 |
| People around the world flocked to Ben Mhenni's blog |
Lina Ben
Mhenni's blog served as a key source of information on the crimes committed by
the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia. After the dictator's fall, the 28-year-old kept
tabs on Tunisia's progress toward democracy.
Lina Ben
Mhenni is always on the move - and always online. Whether it's at Tunis
University, where she is an assistant professor, at international conferences,
meeting with bloggers in cafes, or demonstrating in the street, she always
carries a phone with a camera, a laptop and a mobile Internet connection. She
is continually updating her status on Facebook and Twitter, posting pictures
and commenting on articles and videos.
Ben Mhenni
is "A Tunisian Girl," a blog that won the 2011 Deutsche Welle
International Blog Award (the BOBs) in June. A panel of jury members chose her
for her work documenting abuses by former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine
Ben Ali's regime and promoting democracy in the country.
Revolution
made by people
 |
| People, not online networks, were behind the Tunisian uprising, she says |
During the
protests that eventually ousted Ben Ali in January, the Internet was the only
source of independent information. The protests were famously sparked when
26-year-old street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in the town of
Sidi Bouzid on December 17, 2010, after police said he didn't have the right
permits to sell his goods.
The
incident was captured on video, a piece of footage that evaded a media blackout
by being disseminated on Facebook and other Internet platforms. When hundreds
of people gathered to protest at the local authority's building, the government
reacted with a brutal repression.
During the
blackout, the Internet, Facebook, Twitter and Ben Mhenni's Arabic, French and
English blog became one of the most important sources of information for
Tunisians as well as people in the rest of the world.
But Ben
Mhenni said she doesn't believe the uprising that resulted was an "online
revolution."
"The
revolution was made by people," she told Deutsche Welle. "By the
people who were brutally beaten by security forces. By the people who took to
the streets and risked their lives. And, most of all, by the people who had to
pay with their lives."
Documenting
and remembering
 |
| Ben Mhenni used her blog to keep the world informed |
Ben Mhenni
risked her own life by braving numerous roadblocks to see the bodies of the
people murdered in faraway Tunisian towns by pro-Ben Ali forces. She published
her pictures of the victims on her blog to make sure the rest of the world also
saw what was happening.
"I
will never be able to forget that moment," she said. "The picture of
bullet wounds in a young man's corpse and the sorrow of his family and
friends."
More than
200 people died during the Tunisian uprising, according to the United Nations.
For the 28-year-old blogger, the regime's sheer violence was the biggest reason
it needed to be toppled.
Risking
arrest and torture
 |
| Ben Mhenni joined protesters on the streets in Tunis |
"When
I saw how people were being killed, it was clear to me that there was no going
back," Ben Mhenni said. "Somehow I had to give these people and their
families a voice so that their deaths would not be in vain."
In addition
to documenting the crimes committed by the regime, she joined protesters on the
street and gave interviews, via Skype, to international media organizations
reporting on events in Tunisia. Like other activists, she risked arrest and
torture several times.
Discovering
the Internet
Ben
Mhenni's blogging career began in 2007 during studies in the US, after she
discovered an article about blogging. Her first entries were simply personal journals,
but her blog gradually became more critical of the Tunisian government, and she
soon fell foul of the country's censors. All of her entries from 2007 to
mid-2009 were blocked.
She
countered by linking her content on as many Internet platforms as possible, in
an attempt to evade state media controls. She says she was occasionally
followed by the secret police during that time.
Vigilance
continues
Her work
seems to have paid off, now that Ben Ali's regime has been toppled, but she
insists that the struggle for a democratic Tunisia and a just society
continues. She has a scathing take on mainstream media outlets.
"The
journalists still follow the same strategy as before," she says.
"They are loyal to the strongest, the ones making decisions. The Tunisian
press is neither independent or unbiased to this day."
She also
complains that young people, who she credits as sparking and carrying the
revolution, are not being allowed to participate in the new government. That is
why her blog still documents injustices, and still publicizes new protests,
when necessary.
Ben Mhenni
was one of the favorites for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, but she says she
was relieved when it was given to three other female human rights activists.
"I
spent a horrific week in the limelight. I long for my normal life," she
write on Facebook at the time. "Now the fight can continue."
Much has
happened in Tunisia since the early days of the Jasmine Revolution. Ben Ali has
been sentenced to 35 years in jail, and the first free elections have taken
place. But Ben Mhenni is still blogging - about problems still lingering in
Tunisian society, but also about mothers who lost their sons in the revolution,
and about a past that still needs to be understood.
Author: Chamselassil Ayari / sms
Editor: Stuart Tiffen
No comments:
Post a Comment