Risking Your Life From Behind a Screen.

Alaa Basatneh

Most teenagers have social media accounts, only a few risk their lives from behind their screen.

Social media was used effectively during the Syrian Revolution. The Syrian Revolution also known as the Syrian Civil War started on March 15th 2011 and is still ongoing.

In 2011 non-violent protests (the Arab Springs) started against Assad to try and overthrow him as president. 15 Syrian school children were arrested and tortured for grafting inspired by the Arab springs and one of the boys was killed. The arrests caused outrage and protests became more demanding for the release of the remaining children as well as greater freedoms for all citizens of Syria.

Syrian protest

The government responded by arresting and killing hundreds of protesters. This sparked anger among protesters and they started to demand Assad to resign. When Assad refused to step down war broke out between his supporters and his opponents.

Streets of Syria

Social media helped spread the word on how extreme situations were in Syria. Alaa Basatneh was a 19 year old student attending college while risking her life to organize protests in Syria from the comfort of her home in Chicago.

Alaa Basatneh

 Alaa is now 27 years old and has graduated college with a masters in global affairs and security. Alaa still organizes protests and helps where she can in the Syrian civil war but has found that her service is not needed as much as it was back when Chicago Girl was filmed. I reached out to Alaa Basatneh, an activist originally from Damascus Syria but who moved to Chicago USA when she was six months old because conditions got too dangerous for her family to live in.

 I asked Alaa how she thought social media played a role in the Syrian revolution, Alaa replied “social media is a huge tool to help the Syrian Revolution. Activists were able to organize, spread the word through the social media platforms. Without social media we would not have heard about the atrocities that took place on the ground as fast as we have.”

Alaa used Twitter and Skype the most when organizing protests online. She went on to say that organizing protests was not easy and safety was the number one concern, that’s why Alaa used her real name and photos so other activists knew who she was and what she looked like. Without social media we wouldn’t know the full extent of what happened in Syria and it gave people who wouldn’t be able to help or get involved because of political or security reasons a chance to help/donate.