The Trials of Spring Press & Production Notes.Pages

PRESS & PRODUCTION NOTES

THREE YEARS. SIX REVOLUTIONS. NINE WOMEN. FIGHTING FOR PEACE IN A STATE OF WAR.

Press contact: BoomGen Studios, [email protected] PUBLICITY CONTACTS

MEDIA/OUTREACH/EDUCATION: PEACE IS LOUD

JAMIE DOBIE JOANNA HOFFMAN [email protected] [email protected] 212.782.3733 212.782.3733

MEDIA: BOOMGEN STUDIOS

MAHYAD TOUSI READ EZELL [email protected] [email protected] 718-360.9284 718.360.9390

FORK FILMS CORPORATE: OBSCURED PICTURES

RJ MILLARD KORY MELLO [email protected] [email protected] 212.620.0727 718.360.9284 WELCOME TO THE TRIALS OF SPRING

Three years. Six revolutions. Nine women. Fighting for peace in a state of war. Do women’s voices matter?

The Trials of Spring is a major documentary event that chronicles the stories of nine women who played central roles in the Arab Spring uprisings and their aftermaths in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen. It includes a feature-length documentary, six short ﬁlms, articles by award-winning journalists, and a robust social media conversation about women and their unwavering quest for social justice and freedom.

The Trials of Spring launched as a special event on The New York Times homepage on Sunday, June 7. Six shorts in six days, culminating with the World Premiere of the feature documentary at the 2015 Human Rights Watch Film Festival on Friday, June 12. The project has been traveling at various festivals and with the Human Rights Watch Film Festival across the world.

The Trials of Spring is created by Oscar Nominated Gini Reticker and Abigail Disney, the team behind the award-winning documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, and Executive Producers of the celebrated PBS special series, Women, War & Peace. The team is comprised of top American and local crews, whose credits include The Square, We Are the Giant, Bully, Lemon, and Watchers of the Sky.""

Executive Producers ABIGAIL E. DISNEY SALLY JO FIFER GINI RETICKER REGINA K. SCULLY Logo Design and Digital Art Direction THOMAS COBB GROUP Digital Campaign MEDIASTORM Film Title Design and Art Direction MONIKER NEW YORK Composer BLAKE LEYH Shorts Directors DALIA ALI MONA ELDAIEF CAMERON HICKEY Digital Director LAUREN FEENEY Film Cinematographers MOHAMED S. AMIR TAMER ASHRY AIDA ELKASHEF MUHAMMED HAMDY Film Editor JENNY GOLDEN Producer BETH LEVISON Film Director GINI RETICKER

Outreach PEACE IS LOUD

Film is a co-production of ZAG LINE PICTURES, LLC and INDEPENDENT TELEVISION SERVICE (ITVS), with funding provided by CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (CPB); in association with FORK FILMS, ARTEMIS RISING FOUNDATION and CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY | Shorts are a production of ZAG LINE PICTURES, LLC in association with FORK FILMS, ARTEMIS RISING FOUNDATION and CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY| Major funding provided by 20X50, a group of donors providing key support; NORWEGIAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS; 25X25, a group of donors providing important support; INDEPENDENT TELEVISION SERVICE (ITVS) / CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (CPB); ARTEMIS RISING FOUNDATION; STARRY NIGHT FUND; PIERRE N. HAUSER; SILICON VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION and MARY D. FISHER | Supported by INDEPENDENT LENS, CHICKEN & EGG PICTURES; GUCCI TRIBECA DOCUMENTARY FUND; NATHAN CUMMINGS FOUNDATION, with the support and encouragement of JANE SAKS; IFP and additional foundations and individuals THE TRIALS OF SPRING FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

Hend Nafea: “I knew that people would one day take to the streets, and I knew that I would participate.”

Mariam Kirollos: “...what I didn’t know is that our bodies would become the battleﬁeld.”

Logline: Unbreakable, an unlikely young activist sets out on a search for freedom and justice in a country gripped by a dangerous power struggle where there is little tolerance for the likes of her.

Synopsis: When 21-year-old Hend Nafea travels from her village to Cairo to add her voice to the hundreds of thousands of Egyptians demanding an end to sixty years of military rule, she is beaten, arrested, and tortured. After her release, she is punished and imprisoned by her family for daring to speak out and shaming their name. Unbreakable, she sets out in a search for freedom and justice in a country gripped by a dangerous power struggle. Buoyed by the other activists she meets along the way, she forges ahead despite the odds mounting against her. Hend's story mirrors the trajectory of the Arab Spring—from the ecstasy of newfound courage to the agony of shattered dreams. In the end, despite crushing setbacks, it is resilience that sustains the hope for reform for Hend and her fellow activists, even during the darkest hours of their struggle for a better Egypt. DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

In a 1995 speech, Hillary Clinton declared, “women’s rights are human rights.” It was a simple phrase, but a powerful idea. It made me question whether the First Lady’s words actually rang true in the United States and, ultimately, it led me to create Asylum, a short documentary about a young woman seeking political asylum in the United States. Asylum was nominated for an Academy Award in 2004 and, thus, began my journey to document women’s stories in different parts of the world.

