Translated with DeepL.
Original language: Deutsch
Rula Asad (born 1983)
Journalist and human rights activist from Damascus (Syria), co-founder of an aid project for internally displaced persons affected by the drought disaster in Syria. A planned photo report on the situation of the refugees was banned, and Asad was forced to leave Syria in September 2011. She is currently working on the project "Yes to Diversity, No to Sectarianism", a review of social conditions in Syria.
Amer Matar (born 1989)
Journalist from Damascus (Syria) and co-founder of "The Street", an organization for free media and development. His documentary "Azadi" (2011) about the Syrian uprising in the Kurdish areas in the north of the country won an award at the Rotterdam Film Festival. His documentary "Smuggling 23 Minutes of Revolution" depicts the events in Hama in the summer of 2011, the same year Matar was imprisoned and tortured by the Syrian secret service. A year later, he managed to escape via Jordan.
Hiba Alansari (born 1983)
Women's rights activist and artist from Damascus (Syria). She is one of a large group of young creative people who have accompanied the revolution artistically from the very beginning. Due to the difficult situation, the art academy in Damascus was closed and she had to interrupt her studies. Her works were also shown at the Goethe-Institut Damascus in 2010 as part of a group exhibition.
Yulia Yusik (born 1981)
Journalist and writer from Moscow (Russia). Her first, later award-winning report on Chechen female suicide bombers was published in 2002. After the attack at the Moscow Musical Theater, she researched the subject on her own initiative for a book. She has worked as a freelance journalist since 2004, including for the Russian edition of Newsweek.
Qassim Haddad (born in 1948)
Writer from Muharraq (Bahrain). He is one of the outstanding writers in the Gulf region and chairman of the Bahraini Writers' Association. He has been arrested several times for statements critical of the system. He spent a total of five years in prison. In 2001, he received the most important Arab literary prize for his poetry, the Sultan Oweiss Award. His poems have been translated into English, French and German.
Rosa Yassim Hassan (born 1974)
Writer from Damascus (Syria) and activist in the women's movement. In 1992 and 1993 she received the Syrian Literature Prize for short stories. Since the beginning of the uprising, she has reported on the everyday lives of people in Syria in print media and on the Internet. Excerpts from her blog "Diary of the Syrian Revolution" have been published by the FAZ and Bild-online.
