Blandt de mange facebookgrupper affødt af den syriske opstand har en side til støtte af kvinders rettigheder pludselig fået opmærksomhed på grund af et billede. Billedet er af 21-årige Dana Bakdouins -uden tørklæde. Facebook censurerede billedet.
Det skriver BBC online torsdag.
Dana Bakdounis has been brought up in conservative Saudi Arabia, but it was as a reaction against conformity that she first removed her veil in August 2011.
“The veil did not suit me, but I had to wear it because of my family, and the society,” she says. By then, she was already following The Uprising of Women in the Arab World page on Facebook.
With nearly 70.000 members, it has become a forum for debate on women’s rights and gender roles in the Arab world. Women, and men, from non-Arab backgrounds also comment on its photos.
On 21 October, Dana decided to do something for the page, and for oppressed women and girls around the Arab world by posting a photo of herself.
Looking right into the lens, her short-shorn hair in full view, she held an ID picture of her previously veiled self, along with a note that read:
“The first thing I felt when I took off my veil” and “I’m with the uprising of women in the Arab world because, for 20 years, I was not allowed to feel the wind in my hair and [on] my body”.
The image proved hugely controversial, attracting over 1.600 likes, nearly 600 shares, and more than 250 comments.
Dana has received much support, and while many of her friends have un-friended her, many more have sent friend requests.
She has also received hundreds of messages of derision (hånende), along with threats.
Causing almost a bigger stir as the image itself has been what many perceived as a heavy-handed and censorial reaction by Facebook to the picture.
Facebook administrators removed Dana’s photograph on 25 October, four days after its original posting, blocking Dana, along with the accounts of the administrators of The Uprising of Women in the Arab World page.
