Egyptian Native Returning to Rebuild Her Homeland

For the past four years, Narges Ibrahim has sold goods from her native Egypt to shoppers at Discover Mills Mall. Now Ibrahim is closing up her shop, Egyptian Corner, and returning to her homeland.

“I want to go back to Egypt. My homeland and my country.”

She says she wishes to return to help rebuild the nation she loves following the recent revolution, which forced President Hosni Mubarak out of office.

The store owner says she saw signs that change was coming during her many visits to Egypt over the years.

“I did see a lot of what happened on January 25th.  I saw that in the people, but it was not that unusual. I saw that everybody was blowing up, burning, was like, you know, in the streets and everywhere. And I was waiting for that day. And I always asked myself, when the people around me, when will these people start it, or wake up? And finally, by January 25th, they started.”

Ibrahim left Egypt in 1972 and lived in other countries before coming to the United States in 1990.  One place she called home for a while was Libya. Libyans are now filling the streets to try to force Muammar Gaddafi out of office, just as Egyptians and Tunisians had in the weeks before in their countries.

“They need the freedom too. All Middle East countries. I’m not just talking about just Egypt. It’s all Middle East countries. Most of the persons there [rulers] are dictators. I don’t want to say all of them, but most of them are dictators.”

“Life has changed. There is technology. That’s why when this Egyptian revolution started on the internet and Facebook, everybody was making fun of them and saying ‘Oh, they are not going to do it. They are just playing a game.’ It was not a game. It was not.”

Ibrahim says she is eager to help her homeland in any way she can.

“I wish I could find ways—not just one way—to help people there and to rebuild the country because that’s very, very important. I can teach, I can start small projects… Whatever! I have many hats!”

In order to prepare for her permanent return, Ibrahim will be selling everything in her store. All the money she earns will be used in her efforts to help build a new Egypt.

“Whatever I’m selling now, whatever I’m making now until I close, it will be a fund for this project. For any project. For anything I can do in Egypt.”

There’s any easy way Americans can help Egyptians according to Ibrahim.

“Tourists. We need a lot of tourists now.” She adds she’d be more than willing to show any visitors around Egypt. “And that’s what we need, you know? Because tourism is a source of income for the Egyptians.”

Ibrahim says she is proud of the way her countrymen came together to make a change for their future.

“Everybody. It was for everybody. It was for all ages. It was something, huge. It was very good.”