Best Person of the Year for 2011- Gigi Ibrahim

"Time" magazine declared 'the protestor' to be the person of the year, but long before that, we had decided to name Egyptian Gigi Ibrahim, 23, as our Person of the Year. Ibrahim was one of the main organizers of the protests in Egypt during the Arab Spring.

While she was protesting on Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was trying to stay in power. But, his reign ended this year. Political protests also occurred in Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria and Syria this year with political change resulting in three north African countries: Egypt, Tunisia and Libya.

Ibrahim was influenced by Hasan el-Hamalawy, an early leader in the protest movement who had been tortured by Egyptian secret police in 2000. Ibrahim was also featured in a PBS/Frontline documentary about the protests in Egypt and she has even appeared on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

But, there have been political divisions amongst members of the movement as Ibrahim has openly criticized fellow activist Wael Ghonim who said that the protests needed to discontinue after Mubarak's resignation.

Today, Egypt remains in a state of political uncertainty, and many intellectuals, both liberal and conservative in the West, are concerned that the vacuum could be filled by Islamic fundamentalists, not only in Egypt, but in Tunisia and Libya as well.

Several Egyptian activists, including Ahmed Maher, have come to America to take part in both the Occupy WallStreet protests and the OccupyDC rallies, saying that 'America needs to ally itself with the Egyptian people as opposed to the Egyptian military."