Before witnessing conflict firsthand, I thought of war as a battle fought between groups of men in different uniforms. That changed when I met Leymah Gbowee and other Liberian women, who successfully heralded an end to their nation’s fourteen-year civil war. Rather than falling victim to conflict, these women forged a solution to it. While their incredible success amazed and inspired me, their story was unknown outside of Liberia. And so, my next documentary was born. Pray the Devil Back to Hell didn’t just document the success of these women— it broadcasted their victory. And in 2011, Leymah Gbowee received a Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her extraordinary efforts.

It has been said that the world knows little about its greatest heroes. It knows even less about its heroines. With the eruption of the Arab Spring, I watched with enormous curiosity as country after country joined the universal call for “Bread, Freedom and Social Justice.” My past experiences made me curious about the role of women in these extraordinary revolutions. I wasn’t surprised to ﬁnd that they not only participated in the front, but, in many cases, they were pioneers. I wanted to know more about their stories.

During numerous scouting trips, I met woman after woman who stood in utter contrast to the stereotype of Arab women as oppressed and downtrodden. They challenged widely held assumptions about gender, religion, the veil, and political participation of women in the Arab world. In making this ﬁlm, I have come to learn that Arab women are more than powerful agents of change in their own communities. In a region gridlocked between religious and military conﬂict, women do not need saving; women are the saviors. They just might be the best answer to the violent radicalism that plagues the region and inspires fear and prejudice around the world.

Gini Reticker is the Oscar Nominated and Emmy Winning Producer and Director of Pray the Devil Goes Back to Hell, Asylum, and the celebrated PBS Television Series, Women, War & Peace. She is the Executive Producer of The Trials of Spring, and directed the feature documentary layer of the series. THE SHORTS

TUNISIA SYRIA LIBYA BAHRAIN YEMEN EGYPT TUNISIA: KEEPING THE PROMISE

In the mining region of Gafsa, Ghazala Mhamdi – a seasoned anti-government activist – goes door to door, person to person in her quest to achieve what was previously unimaginable—a seat in Tunisia’s Parliament. Five years earlier in 2008, riots broke out in the small town of Redeyef in Gafsa, after security forces killed four protesters at a sit-in for better wages. Ghazala was beaten and intimidated for documenting the violence and on many other occasions since. This ﬁlm follows her as she campaigns in Gafsa, marking her transformation from activist to politician, from the riots to Election Day, to reveal the essential role of women like Ghazala in these events.

“When I filmed Ghazala Mahmdi during her run for a parliament seat in Tunisia, I followed her for five days, traveling approximately 200 kilometers to cities and small villages to meet the people. Every politician hits the campaign trail in this way, but what struck me about Ghazala was the authenticity of her message and her urgency to connect with disenfranchised Tunisians— because she is one of them. As a woman from the remote mining town of Gafsa, representing a small independent political party, Ghazala’s chances of winning a political seat in a country ruled by a patriarchal establishment were slim. But as I filmed her , I realized that despite the daunting odds, her parliamentary run shifted the political discourse in her country, and her courageous activism inspired hope for change. I could see this grassroots empowerment in how Tunisians— women and men, young and old— reacted to Ghazala with such warmth and affection on the campaign trail. When we entered a village, it surprised me to see crowds of men swarming her like she was a hero, proudly retelling how she never backed down even when she was brutally beaten for standing up against injustice. These men bragged about her like she was a boxing champ. Maybe that is because Ghazala is a fighter— “the queen of resistance”— who is not defeated, even though she lost the election. She continues to be an example for Tunisian women to stand up, give voice to the voiceless, and work together be a force for change. “ — Mona Eldaif, director

Egyptian American filmmaker Mona Eldaief is the director of the award winning documentary Rafea: Solar Mama, the story of a Bedouin woman from the Jordanian desert who struggles against the patriarchal rules of her society to receive an education as a solar engineer at the Barefoot College in India and in turn, empower the women of her village. Eldaief has worked as director, director of photography, and editor on documentary film and television projects around the world. Her documentary feature credits include The Square, Control Room, Startup.Com, A Wedding in Ramallah, and Her Name Is Zelda. Her television credits include work on programs for Frontline World, Discovery Channel, ABC News, and MTV News and Documentaries. SYRIA: BRIDES OF PEACE

Sisters Kinda and Lubna Zaour stage a protest during Syria’s early days of revolution by walking through the main souk in Damascus dressed as brides—a symbol of peace and love. Their joyful protest, which lasts only 20 minutes, inspires support amongst the bystanders before security forces crackdown on the women and take them into the notorious Palestine Road prison, where they are beaten and humiliated over two months. As Syria descends into sectarian war, the family is forced into exile along with millions of other refugees. In acts of tremendous bravery, Kinda and Lubna wear wedding dresses once more under the threat of death from their extended family, when they marry outside their sect.

