Ten years ago, she was celebrated as a heroine for helping to spark the 2011 uprising that unseated then-President Hosni Mubarak. But Asmaa Mahfouz, a political activist and one of the founders of the April 6 Youth Movement (credited with mobilizing the mass protests that ousted Mubarak), is today struggling to gain acceptance in her society. Ironically enough, she has been shunned and marginalized for the very reason she won acclaim as an icon of the Egyptian revolution a decade ago.
In a video published on YouTube on Jan. 18, 2011, Mahfouz had made an impassioned plea to fellow citizens to join her in protest in Tahrir Square to demand their rights.