What Razan Ghazzawi Can Teach Us about Taking Action

Razan during The 3rd Arab Bloggers Meeting Oct. 2011, in Tunis. (Photo: Flickr - Ibtihel Zaatouri)

If you haven't heard the story yet, Razan Ghazzawi is the latest among a dozen bloggers, activists, and journalists who have been detained since the nine month uprising calling for the ousting of President Bashar Assad erupted in March.

Ghazzawi was detained on Dec. 4 at the Jordanian border by Syrian immigration as she tried to cross into Jordan to attend a conference on press freedom in the Arab world. Currently, she is being held in Adra prison and faces a potential 3- to -15-year prison sentence.

On Monday, Syrian authorities charged Ghazzawi with membership to a secret organisation, which aims to change the economic and social status of the state, conveying within Syria false news that could debilitate the morale of the nation and weakening national sentiment, violating Article 335 of the Syrian penal code -- banning participation in a riotous demonstration -- and inciting sectarian strife.


Who is Razan?
Razan, 31, is a blogger, feminist and human rights activist who has campaigned for the release of political prisoners and documented human rights abuses.

Prominent Egyptian blogger Zeinobia praises Razan's revolutionary spirit:

Razan has been active and outspoken when it comes to injustice. She is among a few Syrian bloggers that blog with her real name. She is U.S. born yet she is an Arab leftist nationalist. I think Razan Ghazzawi is the second female Syrian blogger to be arrested after Tal Malhoi.

I remember once, during the revolution in Egypt, Razan tweeted about how she and her family were glued in front of the TV every afternoon till late night watching Tahrir square in those 18 days and how she cried when Mubarak was ousted. Razan is another Syrian, among thousands of Syrians, detained for no reason except they want freedom and democracy.

Since 2009, Razan has been maintaining Razaniyyat where she blogs, mainly in English, about human rights, women's and gay rights, as well as Arab and Syrian affairs. She is also the media coordinator for the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression.

Syrian Uprising
On Wednesday, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, urged the United Nations (UN) Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity. The call comes as the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) prepares to release a report also calling for Syria's referral to the ICC.

According to recent UN statistics, the brutal crackdown has left more than five thousand dead while thousands more continue to languish in prison. Today alone, violence across Syria has killed at least twenty-five people and the death toll is rising by the minute.


Time to Take Action
Since Razan's arrest, more than four thousand people have joined the Facebook campaign Free Syrian Blogger & Activist Razan Ghazzawi and started an online petition to demand intervention by the Arab League and the US government.

Twitter users have also launched the hashtag #FreeRazan to show solidarity.

As you can see, Razan was a person of action. So here's a list of ways that you can also take action:

• Write an email or send a fax to your local politician, Foreign Minister, members of parliament of congress. Use the internet to find their contact details or see this list of emails. Razan is an American Citizen – here is a list of US Embassies to contact demanding they take urgent action.
• Use your profile photo to draw attention to Razan’s arrest and the plight of all prisoners in Syria via Twibbon or you can use this image, or make your own.
• Use the tag #FreeRazan to share links, videos, news from #Syria – keep attention levels UP, don’t let this important news be overpowered by other stories and fade from view.
• Post news and links to FaceBook, blog, forums, and in comments on videos and news posts about Syria. If you write, please write about this issue.
• Schedule tweets for when you can’t be online – use Dlvr IT for feeds or Buffer for individual tweets. Also, Razan’s twitter account is currently being managed by her friends and supporters. Follow her if you’re not already @RedRazan for important updates.
• Join the Free Razan FaceBook page and share the page with all your friends.

If you have more ideas, please share them here.

Egypt's Nude Revolutionary

Twenty year old Egyptian blogger Magda Aliaa el-Mahdy rose to stardom after delivering a stick of dynamite via her blog, 'A Rebel's Diary', in what she described as being in the spirit of the revolution.

Who is Aliaa? Nowadays she's known as the Nude Revolutionary and the dynamite was - you guessed it - a nude photo of herself online, which sparked outrage from both conservatives and liberals in Egypt alike. Here's her take on why she took such controversial measures:

"Put on trial the artists' models who posed nude for art schools until the early 70s, hide the art books and destroy the nude statues of antiquity, then undress and stand before a mirror and burn your bodies that you despise to forever rid yourselves of your sexual hangups before you direct your humiliation and chauvinism and dare to try to deny me my freedom of expression".

The North African country, with a population of roughly eighty-five million, is a largely conservative society.

Earlier this year, inspired by the wave of uprisings that struck the region following Tunisia's ability to send their long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali packing, Egyptians from all social and political classes took to the streets with a unified dream of doing away with a system that had outlived its stay.

As punishment, Egypt's Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) subjected women to humiliating 'virginity tests', which entailed having a soldier insert two fingers into their croch. Once again, as discontent returned to Tahrir earlier this month, women's bodies were targeted.

