When the Arab Spring protests began 10 years ago, I was covering the Pakistani army’s war against the Pakistan Taliban. It seemed a world away from what I knew as the peaceful streets of Cairo and Tripoli.
In fact, when the protests began, my colleagues and I watched the news unfold on Al Jazeera in disbelief that it was happening at all.
The day of February 17 – now remembered as the Day of Revolt in Libya – began small. A few gathered in Benghazi, in eastern Libya, inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Then, more people started to arrive. Within a few hours, there were thousands.