“Women have been leaders of Syria’s non-violent resistance since the first protests broke out in March, 2011. But the uprising turned so deadly, it was difficult to find someone to feature in our project. Razan Zaitounah, the most prominent Syrian woman activist, was kidnapped in December, 2013— no one has heard from her since. Other leaders have been either forced into hiding or killed. We struck gold as filmmakers when we finally connected with Lubna and Kinda Zaour— two exceptionally brave and creative young activists-turned-refugees who were unafraid to tell their story. I travelled to meet them with my entire family in tow — my husband as the DP— and we brought our two young boys. One of the highlights of the trip was the friendship that developed between our five-year-old son, Declan, and the Zaours’ youngest sister, Sara. Though they could only speak a few words in the other’s language, they walked around hand-in-hand for days, and both recognized that there was something special about their Syrian-American friendship. Months later, Declan hasn't stopped talking about Sara, her sisters, the "bad guys" who sent them to jail, and the value of talking instead of fighting. “ — Lauren Feeney, director

Lauren Feeney is a documentary filmmaker and multimedia journalist. Feeney was the senior multimedia producer for several PBS programs, including Moyers & Company; WOMEN, WAR & PEACE; Need to Know; and Wide Angle. Her multimedia work has earned some of the web's highest accolades including Webby and ONA (Online Journalism Association) awards. Her video pieces have been broadcast on PBS and Al Jazeera English and have been featured in film festivals around the world, while her writing and photography have appeared in The Philadelphia City Paper and The New York Times, among other publications. Feeney is a graduate of Bard College and The Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. LIBYA: WAKE UP, BENGHAZI!

From the first protests in Benghazi until the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, Salwa Bugaighis, a world-renowned human rights activist and lawyer, helped kindle hope among the people of Libya. She was a constant presence in the uprising and an eloquent spokesperson for Libyans and their dream of democracy and a more just society. Ultimately, she became a leader of the country’s first transitional council. As the situation deteriorated into chaos and hope for democracy faded, some Libyans began to flee to safer pastures. Salwa, however, remained a staunch voice for human rights and Libyan pride. On June 25, 2014, shortly after voting in Libya’s first free parliamentary elections, Salwa was shot dead in her home by unknown militants, marking Libya’s first female political assassination. Yet, her spirit lives on among a new generation of young Libyan women, like her thirteen-year-old niece, Nada, who draws inspiration from Salwa’s determination to unite a country so divided.

“Making a hopeful film about a seemingly hopeless story is never easy, but trying to make such a film about someone who has just been assassinated is even harder. Salwa Bughaghis had a voice that inspired the Libyan people with a message of equality, reconciliation, justice, and peace. When that voice was silenced, it left a hole in Libyan society and in the lives of her family that could never be filled. I walked into this context when I met Salwa's family. I was searching for a way to honor her story and her impact on Libya that would do more than memorialize a fallen fighter and would give hope to the next generation— that this sacrifice was not in vain. I found that hope and an inspiration in the eloquence of Salwa's thirteen-year old-niece, Nada. She and her mother live in Jordan now as refugees. She shared with me an essay she had written for school, on the innocuous topic, "What's your story?" In the essay, Nada paints not just her story, but a vivid portrait of the revolution in Libya through her own eyes. She describes how the protests started, what her mother and her aunt did at the center of the uprising, and relates in painful detail her aunt's murder and the aftermath that she witnessed. By making her story the story of her country and of her aunt Salwa's sacrifice, Nada has proven that Salwa's voice will never be silenced and the determination and hope that she demonstrated throughout her life will live on.” — Cameron Hickey, director

Cameron Hickey is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and cinematographer focused on human rights, poverty, and science, having worked with PBS NewsHour, NOVA, Bill Moyers, American Experience, WNET, and PBS World as well as Al Jazeera English, Bloomberg, and Channel 4. BAHRAIN: OUR OATH

Nada Dhaif, a Bahraini dental surgeon and mother with an interest in fashion – not politics – is not a likely candidate for activism. But when demonstrations break out across the country, Nada volunteers as a medic to treat injured protesters. In a targeted attack against medical personnel, Nada is taken from her home in the middle of the night, arrested, tortured, and, eventually, sentenced to ﬁfteen years in prison. Her crime: honoring her oath as a doctor to treat the wounded. Following an international outcry, Nada and most of the other medics in custody are released and, ultimately, acquitted. Nada is transformed by her experience. She now runs an organization called BRAVO, working to rehabilitate victims of torture, and considers herself a full-ﬂedged activist.

“We knew that it would be hard to film in Bahrain. Journalists from The New York Times, CNN, Al Jazeera, and others have all been detained or denied entry since the uprising there began in 2011. And yet, we were a little taken aback when the innocent young associate producer we sent to shoot the piece was called a “national security threat” by authorities and turned away at the gate. We spent weeks trying to find a local camera person in Bahrain to film for us, but everyone we spoke to shied away from political content. Ultimately, we were stuck. A few months later, the amazing Dr. Nada Dhaif was invited to a conference in Prague, so we found a Czech camera person to shoot the film’s main interview, which I conducted with Nada over Skype. A friend of Nada’s who owned a 5D camera bravely agreed to film with Nada at her home, around the city of Manama, and in one of the small Shia villages that has witnessed so much violence in recent years. We were pleasantly surprised when the footage arrived via FedEx a few days later! After all that, we feared it would be intercepted somewhere along the way.” — Lauren Feeney, director

In Yemen – a country dubbed the world’s worst for women – the early success of the Yemeni uprising offered a faint glimmer of hope to women like Belquis Al Lahabi. As a leading voice in Sanaa’s Change Square, Belquis was at the center of an uprising that ended the twenty-two year reign of Ali Abdullah Saleh. Led by Belquis and others, women gained a thirty-percent representation in the committee tasked with writing the country’s post-revolution constitution – and Belquis was among those given a seat. Today – and despite Yemen's impending collapse into violence – Belquis continues to push for the rights of women in her country. She ﬁghts for laws to end child-marriage, to increase women’s economic rights and to save the country, even as some of her compatriots prepare for war.

