Razan Ghazzawi ( ar, رزان غزاوي; born 1980) is a Syrian-American
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
ger, campaigner and activist and currently a PhD researcher at the
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
. She has been highly involved in the events during the Syrian Civil War, and has been particularly outspoken on activists' arrests and the violations of human rights committed by the
Bashar al-Assad
Bashar Hafez al-Assad, ', Levantine pronunciation: ; (, born 11 September 1965) is a Syrian politician who is the 19th president of Syria, since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the ...
government. She was called "iconic blogger and leading activist" by ''
The Telegraph
''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include:
Australia
* ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
''.
Jillian York
Jillian C. York (born May 18, 1982)"Goodreads Author Profile" erheroes."
Education and career
Ghazzawi received a diploma in English literature from
Damascus University
The University of Damascus ( ar, جَامِعَةُ دِمَشْقَ, ''Jāmi‘atu Dimashq'') is the largest and oldest university in Syria, located in the capital Damascus and has campuses in other Syrian cities. It was founded in 1923 through ...
in 2003. She obtained a master's degree in
Comparative Literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...
from the
University of Balamand
The University of Balamand (UOB; ar, جامعة البلمند) is a private institution, secular in its policies and approach to education. It welcomes faculty, students, and staff from all faiths and national or ethnic origins. The university i ...
in 2011. She started her career as a Translator and News Compiler for the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She then worked in the Call Center of
MTN Syria
MTN Syria is one of the two only mobile operators in Syria, the other being Syriatel. MTN Syria was previously known as "Areeba". It offers GSM and 3.5G broadband
In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which tra ...
, but resigned because she discovered the company was
corrupt
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
. After this, she became the Media Officer in the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression in the Arab World.
As of 2017, she was a first year PhD candidate at the
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
.
Activism and arrests
She was arrested by Syrian authorities on 30 November 2011 while on her way to attend a conference on press freedom in
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
. The following week, she was brought to court, charged by authorities with trying to incite
sectarian strife
Sectarian violence and/or sectarian strife is a form of communal violence which is inspired by sectarianism, that is, discrimination, hatred or prejudice between different sects of a particular mode of an ideology or different sects of a religion ...
, spreading false information and weakening national sentiment, a charge often leveled against those who challenge the Syrian government, according to rights activists."
Her arrest sparked an online outcry and an international campaign called for her immediate release. There was a
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
campaign for her release and
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
has declared her a prisoner of conscience. Before her arrest, she declared in her blog, "Do you understand, that I was scared to protest, but now I am no longer scared?" She had also written: "If anything happens to me, know that the regime does not fear the prisoners but those who do not forget them."
On 19 December 2011, she was reported to have been freed, and her employer, the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, confirmed this. However, she still faces the charges, which carry a maximum sentence of fifteen years imprisonment. Ghazzawi is one of few bloggers in Syria who write under their real names, even after her arrest.
Ghazzawi was again arrested on 16 February 2012, during a raid on the offices of the Syrian Center for Freedom of Expression in Damascus, where the activist works. Ghazzawi was arrested along with thirteen of her colleagues, including the Head of the Center,
Mazen Darwish
Mazen Darwish ( ar, مازن درويش) is a Syrian lawyer and free speech advocate. He is the president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression. News organizations, including Reuters and the Associated Press, have described him ...
, and his wife
Yara Bader
Yara Bader ( ar, يارا بدر), also known as Yara Badr, is a Syrian journalist and human rights activist. She leads the independent Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (CMFE), founded in Damascus in 2004, along with her husband, ...
The Prince Arthur Herald
The Prince Arthur Herald was a bilingual online student news blog based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded by a group of students at McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language pu ...
''. She was freed again on 18 February 2012, but she was not allowed to leave the country. Ghazzawi was ordered to report to the police on a daily basis in order to pursue her interrogation.
Awards and recognition
Razan Gazzawi was honoured with the 2012's Human Rights Defenders at Risk award by the Dublin-based Front Line Defenders foundation on 8 June 2012. Since she could not travel to
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
due to restrictions on her, her colleague Dlshad Othman, who fled Syria in December 2011 accepted the award on her behalf. She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2013.