Naira Badawi’s phone has been ringing non-stop. Among those calling? Her fiancé, Egyptian-American Amr Taha, was in Tahrir Square when the announcement of Hosni Mubarak’s resignation was made. Taha has been camping in the centre of Cairo on and off since the anti-Mubarak protests began.

When Janette Samaan left for her month-long trip to visit family in Alexandria, Egypt, at the beginning of January, she never imagined her last few days there would be filled with gunfire, chaos and her homeland turned upside down.