“The beauty of Belquis Al Lahabi’s story lies in the way her vivid memory weaves a comprehensive picture of Yemeni women's history through both the colors and the absence of color in their daily lives, and the details within. Not only has she lived through important milestones in Yemen's modern history, but she has also managed to evolve as a women's rights activist, rooted in the old allies of Sanaa and close to the average Yemeni woman where she proudly considers herself one. In the past six years, Belquis and I alternated loudspeakers in protests, but we also shared tears, laughter, and stories of all the women we know whose stories are rarely told. Filming took place during the armed conflict in Sanaa in September, 2014, where despair and destruction began to find their way to the lives of Yemenis. Despite the challenges that occurred during the shooting of this video, Belquis shared her ups and downs and everything in between with the camera, always adding a bit of her soul to the untold story of Yemeni women and their struggle, which she considers a core fight for social justice. Now that Belquis has lost her house and is now displaced due to the current war in Yemen that started in March, 2015, her story is still an inspiration and testament as to we need to continue documenting the lives and struggles of Yemeni women.” — Sara Ahmed, producer

Sarah Jamal Ahmed is a Yemeni sociologist based in Sanaa. Her research focus is between gender issues and transitional justice. She is also a blogger and a co-founder of www.supportyemen.org media collective where she works as a producer and head of the research unit. Sarah is also a producer at Afro1 productions. EGYPT: LIFE’S SENTENCE

On December 17th, 2011, a young woman from a traditional, rural Egyptian family joined in a protest in central Cairo. Three years later, she was sentenced to life in prison for her participation on that day. In this piece -- ﬁlmed a day after the sentencing, when emotions are still raw -- the young woman tells the story from her perspective. She maintains her innocence -- and her pride, and grapples with the meaning of the sentencing, for herself and her country.

“As an Egyptian who took part in the early risings of the Arab Spring, I consider the young generation- having fueled this movement and witnessed its disintegration - to be in diaspora, diaspora of thought and of home. Most of the young people now are wreathing in prisons, physically and mentally. It seems to me that any form of active resistance to the socio-political status quo is like struggling in quicksand, the more you fight , the more it sucks you in. Hend Nafea is the perfect example of who, from a young age, fought to break the archaic mentality surrounding her, from her family, to her university, leading her to her battle with the ruling regime. Hend takes pride in winning one small battle after the next, overlooking the scars left off from the fight, from her entire family disowning her, to getting the blame for being tortured, to finally receiving a life sentence instead of the real perpetrators. Hend is the embodiment of an entire generation's attempt for emancipation from the old and the corrupt. Hend is the archetype of the dream chained, of a strong will that never ceases to manifest.” — Dalia M. Ali, director

In pursuit of her dream of making films that inspire social change, Dalia Ali moved to the U.S. after having joined millions of fellow Egyptians as a participant in her country’s 2011 revolution. Most recently, Ali was Associate Editor and Colorist on the Sundance and Toronto Film Festival-winning documentary, The Square, which provides an account of how the revolution unfolded in Cairo’s Tahrir Square from 2011 through the summer of 2013. The Square was also shortlisted as a Best Documentary nominee for the 2013 Academy Awards. Previously, Ali had spent five years in Cairo working as an Editor/Colorist for commercial films and a creator of short films about Egyptian women and sexual harassment and violence against women. Ali holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and is a 2012 graduate of the UCLA Extension Film Directing Program. ADDITIONAL NOTES

PRODUCTION BIOS WHY CROSS MEDIA HEND NAFEA: BEYOND THE DOCUMENTARY A JIHADI IN THE MAKING I AM A REFUGEE PRODUCTION BIOS

Gini Reticker (Executive Producer & Director) has been directing and producing award-winning independent documentary films for over 20 years. Reticker directed Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2008), the inspiring story of Liberian women whose actions helped bring an end to a brutal civil war—it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival where it won Best Documentary. She produced the Academy Award-nominated short Asylum (2003), the story of a Ghanaian woman who fled female genital mutilation to seek political asylum in the U.S; that same year she produced A Decade Under the Influence that looks at the heyday of 1970s filmmakers, was nominated for an Emmy, and garnered the National Review Board Award for Best Documentary. She received an Emmy for Ladies First (2004), the story of women rebuilding post-genocide Rwanda. Her first film, The Heart of the Matter (1994), a groundbreaking film about women and AIDS, won the Sundance Freedom of Expression Award. She was a creator and executive producer of the PBS series Women, War & Peace (2011), recipient of the Overseas Press Club’s Edward R. Murrow Award, as well as The Academy of Television Honors Award. Reticker has also coproduced or executive produced such notable films as The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)— nominated for both an Academy Award and an Independent Spirit Award; 1971, Alias Ruby Blade, Citizen Koch, Hot Girls Wanted, and She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry.

