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Ten years since the #SWANA revolutions of dignity, (term “Arab Spring” is Western imposed, incorrect and erases people), and I’ve been thinking a lot about what has happened over the past ten years. My biggest and ongoing fear is that we’re normalizing/forgetting - a thread
I rewatched @WeAreTheGiant_ yesterday, which is very difficult, but something I try to do every couple of years, because I feel like I need to remember. I need to remember what we went through, and more importantly, how it felt..
How everything felt: the hope, the frustration, the hurt, the injustice, the helplessness, the rage..
In some ways it feels like while we forget and normalize as a means of survival, personally it feels like I’m betraying the cause and those who paid the heaviest price
In some ways it feels like while we forget and normalize as a means of survival, personally it feels like I’m betraying the cause and those who paid the heaviest price
As activists from the #GCC, its extremely difficult for us to get funding to do GCC specific work, and we’re forced to seek other means of income to survive - forcing us away from our essential work and focus
We look at the state of the countries where the revolutions happened. The thousands of people murdered by the regimes that continue to be in power because theyre protected from international accountability..
We look at the state of civil society space, which is all but decimated, the thousands of political prisoners.. the millions of refugees - who then have to face muslim-hate and racism in the West
And so I ask myself, what am I doing right now, today, to bring accountability and justice to everyone killed, imprisoned, tortured? And what can I do within the financial reality where we need income to survive?
Being in exile means that on one hand we suffer from survivors guilt (anger towards oneself, self-hate at some points, anxiety, stress, depression), while also being forced to fend for ourselves against racism and discrimination, and having to seek jobs and income to survive..
I’m reflecting, and trying to plan, writing papers, but I don’t presume to have the answers.
Ten years and my father is still in prison - feels like I’ve failed him.
My heart and thoughts are with all survivors of the regimes and their allies, all the victims and their families
Ten years and my father is still in prison - feels like I’ve failed him.
My heart and thoughts are with all survivors of the regimes and their allies, all the victims and their families
My heart and thoughts with all of us living within the countries that perpetrate the propping up of the regimes that forced us into exile, all those struggling with PTSD, survivors guilt.
May we hold on to our rage, and may it be the fuel that creates the change we seek.
May we hold on to our rage, and may it be the fuel that creates the change we seek.