Women's rights advocates like award-winning Egyptian writer Mona Eltahawy believes that El Mahdy's act not highlights how in times of extreme repression sex and nakedness becomes the only weapon of political repression for women. In a recent article in the Guardian, she argues:

When sexual assault parades as a test of the "honour" of virginity, then posing in your parents' home in nothing but stockings, red shoes and a red hair clip is an attack towards all patriarchs out there. 

While Mahdy's act has been hashtagged (#NudePhotoRevolutionary) and her name tweeted and Facebooked endlessly, others did not receive such attention. Samira Ibrahim, the only one of the women subjected to "virginity tests" who is taking the military to court for sexual assault, has neither a dedicated hashtag nor notoriety. Another woman, Salwa el-Husseini, was the first to reveal what the military did to them, but news reports have said she can't raise a lawsuit because she doesn't have identification papers. 

Not only did el-Husseini speak out, she courageously agreed to be filmed at a session of testimonies on military abuses. Again, hardly anyone knows her name, her recorded testimony isn't racking up page views, and she was called a liar and vilified for speaking out. Both women have vehemently maintained they were virgins. 

If "good girls" in headscarves who kept their legs together only to be violated by the military speak out and no one listens, what's the message being sent?

Whether or not El Mahdy's act was revolutionary or not it has definitely sparked a debate as to how far women should go in pushing the boundaries in their fight for a more inclusive society.

One question that probably pops in your head is: had she been a man, would the publics reaction have been different?

Critics argue that the embattled blogger not only insulted revolution but has tarnished the uprisings image.

“#nudephotorevolutionary was the most daring conflicting act I’ve seen for a long time but was also the worst thing that happened to the liberal movement in Egypt,” Kamel continued. According to Kamel, he feels that her actions have caused more harm than good. Her actions have done “nothing but stir a debate and allow the conservatives to have one more reason to call for an Islamic state and blame liberals and seculars for this. You will probably see one of them saying this is how all women will act if Egypt isn’t saved by an Islamic leader."

In the aftermath of her public expression, El Mahdy has been slapped with a lawsuit as the Coalition of Islamic law graduates in Egypt filed a case against the blogger and her boyfriend, Kareem Amer who also appears nude on the site, for 'violating morals, inciting indecency and insulating Islam'.

In her defense, supporters have established a Facebook page in which they vow to also get butt naked in an act of self-expression. According to Eltahawy, El Mahdy's nudity was a way of extinguishing the 'dictators of our mind'.

Perhaps, but is this the way to do it?

I remember when I was still living on the streets and working as a delivery person in New York City while cleaning houses on the side. The delivery service was a family run business and in the midst of being delighted to finally have someone pay me for once, I didn't even consider that the $20 a day for over eight hours of work was meager. Then a good friend C told me to quit that job and go art model.

I thought she had lost her mind. Now, it's not like you think. It actually entailed going around to art schools and posing.

To convince me she said, "once you drop the clothes, it's done and you got a new career."

The idea didn't sound bad to me, especially after discovering that NYU paid a hefty $18 per hour and most classes were four hours long. The major feat was challenging a lot of societal mishaps in the process but eventually I saw this as a great way to rekindle the artist in me, revolutionize my thinking and love my body.

So, I did it. After some time I was the most sought after model circulating the art scene and I felt empowered, liberated and I was an entrepreneur.

I use this example in an attempt to paint a visual image of one way in which nudity was used to empower an individual.

However, in the case of Egypt's nude revolutionary, my question to readers is: Is any time the right time for the clothes to come off when advocating women's rights? Is this truly an act of self-expression?

Arab Women Challenge Western Media

CAIRO May 18, 2011 (Her Blueprint) – Though demonstrating, taking risks, mobilizing, suffering and standing side by side with men in the uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, Arab women are also challenging the Western media to acknowledge their voice.

From Tunisia, to Egypt, to Yemen and Morocco, women have been at the forefront of the Arab Spring revolutions.

Yemeni women, who represent a third of the thousands of anti-government protestors demanding an end to Ali Abdullah Saleh’s thirty-year rule, are shattering traditions that go back centuries.

“I myself came from a conservative family but my grandmother used to have more freedom in the way that she dressed, talked and dealt with men than I have now,” said Samia al-Haddad, Program and Human Rights Officer for the Yemeni Organization for Development and Rehabilitation in an interview with Her Blueprint.

According to al-Haddad, women’s rights became stifled after the 80’s.

“If you see the footage and the video coming from Yemen and you will see all women veiled in black and this was not the image of women in the 80’s before the expansion of Salafists and Wahabi movements came from Saudi Arabia.”

Hibaaq Osman from Somalia is the CEO and Founder of Karama. She says that the Western media was shocked to see women out on the streets, raising their voices, protesting for democracy and walking side by side with men for a unified cause – political reform and equal rights.

“You have to understand the psychology of the Western media. They want to see a weak, meek and covered woman,” Osman told Her Blueprint.

According to Osman, it’s about time that the West take a good look at themselves before pointing the finger.

