Razan, Alaa, Ali.

Budapest, 2008

I’ve spoken publicly quite a few times about the influence of the Arabloggers network, an organic network that Sami Ben Gharbia turned into a semi-annual conference in the summer of 2008 in Beirut (at which all three above were present, though this picture is from Budapest that same summer) and repeated in Beirut 2009 and Tunis 2011.  This photo, of Razan Ghazzawi (arrested yesterday), Alaa Abd El Fattah (arrested in October) and Ali Abdulemam (sentenced in absentia by the Bahraini authorities, and currently in hiding), is a testament to what a powerful network Arabloggers is, and what a threat regimes see it as.

I can’t believe I’d never seen the photo before.  Thanks, @chanadbh.