had been held 2 months before, were totally falsified. The ruling party had taken 81 % of the seats in the Parliament. The other 19 % of the seats had been taken by parties affiliated and loyal to the ruling party. Thus, no one from the opposition had succeeded to enter the Parliament.

Basem Fathy and activists like him had been participating in protests to push their ideas for many years. On January 25, the first day of anti-regime protests, they only called to conduct a large protest in front of the Ministry of Interior (and not in Tahrir square) against police brutality and to demand the resignation of the Minister of the Interior.

"This was the top of our dreams. But on the 25th we found that a lot of people responded and started to participate and spontaneously the people started to move into Tahrir square from everywhere in Cairo. It was the first moment for the people to feel freedom, to feel that they are the strongest. It was unbelievable," Basem Fathy says.

On that day, he was responsible for getting some blankets, tents and sleeping bags in case they were going to stay in the square. On the following days, non-politicized people who never thought about revolution before took to the streets protesting against Mubarak and the regime.

On January 28, the Internet activists posted the list of starting points for the marches from all over the country on Facebook and blogs. The marches were to start from the mosques and churches all over the country and head to the very logical destination, Tahrir (Liberty) Square, where people had gathered 3 days ago.

On the same day, Internet and cell phone connections were made unavailable for the Egyptians, but the people started to march from everywhere around Cairo towards Tahrir Square. Basem Fathy says that the security forces, the biggest share of which was concentrated in Cairo, encircled the square in order to prevent the protesters from getting there.

Besides the army of about 750,000 Egyptian servicemen, who will disobey any order to shoot at their people, Egypt has internal army, the security forces of 1.5 million people. In Egyptian activist's words these forces are established and kept for political reasons and are trained for dealing with protests.

"We started a battle. We were unarmed and they were armed with rubber bullets, even live ammunition, of course tear gas, all the day beating, even using police vehicles to crash into the people. On January 28 people just went to Tahrir square after a 5 hour battle with 1.5 million soldiers and they have been defeated in 5 hours by the people. While you are under this, you have something inside yourself, adrenaline, putting on the confrontations and pushing you forward, not back," Basem Fathy said.

He added that the protesters, he included, were scared.

"I felt that I am brave and I was standing against the ruling power for years, but it's very different when you find bullets everywhere and people killed. The revolution always starts with the first bloodshed. When I and my friend go to protest and my friend is killed, I cannot go back, I have to continue, whether I'll be killed also or we will win just to have the revenge of our friend. This was the case in Egypt," Basem Fathy said.

He quoted the following words of one of the Egyptian revolution activists, who on January 27 wrote in his Facebook:

"I have been beaten a lot through 2 days, but feel that we are very close. I'll go today anyway to protest, because we are very close and we have to reach to what we want."

On January 28 he was killed.