Abigail E. Disney (Executive Producer) is a filmmaker, philanthropist, and the CEO of Fork Films. Disney’s longtime passion for women’s issues and peace building culminated in producing her first film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell (winner, Best Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival). She then executive produced the five-part special series for PBS, Women, War & Peace. Since then, she has produced numerous acclaimed social-issue films, including 1971, Citizen Koch, Family Affair, Hot Girls Wanted, The Invisible War (2012 Academy Award Nominee 2012, Best Documentary Feature), Return, and Sun Come Up (Academy Award Nominee 2011, Best Documentary Short). Upcoming projects include The Trials of Spring, and her directorial debut, The Armor of Light. Disney is also the founder and president of Peace is Loud, a nonprofit organization that seeks to identify and support women who are stepping up for peace and resisting violence in their communities.

Regina K. Scully (Executive Producer) is Founder and CEO of Artemis Rising Foundation, which develops and promotes media, education and healing projects that transform our culture; and Founder and CEO of RPR Marketing Communications, a premier public relations agency specializing in brand building and consumer products. Scully is a leading communications and media consultant, social entrepreneur, education activist and documentary ﬁlmmaker with a successful track record of building and producing premier brands, projects and ﬁlms that integrate cause-related issues, social media, education and outreach programs. She is an Academy Award-nominated executive producer, most recently in 2013 for the documentary Invisible War, about the epidemic rapes of women and men in the military. Invisible War won the 2012 Sundance Audience Award. Her additional executive producer credits include MissRepresentation, Anita: Truth to Power, Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth, Boyhood Shadows, Half the Sky, Essence Road and Fed Up, among others. Sally Jo Fifer (Executive Producer for ITVS) joined ITVS, as President and CEO in 2001, and during her tenure, ITVS programs have garnered 17 Emmy Awards, ten duPont-Columbia Awards, 22 Peabody Awards, one Golden Globe Award, and 16 Academy Award nominations. Sally has piloted ITVS through major programmatic expansion, launching the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Independent Lens in 1999. She served as Executive Director of the Bay Area Video Coalition from 1992-2001.

Beth Levison (Producer) is a director, producer, and story editor who has received two Emmys and three Peabody Awards. Her documentary feature debut Lemon won numerous awards, screened at over 50 ﬁlm festivals worldwide, and was broadcast on PBS. She served as a Consulting Producer on Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present. Levison was the Supervising Producer of video for the Internet startup Etsy, where her work was nominated for a Webby and shortlisted for a Vimeo Award. Previously, Levison was the Senior Producer/Director of the PBS series E2; Producer of two children’s specials for HBO; and Senior Producer of the Sundance Channel’s AfterEffect series and 24 Frame News. A highlight for Levison was her time as a creator and Story Editor of EGG: The Arts Show, a weekly PBS series on contemporary visual and performing arts, which received a Peabody Award, four national Emmy Award nominations, and ﬁve NY Emmy Awards.

Razan Ghalayini (Supervising Field Producer) —— Razan’s Arabic-language short ﬁlm, Noor, was shortlisted for the Student Academy Awards and went on to play at 25 ﬁlm festivals around the world, winning the Warner Brothers Film Award and the National Board of Review Student Film Award. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Ghalayini was Associate Producer of Koran By Heart, a documentary tracking three children as they competed in the world’s largest Koran recitation competition. It premiered at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival and aired on HBO. Ghalayini Co-Produced We Are the Giant, a documentary by the same team about non-violent resistance through the lens of the Arab revolutions, with a focus on Syria, Bahrain, and Libya. We Are the Giant premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014.

Mohamed Siam Amir (Field Producer & Cinematographer) is an independent director/cinematographer. He has received several international grants in support of his projects, including from the Jan Vrijman Fund (IDFA Bertha), ITVS, HotDocs, the Arab Documentary Film Program of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, and the Sundance Documentary Institute. He is a Berlinale Talent Campus Alumnus and also participated in The Berlinale Campus Editing Studio, where he worked with the renowned Molly Marlene Stensgaard, Lars Von Trier's editor. Siam has worked on several feature ﬁlms as a 1st Assistant Director including the feature documentary The City Of The Dead - a Portuguese/Spanish co-production that won Best Film at Documenta, Madrid in 2010, and Tamer Said’s feature ﬁlm, In the Last Days of the City. Siam is the founder and artistic director of the Artkhana Film Center in Alexandria, Egypt.

