Mohamed ELGohary notes

It is agonizing to be considered the other in my own country just for being myself, just because I do not accept the uniforms imposed on women's bodies, or just because I am of a different religion.

As for myself, I found myself writing these lines on my blog Lasto Adri لا أتوقع من الغرب ذاته أقل من أى يلغى من كل معاجمه فكرة أن المسلمين إرهابيين، ويؤمن أن بن لادن وأعوانه مثلا لا يمثلون العرب أو المسلمين فى شئ، وأفعالهم كلها فردية! وعلى رأى المثل.. لا تعايرنى ولا أعايرك.. دا التعصب طايلنى وطايلك!

Because they could see I was no longer serving them, I was only serving myself.

Now, when I went to college, I found myself making fairly complicated, fragile machines.

When I went home that night after getting my tattoo, I basically stayed up all night.

During the process of making these films I found myself taking photographs, often much to the annoyance of the video cameramen.

And then, the very last question I would ask them I would always have to work myself up to this question, because I am not a psychologist.

I ask myself why I study journalism? If it is for my personal interest, then OK, but I can not count on it for a career.

That night in my apartment, after I got done kicking myself and so forth, I lay in bed for a long time, and I thought about skin grafts.

And over there I experienced other people's suffering, up close and personal, immersed myself in some rather intense and emotional stories, and at times I experienced great fear for my own life.

So even though I didn't grow any taller, I didn't sprout a beard, something had changed My interior dialogue had changed.

For so long, I told myself that I couldn't have an adventure because I wasn't six foot tall and athletic and bearded.

So bearing that in mind, as a chemist, I wanted to ask myself the question frustrated by biology What is the minimal unit of matter that can undergo Darwinian evolution?

By the age of 24, I found myself convicted in prison in Egypt, being blacklisted from three countries in the world for attempting to overthrow their governments, being subjected to torture in Egyptian jails and sentenced to five years as a prisoner of conscience.

It makes me really feel that that civilization which, as I say, if you believe the scientific creation story, has emerged purely as a result of the laws of physics, and a few hydrogen atoms then I think, to me anyway, it makes me feel incredibly valuable.