Lina Ben Mhenni

Lina Ben Mhenni (Arabic: لينا بن مهني) (born May 22, 1983) is a Tunisian Internet activist, blogger and assistant lecturer (i.e. instructor) in linguistics at Tunis University.

Blog

Lina Ben Mhenni has been awarded the Deutsche Welle International Blog Award and El Mundo's International Journalism Prize

Ben Mhenni's blog, A Tunisian Girl, is written in Arabic, English, and French. During the rule of former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Ben Mhenni was one of the few bloggers to blog using her real name rather than adopting a pseudonym to protect her identity. Her blog, as well as her Facebook and Twitter accounts, were censored under the Ben Ali regime.

Ben Mhenni began posting photos and video of protests of those injured throughout Tunisia. In an effort to make the government responsible for its actions and to the people who were harmed in these uprisings, she visited local hospitals and took pictures of those harmed by police.

Tunisian Revolution

In January 2011, she covered the early weeks of the Tunisian Revolution from Sidi Bouzid Governorate in the interior of the country. Ben Mhenni was the only blogger present in the interior cities of Kasserine and Regueb when government forces massacred and suppressed protesters in the region. Her reports and posts provided uncensored information to other Tunisian activists and the international media.

Continued activism

Since the Tunisian Revolution began, Ben Mhenni has continued to play a prominent role amongst Tunisia's bloggers and democracy activists, speaking out against continuing corruption in the Tunisian regime, against the "double discourse" of Ennahda, and demanding the release of Alaa Abdel-Fatah upon his arrest in October 2011. In an editorial for CNN, she wrote that her activism after Ben Ali's overthrow has led to her receiving death threats and requiring close protection of the police.

In 2011, Ben Mhenni was reported to have been a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, for her contributions and activism during the Tunisian Revolution.

Ben Mhenni has stated that Tunisia's revolution "cannot be called an internet revolution", and insists that the revolution against Ben Ali was fought "on the ground" through demonstrations and resistance.

Ben Mhenni's parents were both activists; her father, Sadok, was a political prisoner, and her mother Emna was part of the student union movement. Ben Mhenni is a sufferer of Lupus, and in 2007 received a kidney transplant. In 2007 and 2009 she participated in the World Transplant Games, winning several medals

• Vernetzt Euch! (german) [Tunisian Girl – Blogueuse pour un printemps arabe], Patricia Klobusiczky (trans.), Berlin: Ullstein Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-550-08893-3