The Egyptian people's demonstrations have not only broken the barrier of silence but have also driven the first nail into the coffin of the "Pharaoh complex" deeply rooted within the Egyptian psyche.

We Egyptians have always seen our ruler as a faultless deity – or as the late President Anwar al-Sadat described himself, a Pharaoh. We have long thought it was inevitable that Hosni Mubarak would rule for life. At school, we had to write essays about the achievements of our beloved president and how his was an era of prolific development. It was a recurring question in Arabic composition. There was always only one right answer: there could be no one better than him to be in power and shoulder the responsibility.

Things haven't changed much in the past 30 years (that's eight years more than I have been alive), at least not until this week. The protesters who took to the streets on 25 January have undoubtedly proved that the Egyptian mentality has changed – or rather has been forced to.

For the first time, we see protesters demanding that Mubarak not run for the presidency again. The more daring are demanding that he step down and leave the country right now. Over the past three decades, no one has dared to make these demands. We could never have imagined protests like these.

Many older Egyptians are still in disbelief that slogans like "O Mubarak leave for good, or else tomorrow you die" could be used against the very person they have considered for years to be the shadow of God on earth. I have heard people (admittedly the older generation) say the protesters are wrong, arguing their actions are indecent. These are the old guard, the people who see the president as a godfather and a leader.

Young Egyptians have decided that the time for change has arrived. And for that change to be complete it has to be extended to the head of state. So, when they cheer against the president they are doing so out of a great conviction. The time is up for the traditional Egyptian way of thinking. The Pharaoh complex is no more.

But still the regime tries to hang on, disrupting the oxygen flow of social media and mobile phone networks. As I write, you can no longer access the internet or receive SMS messages across much of Egypt. Will it work? Well, today has already been branded "The Friday of Rage". People have been asked to come out on the streets and demonstrate in their thousands for their rights.

Many people I know are waiting and watching. They belong to that undecided category. They still haven't made up their minds about participating in the demonstrations, they just want things to run smoothly without disrupting their seemingly stable lives.

I know how they feel. After seeing Suez in flames, I am very nervous about what could happen in Cairo today. I am 22 years old and it's perhaps the first time I sense that some demonstrations may actually change the way things have always been.

But what if Cairo witnessed the same chaos that destroyed large parts of Suez? What suffering would that bring? As an Egyptian girl, I hope for the best but expect the worst.

No one knows how things will turn out today in Egypt. Will it be the beginning of a new era or will it just be a short break from the same old things? No one has the answers yet. What is certain, however, is that the Egyptian way of thinking has changed for good, and perhaps after all the Pharaoh won't get to keep his throne for ever.

• This article was commissioned in cooperation with Meedan. Translated by Nouran Ibrahim