Lina Ben Mhenni

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Lina Ben Mhenni (2013)

Lina Ben Mhenni ( Arabic لينا بن مهنّي, DMG Līnā b. Muhannī ; * May 22, 1983 in Tunis ; † January 27, 2020 ibid) was a lecturer in linguistics and translator at the University of Tunis . She was a political blogger and internet activist who campaigned for human rights and against censorship .

Life

Lina Ben Mhenni came from a wealthy family by Tunisian standards. Her father, Sadok Ben Mhenni, worked in the administration of the Ministry of Transport. As a member of the political left, he spent six years in Tunisian prisons from 1974 and was tortured .

After graduating from high school, Lina Ben Mhenni also studied in the United States as part of the Fulbright Program in 2008/2009 and taught Arabic at Tufts University near Boston .

Lina Ben Mhenni, whose blog achieved worldwide fame during the revolution in Tunisia 2010/2011 and who, although she emphasized only speaking for herself, was referred to as the “voice of the Tunisian uprising”, was one of the participants in May 2011 Oslo Freedom Forum . In her book Vernetzt dich! she had announced that she would be working on the committee for reforming the Tunisian media, but stopped there in June 2011 due to disappointment at the lack of changes in the structures of the media. In September 2011 she was a participant in a symposium on the role of social networks in society at the Ars Electronica in Linz .

Lina Ben Mhenni had had a kidney transplant since 2007 . In the same year as well as in 2009 she took part in the World Organ Transplant Games in Bangkok and Gold Coast and won a silver medal in walking . She died of complications from her illness on January 27, 2020 at the age of 36. In its obituary, Der Spiegel referred to it as the “voice of the oppressed”.

Blog

Protest against the misuse of the error message 404 Not Found as an instrument of censorship for websites that are undesirable by the government

Lina Ben Mhenni, who already owned a computer as a teenager, started writing a weblog in 2007 after her first experiences with the Internet. At first she wrote about private topics, but then, influenced by the experiences of her study stay in the United States, joined other Tunisian bloggers who campaigned for freedom of speech and human rights in their country. As a result, her blog A Tunisian Girl was banned and censored by the Tunisian dictatorship under Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali .

During the period of the Tunisian Revolution in December 2010 and January 2011, she traveled to Sidi Bouzid , the site of Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation , and to Kasserine and was one of the first to report on the events from there. She distributed photos and videos of police operations, injured and dead, published lists of victims, visited hospitals and interviewed families who had lost one of their loved ones to police violence. She also kept in contact with foreign journalists. A Tunisian Girl became a central medium of the opposition.

In connection with her journalistic activities, Lina Ben Mhenni was exposed to repression by the Tunisian state ; she was followed, her PC and cameras were stolen during a break-in and her partner was arrested by the security police, only to be released after a solidarity campaign organized via the Internet. Even after dictator Ben Ali's escape, there were death threats against Lina Ben Mhenni. One year after the beginning of the Tunisian revolution, she was disappointed with its results and the election victory of the moderate Islamic Ennahda . The economic situation did not improve, the revolution remained unfinished. Ben Mhenni warned against a development of the state towards fundamentalism. On her blog she wrote: "I never thought that we would have stood in the hail of bullets to reintroduce polygamy."

Lina Ben Mhenni characterized the Internet as a valuable tool in the Tunisian revolution, but did not refer to it as a Facebook or Internet revolution, although social networks, Al Jazeera coverage and hacker attacks by Anonymous played an important role. Publications by WikiLeaks , however, would have had no influence. The revolution was one of the people who started in the streets. She rejected the term jasmine revolution because it was too whitewashed for the bloody events that resulted in deaths.

Network!

