Slideshow: Egypt's revolution and the fall of Mubarak (http://slideshow.nbcnews.com/id/46341995/displaymode/1247/?wbSlideShowId=46341995&wbSection=news)(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Slideshows/_production/_archive/News/_International%20News/Middle%20East/_11/ss-110127-egypt-unrest/ss-120210-egypt-highlights/ss-12021-egypt-best-tease.photoblog600.jpg) (http://slideshow.nbcnews.com/id/46341995/displaymode/1247/?wbSlideShowId=46341995&wbSection=news)Ahmed Youssef / EPAEighteen days of popular protest culminated in the downfall of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, 2011.Launch slideshowBy Duncan Golestani, Correspondent, NBC NewsCAIRO, Egypt -- Maha remembers going to Tahrir Square on Jan. 25, 2011. The 27-year-old office worker only wanted to look around the Cairo intersection filled with thousands of protesters. But seeing Egypt's revolution unfold before her, she left to get friends and quickly returned. Without planning to, Maha became one of the highly visible gay men and women who took to the streets shouting for change.
"We don't get freedom anywhere. No voice, nothing," said Maha, who declined to give her surname "So, the first chance at revolution, we fought."
Nearly two years after the ouster of former leader Hosni Mubarak, Maha sits smoking a shisha with her friend Noor at a back-street cafe in downtown Cairo. Together, the women have made this location a "safe place" for gays, somewhere they can come and be themselves.
NBCNews