Arab Women Seize the Time

While the world watches the awakening in the Arab world as millions demand democratic freedoms, Egyptian women also took the opportunity to seize the moment and rise up by calling for a civil state and a constitution that eliminates all forms of discrimination against women.

“It's time for a new way of thinking, democracy is just a gate to more gains for women,” says Abeer, a 25-year-old Egyptian woman.

United in popular revolt, calling for an end to injustice, lack of freedoms, corruption and unending poverty. Egyptians took to the streets demanding the ousting of their long time dictator. Although women played a vital role in the country’s eighteen-day uprising, full progress towards social, economic and political rights remains a challenge.

“I think yesterday was a good alarm for everyone that we need social mobilization and explain that women’s rights is not a Western agenda and that women’s rights are human rights and we need to engage the people in this discussion,” says Doaa Abdelaal, a council member with Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML). “You can’t talk about democratic rights without talking about women’s rights.”

Tuesday, the centennial of International Women's Day, marked an historical moment in the history of Egypt’s women’s movement. Under Mubarak’s thirty-year regime obtaining permits from the state security to gather groups of people in the streets voicing their public discontent was unheard of.

“This was the first time women took to the streets with banners calling for women’s rights,” adds Doaa. “In the past we always celebrated women’s day in a closed space. “

Decades of previously-silent female voices broke the sound barrier on Tuesday, but International Women's Day groups were met with dozens of anti-women’s protestors who continue to resist progress toward gender equity. “'Egypt is for all, no matter gender or religion' is what we started chanting...the anti-women’s group started chanting at us that we are products of Mubarak’s regime, [saying that] it’s not time for calling for women’s rights but instead unity and that the voice of women is shameful,” continues Doaa.

Gender blackout

In order to move forward, Egypt must not only do away with its political shackles but must free itself from the social ones as well. Like most women in Egyptian villages, Hiba was circumcised as a child. She has five children of her own, including two older girls.

“One day while I was at work my mother came and took the two older girls and had them circumcised,” Hiba says. “I wasn't entirely comfortable with the fact that it happened but I raised with the tradition and important to honour tradition.”

Lack of wars or catastrophic events surrounding gender and a women’s place in society has caused this vital issue of gender politics to never reach the spotlight.

Inequalities in the workforce, increased sexual violence of women by police officers and the country’s state council’s refusal to appoint female judges last February, allotted Egypt a ranking 125th amongst 134 countries and 13th in the Middle East North Africa (MENA). Ninety-five percent of the estimated 27 incidents of rape daily go unreported, 33% of women face domestic violence and women only represent three percent of the ministries, local and Shura council.

“Women have yet to be named to the committee which is drafting the new Egyptian constitution," says Fairuz. “In addition there needs to be a lot of work to help women break the cycle of fear.”

From Freedom Riders to Freedom Marchers: 50 Years of Nonviolent Resistance

African American and Women's History Month held in February holds special significance this year. We mark 50 years since a dedicated group of men and women hailing from all across the U.S. boarded buses in Washington, D.C. bound for Jackson, Mississippi. Bridging the divides of race, age, and class, they united around a common mission: to stage nonviolent protests against the Southern states' outdated Jim Crow laws and their non-compliance with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibited segregation in all interstate public transportation facilities.

The core membership of the 430-strong "Freedom Riders" included members of the Nashville Student Movement, an activist group who had already successfully desegregated lunch counters and movie theaters in their home city. Diane Nash, a capable, articulate spokesperson, coordinated the Freedom Riders' efforts from Nashville. Reverend James Lawson, an ardent proponent of non-violence who informed Dr. Martin Luther King's strategies and actions, mentored the Riders in the art of non-violence.

As the buses departed Washington on May 5, 1961, black and white riders sat side by side, an act criminalized in most segregated states. At stops along the way, the Freedom Riders entered "whites" and "colored" areas in contrary fashion and dined together at segregated lunch counters. The journey taken by these non-violent protesters involved brutal beatings, fire bombing of their bus, and ultimate imprisonment in Mississippi's notorious State Penitentiary, Parchman Farm. Their efforts have been hailed as a watershed moment within the trajectory of the Civil Rights Movement.

Spawned by the courage and creativity of bold young people, undivided by gender, race, socioeconomic status, these 430 individuals came together as a united front to oppose discrimination, violent oppression, and sanctioned inequity. I honor them especially right now, as the daily news bears faces of Egyptians, Libyans, Bahrainis, Iranians, Tunisians, Algerians. I see men and women, old and young, of many colors and religious affiliations. United, they stand and march and chant together for their basic human rights: to live free from violence and oppression, to overcome indignity and poverty, to have a voice in their governance.

I offer up a plea that the lesson of history will be repeated and that the truth of of Dr. King's assertion -- "The arc of history is long, and it bends toward justice" -- will have its day.

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To find our more about the Freedom Riders, watch this trailer for a new documentary by Director Stanley Nelson.

To read more about the protests rocking the Middle East, click here. And read The Economist's analysis of the protests and their potential for effecting regime change here.