Tamer Ashry (Cinematographer) is an Egyptian filmmaker. He is a graduate of Cairo University and has been working in media since 2003 as a producer, scriptwriter, cameraman, assistant director and director. Ashry's work has been featured on several major international and national TV channels, including Al- Jazeera TV, BBC, CBC and ONtv. Ashry recently completed work on a documentary film about sexual harassment in Egypt. Jenny Golden (Editor) began her editing career in London working on commercials and music videos for clients such as Nike, Land Rover, Levis, Canon, Showtime and Interpol. In the years since, she edited a video compilation for Yoko Ono that screened across Europe and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; worked as a lead editor on the television series This American Life; and edited several short films for the artist and photographer, Todd Selby. Golden has edited such critically acclaimed, independent documentary films as Manda Bala, which won the Grand Jury Prize in the documentary category at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and the 2008 Indiepix Eye for outstanding editing; Bully, which received a Producers Guild of America Award, a DuPont-Columbia University Award, and other festival and industry honors; and Sons of Perdition, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Prior to joining The Trials of Spring team, Golden completed work on Watchers of the Sky, a documentary tracing the origins and pandemic of genocide, directed by Edet Belzberg. The film premiered in the U.S. at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, where Golden received the coveted Editing Award: U.S. Documentary.

Dalia Ali (Production Consultant & Associate Editor) —— In pursuit of her dream of making films that inspire social change, Dalia Ali moved to the U.S. after having joined millions of fellow Egyptians as a participant in her country’s 2011 revolution. Most recently, Ali was Associate Editor and Colorist on the Sundance and Toronto Film Festival-winning documentary, The Square, which provides an account of how the revolution unfolded in Cairo’s Tahrir Square from 2011 through the summer of 2013. The Square was also shortlisted as a Best Documentary nominee for the 2013 Academy Awards. Previously, Ali had spent five years in Cairo working as an Editor/Colorist for commercial films and a creator of short films about Egyptian women and sexual harassment and violence against women. Ali holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and is a 2012 graduate of the UCLA Extension Film Directing Program.

Taylor Hom (Production Coordinator) is a journalist based in New York. Prior to The Trials of Spring, she worked at ABC's Investigative Unit and ABC Nightline. She also spent a summer working as a reporter in Ramallah, Palestine. A recent graduate of New York University's honors program, she studied journalism, political economy, and Arabic. Her writing has appeared in media outlets such as ABC News, NY Daily News, Al Safeer Newspaper, and the World Policy Journal.

Mona Eldaief (Additional Editor) is the director of the award winning documentary Rafea: Solar Mama, the story of a Bedouin woman from the Jordanian desert who struggles against the patriarchal rules of her society to receive an education as a solar engineer at the Barefoot College in India and in turn, empower the women of her village. Eldaief has worked as director, director of photography, and editor on documentary ﬁlm and television projects around the world. Her documentary feature credits include The Square, Control Room, Startup.Com, A Wedding in Ramallah, and Her Name Is Zelda. Her television credits include work on programs for Frontline World, Discovery Channel, ABC News, and MTV News and Documentaries.

Amina Megalli (Additional Editor) has over 20 years of experience editing long-form documentaries, TV series, and short ﬁlms. She recently completed work on Life Under Siege, a documentary about a U.S.- Palestinian family divided by the siege on the Gaza strip. She also edited a series of shorts for Human— (cont’d) Rights Watch, including segments on sectarian tensions in Lebanon and the legal prosecution of Chadian dictator Hissen Habré. Additional credits include the six-hour series Hopkins (ABC News), World Birthday (The Learning Channel), and The Upbeat (Yahoo!). Megalli is the co-owner of MultiMedia Video in New Jersey and is ﬂuent in Arabic and French.

Moniker New York (Title Design & Art Direction) is a multidisciplinary design studio located in Brooklyn, New York whose core focus is forging strategic relationships with clients engaging socially conscious projects. Drawing on a combined expertise in design and storytelling, Moniker New York's mission is to realize a client’s vision from concept to completion with intelligence and sensitivity. Across myriad subjects ranging from food and the environment to education and human rights, Moniker New York interfaces with clients whose work and values support a desire to unite and empower. Its partners are Steven LaMorte, Garry Waller and Sean Eno.

Lauren Feeney (Digital Director) is a documentary ﬁlmmaker and multimedia journalist. Feeney was the senior multimedia producer for several PBS programs, including Moyers & Company; WOMEN, WAR & PEACE; Need to Know; and Wide Angle. Her multimedia work has earned some of the web's highest accolades including Webby and ONA (Online Journalism Association) awards. Her video pieces have been broadcast on PBS and Al Jazeera English and have been featured in ﬁlm festivals around the world, while her writing and photography have appeared in The Philadelphia City Paper and The New York Times, among other publications. Feeney is a graduate of Bard College and The Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Mariam Dweller (Associate Producer) is a cinematographer and multimedia producer from Brooklyn, New York. She has previously worked in Human Rights Watch's Multimedia Division, where she contributed to Peabody Award- and Webby Award-winning projects. Mariam has ﬁlmed and worked on ﬁeld productions for HRW in Egypt, Mexico, the U.S. and Jamaica, on issues covering the Arab uprisings, immigration, LGBT rights, juvenile justice, labor and more. As an Egyptian and an Arabic speaker, her knowledge and skills were critical in producing multimedia content during the Arab uprisings, and beyond. Mariam has been a part of collaborations with media outlets including The New Yorker, TIME, and the E-Team documentary.