In her book Vernetzt Euch! Published in 2011 by Ullstein-Verlag as “Streitschrift” . Ben Mhenni described her role as an independent blogger and protester in Tunisia before and during the Tunisian revolution. She called for the Internet and social networks such as Facebook, the spread of which has tripled in Tunisia since 2009, to be used as a means of mobilizing for a “direct, citizen-friendly democracy” and thus tackling repressive forms of government and rule. Network! is in length and presentation to the font Outraged! based on Stéphane Hessel .

Awards

Ben Mhenni's blog A Tunisian Girl was named best weblog at the 2011 international weblog awards The BOBs . The award given by Deutsche Welle “honors websites in eleven languages ​​that promote and enrich open discourse on the Internet in terms of freedom of expression.” It sees itself as “a contribution to promoting freedom of expression and human rights advocacy on the Internet. "

In 2012 Lina Ben Mhenni received the Sean MacBride Peace Prize together with Nawal El Saadawi .

Publications

  • Network! Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-550-08893-3 (French: Tunisian Girl - Blogueuse pour un printemps arabe . Translated by Patricia Klobusiczky).

Web links

Commons : Lina Ben Mhenni  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lilia Blaise: Lina Ben Mhenni, 36, 'a Tunisian Girl' Who Confronted Regime, Dies. In: The New York Times , January 29, 2020. Accessed January 30, 2020.
  2. ↑ Presentation of the author in the German-language edition of Vernetzt Euch! , P. 2
  3. ↑ a b c d e Welt Online on June 17, 2011: How a young woman overthrows dictators. Retrieved October 3, 2011 .
  4. ↑ a b c Deutschlandradio on June 27, 2011: The Voice of the Jasmin Revolution. Retrieved October 3, 2011 .
  5. ↑ Le Post on October 2, 2011, archived at Huffington Post: Tunisie: la torture sous Bourguiba, témoignage de Sadok Ben Mhenni un des leaders historiques de la Gauche en Tunisie. Archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; Retrieved September 22, 2012 (French).
  6. ↑ Network! , Pp. 8, 11
  7. ^ 3sat Kulturzeit on April 8, 2011: Courageous voice of the revolution. Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni. Retrieved October 4, 2011 .
  8. ^ Website of the Oslo Freedom Forum. Archived from the original on January 2, 2012 ; accessed on October 3, 2011 .
  9. ^ Ars Electronica 2011: public square squared - how social fabric is weaving a new era. Retrieved October 4, 2011 .
  10. ↑ Network! , P. 40 f.
  11. ↑ Lina Ben Mhenni n'est plus. Retrieved January 27, 2020 (French).
  12. ↑ Der Spiegel No. 6/2020 of February 1, 2020, p. 125
  13. ↑ a b Futurezone on September 7, 2011: Tunisian blogger: "The people were angry". Retrieved October 5, 2011 .
  14. ↑ a b c Zeit Online on April 12, 2011: The best blog is a Tunisian girl. Retrieved October 2, 2011 .
  15. ↑ the daily newspaper on July 30, 2011: The Tunisian girl. Retrieved October 6, 2011 .
  16. ↑ the daily newspaper on April 13, 2011: A Tunisian Girl - Blog Award for Lina Ben Mhenni. Retrieved October 6, 2011 .
  17. ↑ ZDF heute.de magazine on December 17, 2011: Arab blogger: “We must fight on”. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved January 14, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.heute.de  
  18. ↑ The Standard of January 11, 2012: The Fear of Fundamentalism. Retrieved January 14, 2012 .
  19. ↑ Stern, No. 50/2011, p. 123
  20. ↑ Network! , Pp. 42, 44 f.
  21. ↑ Quotes from: Deutsche Welle: About the price. Retrieved October 2, 2011 .
  22. ↑ About IBP: Sean MacBride Peace Prize. In: International Peace Bureau. 2013, archived from the original on July 9, 2013 ; accessed on July 25, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Ben Mhenni, Lina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES لينا بن مهنّي (Arabic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Tunisian lecturer in linguistics, political blogger
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH Tunis
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 2020
Place of death Tunis