Syrian Authorities Arrest Female Blogger Razan Ghazzawi
Syrian government authorities have arrested a female blogger from Syria over the weekend.
Razan Ghazzawi, a 30-year-old journalist from Syria was arrested while attempting to attend a conference on freedom of the press in the Arab world in neighboring Jordan.
“She was arrested as she presented her passport to immigration at the Syria border post of Nassib,” one of her friends has said of her arrest.
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Ghazzawi was arrested following a post she released on Dec. 1 celebrating the release of another jailed blogger Hussein Ghrer.
“Hussein is going to be home tonight, where he will be holding his wife tight, and never let go of his two precious sons again. It’s all going to be alright, and it will all be over very soon,” she wrote.
Ghazzawi used her writing to raise awareness in her native Syria about people detained by the Syrian government.
Scores of journalists and bloggers have been arrested in Syria since the Assad regime began its brutal crackdown on Syrian protests ignited by the Arab Spring movement. The U.N. predicts that more than 4,000 people have been killed in Syria since the government’s crackdown on dissent.
Razan is an American citizen by birth that is working on completing her Master’s degree. She has spent the last several years blogging and tweeting about her country, human rights and freedom throughout the Middle East.
“Colonization made us all a bunch of nationalists (fights) for a label (rather) than for a value. I want to be living hand in hand with all of you, and this cannot be done if we see ourselves as “majorities” and “minorities.” The foundation of this logic lies in nationalism,” Ghazzawi recently wrote on her blog.
People are taking to Twitter to express their support for the blogger and call for her immediate release under the hash tag #FreeRazan.