Thomas Cobb Group (Logo Design & Website Art Direction) is a live action production and motion design company based in Venice, CA. Following a successful advertising career in New York and Los Angeles, Thomas Cobb began his work in Hollywood as a title designer for such films as Braveheart, Mission Impossible, and SE7EN. Since founding TCG in 2002, Cobb has created several main title sequences notable for their visual and design ingenuity, including those for Orange is the New Black, Homeland, Parenthood, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Hung, Grey’s Anatomy, Lars and the Real Girl, Lonely Hearts, and more. TCG received Emmy nominations for Weeds, The Lost Room, Wolf Lake and Lie to Me. MediaStorm (Website and Multimedia Development and Design) is an award-winning interactive studio known as a thought leader in the field of digital storytelling, with clients ranging from international corporations to individual photojournalists and artists. Its stories and interactive applications have received numerous honors, including five Webby Awards, four Emmys, five Online Journalism Awards and the first- ever duPont Award for a Web-based production.

Blake Leyh (Composer) is a composer, music supervisor, music producer, and sound designer who lives in New York City. Born in New York but raised in England until age fifteen, Leyh has worked in film post- production sound and music for thirty years. His credits include films by James Cameron, The Coen Brothers, Spike Lee, Ang Lee, John Waters, Jonathan Demme, Julie Taymor, Stephen Daldry, and Rob Marshall. Leyh was the music supervisor and composer for all five seasons of HBO’s acclaimed series The Wire, and was the music supervisor for David Simon’s New Orleans series Treme. For his music work on Treme he was nominated for a Grammy and awarded an Emmy. He has composed musical scores for more than twenty feature films, including many award-winning documentaries. In 2013 Leyh spent five weeks touring the US performing music and sound design as a duo with Thomas Dolby in Dolby’s transmedia performance The Invisible Lighthouse. In 2014 Leyh was supervising sound editor for Disney’s musical film Into The Woods.

Angie Wang (Executive Director, Peace Is Loud) has over 15 years of experience in the nonproﬁt and philanthropic sectors, working in the areas of women’s rights and social justice. As the Executive Director of Peace is Loud, she oversees the organization’s programs and operations. Previously, Angie was the outreach director for Abigail Disney, Gini Reticker and Pamela Hogan’s 2011 PBS special series Women, War & Peace. She has held senior leadership positions at The New York Women’s Foundation, The September 11th Fund and Safe Horizon. Prior to moving to New York, she worked as a community organizer and advocate in the areas of public health and housing and homelessness prevention in Northern California. Wang is a founding member of the Asian Women Giving Circle, an all-volunteer group that pools its resources to invest in projects that combine the power of the arts and activism, led by Asian American women. She is also a longtime board member of the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families and a founding board member of People’s Production House. Wang is a graduate of the University of California, Davis.

Jamie Dobie (Program Director, Peace Is Loud) oversees outreach and audience engagement campaigns for Peace is Loud's media projects. She believes in the power of storytelling to inspire reﬂection, dialogue and change in the lives of audiences. Prior to joining Peace is Loud, Jamie was community engagement and education manager for the PBS documentary series POV, where she managed social issue campaigns for over 40 documentary ﬁlms and created accompanying educational content. She is a graduate of Northwestern University's Radio/Television/Film program. WHY CROSSMEDIA? — by Lauren Feeney, Fork Films Digital Director Do women’s voices matter?

That question was at the heart of Women, War & Peace—a PBS series that I worked on in 2011. War, as it is portrayed in newspapers and on television, is mostly about weapons, soldiers, and politicians. It is a story of men. But behind the headlines, women are keeping schools open and mouths fed, and serving leading roles in non-violent protests, civil society organizations and peace building efforts.

Women, War & Peace was completed just as the ﬁrst cries for “Bread, Freedom, and Social Justice!” were ringing out across the Middle East and North Africa. Women featured prominently in the demonstrations and their images beamed around the globe, as the world watched in awe. However, as the jubilation of revolution in Tunisia and Egypt gave way to the ﬂames of war in Libya, Syria, and Yemen, the common stereotype of Arab women as oppressed and downtrodden has once again prevailed. The voices of women that led the uprisings have disappeared from the story.

As we watched uprising after uprising, we all secretly expected that one day soon we would be working on a follow up on Women, War & Peace featuring the women of the Arab Spring.

The legacy of the Arab uprisings is still being written. In the growing power struggle between established forces, Islamists, and revolutionaries, it is unclear who will prevail. Regardless of that outcome, women have established their powerful vision for peace and equality in the region and their vision must not be excluded.

The Trials of Spring is a major documentary event that brings the stories of a few of these women to screens of every size. Additionally, through articles and a robust social media discussion about women and their unwavering quest for social justice and freedom in the Arab world, we aim to forward the stories of many more and to inspire others to listen.

