Mafaz Al-Suwaidan, a fourth-year Ryerson student, was in her highrise apartment, sipping green tea with mint leaves and looking out over Toronto.

Her cellphone rang, she answered with an eager voice. “Maysoon, Maysoon,” she said.

The call came from Cairo where her sister Maysoon Al-Suwaidan, 26, is protesting President Hosni Mubarak’s continued rule.

Mafaz had been waiting anxiously for her to call and for news she was safe.

On Jan. 25, Egyptian protesters took to the streets, fuelled by news that the Tunisian people had overthrown their government.

People across North Africa and the Middle East are rising up against their corrupt governments, and protests have spread to Yemen and Algeria too.

For the Egyptian people, Jan. 25 was the first day of a long protest that has yet to end. They said they wouldn’t relent until Mubarak has left.

Maysoon sounded happy. The phone call came on Friday, Feb. 4 in the late afternoon.

 She said she saw robbers throwing Molotov cocktails the previous day. The protests, it seemed, were turning more violent.

On this day, protesters had been better organized to prevent violence from breaking out. For the moment, things were peaceful. Maysoon said she had to pass through military security to get to the protests, but the checkpoints aren’t very secure.

She’s not supposed to be allowed in because she is Kuwaiti. Only Egyptians are allowed to protest.

“Go home because they’re not letting foreigners in,” the soldiers said to Maysoon.

“But then I was like, ‘OK sure,’” she said. “The soldiers turned around because something was happening and I ran inside.”

She wasn’t the only one sneaking in, but some people were sneaking weapons in to stir up violence.

“It was pretty secure up until the end,” Maysoon said of Friday’s protest. “The whole day nobody (violent) was in there except for maybe one. One guy got in with a knife.” A few people jumped on the man to take his weapon, but the crowd started chanting, “peaceful, peaceful protest, let him leave,” before he could be beaten. “(The civilians) created like 10 checkpoints all around the square, so in order to get to Tahrir you have to get checked for an ID at least 10 times,” she said.Since the demonstrations started in Egypt, there have also been two protests staged in Toronto.

The first was at Yonge-Dundas Square on Jan. 29, the second in Queen’s Park on Feb. 5. The gatherings have been diverse, but mostly attended by young adults. Organizers estimated that the last protest attracted about 1,000 people.

NDP leader Jack Layton spoke at the Feb. 5 rally. “When I look at people’s faces (in the crowd) I see people that are worried for their families but excited about the possibilities,” he said.

Sareen Cagli, 21 and Claudia Bernardino, 20, are third-year Ryerson social work students. They said they came out to show support and to fight for justice, adding that not being personally connected to Cairo didn’t matter to them. This was a sentiment echoed by Ryerson politics and public policy professor Anver Saloojee.

“We have a government that has prorogued Parliament. We have a government that has not always been open and transparent,” he said. “Watching what’s happening in Egypt should translate into us asking questions about how democratic our own system is.”

Nisreen Rawdah, president of Ryerson’s Arab Students’ Association, agreed. “This is not necessarily an Arab issue, this is an issue that is relative to people all around the world,” she said.

“Somewhere like Canada, where we’re just kind of like, ‘oh the government imposes a new tax or higher tuition fees,’ or whatever the case is, we don’t really fight back,” she said.

“We should take a look at our people in Egypt and learn a lesson from them.”

There haven’t been any events organized by the Arab Students Association. Rawdah said they don’t plan to because it’s better to join forces with people outside the school for a greater impact.

Marwa Siam-Abdou, former president of the association, has also been taking part in raising awareness about the protests in Egypt. “I wish I was down there, to be honest,” she said. “I feel like I’m not doing enough by being here.

“They sleep in (Tahrir) Square, they wake up there, they see things by the second and anybody can die at any minute,” said Siam-Abdou.

Kamal Al-Solaylee, a Ryerson journalism professor who lived in Cairo for 15 years, is concerned about violence against the protesters.

“Once the pro-government supporters, paid thugs, charged into the crowd, I immediately got the sense that the government isn’t going to step down quietly,” Al-Solaylee said.

He said he worries that the government may soon try to use the military to force protesters to go home.

“The grim prospect here,” said Al-Solaylee, “is that these protesters will be rounded up by security forces.” But he doesn’t think it will go that far.

“Eventually the actual protests will die down,” he said.

For now, the Egyptian protesters stand firm in their will to remove their president.

Moutaz Enara is a second-year electrical engineering student who arrived in Canada from Cairo in September 2009. Most of his family is still in Egypt. He said none of them are protesting.

Enara’s family told him that basic necessities like bread, rice and fresh vegetables are getting very difficult to find.

He said store owners have almost all closed their doors for fear of being looted and many of them have also gone to join the protests.

According to Maysoon, the feeling on the ground in Cairo is one of empowerment.

“Not only are they coming, they’re coming with their babies,” she said. “There were little children walking on the road with signs,” she said. “It was so cute.”

Al-Suwaidan’s cellphone battery beeped, it was almost dead. With that, she said goodbye to her sister, promising to tell their mother Maysoon is alive and well.

She set her phone back down and returned to her cup of tea feeling relieved.