New On The Freedom Collection: Nora Younis

Watch the new interview with Nora Younis on the Freedom Collection.  Ms. Younis is an Egyptian human rights activist, journalist and blogger who is now working as the website managing editor of Al-Masry Al-Youm Daily Independent, one of the best known newspapers in Egypt.  As a human rights activist, Ms. Younis won the Human Rights First thirtieth anniversary award in 2008 for her work using new media tools to expose human rights violations and police brutality. When she started blogging in 2005, she focused on addressing the information vacuum on protest movements in Egypt. Before Twitter came into being, she was continually sending mass text messages to human rights activists, political groups, and journalists, informing them of rallies, arrests, state violence and police brutality. After Twitter became established among Egyptians, she moved into visual documentation. Most recognized is her video of the textile workers’ strike in Mahalla in September 2007 that soon grew into a nationwide movement known as the April 6^th strike.  One of her most famous blog posts includes her testimonial about the brutal police raid on a Sudanese refugee protest camp in Cairo in 2005 where at least 27 men, women and children were killed. Her testimonial was translated by fellow bloggers and activists across the world into more than seven languages. It was used in lawsuits and human rights reports condemning the Egyptian government. Nora Younis discusses the tremendous changes underway in Egypt – changes that began to take shape years before the 2011 demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.  And while much has been accomplished, many challenges remain.  As Nora relates in her interview, “I am in a state of optimism and dissatisfaction at the same time.  I’m not happy with what we have.  We can do more.  We can achieve more.” Watch her interview here.

This post was written by Lindsay Lloyd, Program Director of the Freedom Collection.