Writing Revolution

Layla Al-Zubaidi is Director of the Southern Africa Office of the Heinrich Boll Foundation in Cape Town. She headed the Foundation's Middle East Office in Beirut for six years, served as Program Manager at its office in Ramallah and worked for several media and development institutions. She graduated from Freie Universitat Berlin with a thesis on Syria's cultural sector. Al-Zubaidi has published on women's rights and issues of freedom of expression, edits the magazine Perspectives Middle East and is co-editor (with Larbi Sadiki) of Unmaking Power: Negotiating the Democratic Void in the Arab Middle East (forthcoming). She is also on the Executive Committee of Freemuse -- World Forum on Music and Censorship. Matthew Cassel is a journalist and photographer based in the Middle East since 2004. Formerly Assistant Editor of The Electronic Intifada online journal, he is a journalist with Al Jazeera English and a contributor to numerous other publications. Cassel learned Arabic and about the Middle East by living and working in Palestinian refugee camps and travelling the region. He is connected to activists, journalists, writers, artists and others at the forefront of the movement for change in the region.

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsList of ContributorsIntroduction by Samar YazbekGreetings to the Dawn: Living through the Bittersweet Revolution (Tunisia)by Malek Sghiri Translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger2.Cairo, City in Waiting (Egypt)by Yasmine El Rashidi 3.Bayou and Laila (Libya)by Mohamed Mesrati Translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger4.We Are Not Swallows (Algeria)by Ghania Mouffok Translated from the French by Georgina Collins5.The Resistance: Armed with Words (Yemen)By Jamal JubranTranslated from the Arabic by Robin Moger6.Coming Down from the Tower (Bahrain)by Ali Aldairy Translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger7.Wishful Thinking (Saudi Arabia)by Safa Al Ahmad8.And the Demonstrations Go On: Diary of an Unfinished Revolution (Syria)by Khawla DuniaTranslated from the Arabic by Robin Moger

These accounts...[offer] examples of heroism and of hope for the future.' Samar Yazbek, author of A Woman in the Crossfire, from the Introduction to this book. 'If you want to understand the extraordinary happenings in the Middle East through the eyes of those who have lived through them you must read this book. These stories of horror and bravery read like testimonies to history as it was made.' Saira Shah, producer and writer of Death in Gaza 'For those dispirited by the lack of political and economic progress in the so-called Arab Spring countries, this amazing book reminds us that revolutions are at heart cultural. There is no better way to get a feel for the power of the Arab uprisings than to read this book.' Mark LeVine, Professor of History, UC Irvine