To that end, we are unleashing a digital strategy that is open and inclusive, and focused on delivering content to audiences where they are. In addition to the feature film, we are presenting six shorts, featuring women from Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria. The shorts will be released through our partnership with The New York Times, on their homepage and YouTube channel, which has an audience of over half a million subscribers. Award-winning journalists are contributing articles to complement each short. Through our partnership with MediaStorm—a leader and innovator in digital documentaries—we will also present the series in a custom and embeddable interactive player, which includes a drop-down menu of languages so that the films can be understood and shared all over the world. Peace is Loud is working through their vast network to present the films to key stakeholders, influencers, and educators, and in classrooms and public squares all over the world.

The women in these ﬁlms say they are ﬁghting for dignity and peace -- for men, women and children alike. And yet, as women, they bring a different perspective to this struggle. Their voices must be heard and we intend to be their megaphone.

Lauren Feeney is a documentary filmmaker and award winning (Webby, ONA) multimedia journalist. Feeney was the senior multimedia producer for several PBS programs, including Moyers & Company; WOMEN, WAR & PEACE; Need to Know; and Wide Angle. Her video pieces have been broadcast on PBS and Al Jazeera English and featured in film festivals around the world. A JIHADI IN THE MAKING by Rana Allam

We used to work together in the same company during the 25 January revolution, a genius upper- middle class young man in his mid-twenties and I was his manager. We would run into each other in Tahrir Square chanting the same slogans of “bread, freedom and social justice”, and carrying the same banners demanding change.

After the curfews were over and everyone went back to work, we both belonged to those groups who would sometimes head to the Square after we are done with work, and on Fridays. We would then meet at the ofﬁce and have long conversations on the events unfolding in the country. We were also both a bit naïve with regards to the intentions of the armed forces, believing they did actually succumb to the “people’s will”, although he was a tad more skeptical than I was.

The difference between us, and it was quite minor back then, that he came from a family that believed in the Muslim Brotherhood and he was a religious young man, while I believed in a secular civil state. We never had a problem discussing such matters, he was neither a hardliner nor ultra conservative, we also agreed on the basis of democracy.

This young man didn’t always follow the Muslim Brotherhood’s instructions when it came to mobilizations. For example, he joined the protests during the famous Mohamed Mahmoud events which the Brotherhood back then declined to join for fear for the upcoming parliamentary elections. That is an important distinction for revolutionary Egyptians…those who declined to join those events were the politicized hardline Brotherhood followers. He was not. He was considered to be the “good” youth of the Brotherhood that refused injustices and rejected spilling Egyptian blood no matter whose blood it was.

His father was killed in the Rabaa sit-in massacre. For a while, the young man and his family struggled to get his father’s body to be buried. The ordeal took its toll on him and the bitterness started. His younger brother who was a university student did not take all that very well, and started joining in the post-Rabaa massacre protests against the armed forces.

One day, the 19 year-old brother disappeared. For weeks, his family searched for him in every police station and detention facility…and morgue. They saw in that tour heartbreaking stories of young men and women being held, they also met other families looking for their sons and daughters. They saw mothers and wives crying over the tortured bodies of their dead loved ones.

Eventually he found his young brother, after weeks of torture at some detention facility. He could tell the torture was brutal by the marks on his brother’s face and body. They were then informed that the student was facing charges of terrorism and that his trial was due in a few days. By then and because of the extended absence from work along with his psychological status, our friend was out of a job. He did not appear to mind the unemployment much, being too busy with his mother and sister who lost a husband/father and his tortured brother in detention facing terrorism charges. The detained man’s university exams were upcoming and our friend was tasked with the almost impossible job to get him a permit to attend his exams. After much suffering, the permit was obtained and the student was accompanied to his exams with the worst examples of policemen. Harassing him, beating him on the way to the exam, insulting him and his family, and this was witnessed by our friend who was allowed to accompany his brother for a brief period. Neither him nor the brother could utter a word for that might mean he wouldn’t get to take his exam and might also mean worse mistreatment once he got back to his cell. The student succeeded in his exam but lost his future for he was handed 15 years in jail for protesting and a bunch of other charges along with over 50 other accused during the same trial, one of the many travesties of justice in Egypt’s courtrooms.

Harassment of our friend and his mother and sister continued and so they ﬂed the country. He remained on Facebook for a while and I could see the change.

My genius sweet colleague has become a bloody vengeful bitter man. He has joined the flock of those who rejoice at the murder of police officers, judges and soldiers. He is hailing the almighty every time a death toll is announced. He is praying for God’s strength to be given to those “martyrs” dying for the cause. He goes on and on about Jihad in Islam against those infidel murderers. He also calls for the heads of their supporters, from government officials to idiotic pro-army demonstrators. Right now, I do not think he minds killing his neighbor if he was a mere verbal supporter of the regime. Thankfully, he is not in the country and has been off-Facebook for a while because it is heartbreaking to read his posts and witness what he has become.

But can you, in clear conscience, blame him? How many times have we been told that violence breeds violence, and that injustice is the mother of terrorism? Dr Amy Zalman, the Global Terrorism Expert, said that all terrorist acts are motivated by two things: 1. Social and political injustice 2. The belief that only violence or its threat will be effective, and usher in change.

Our rulers still deny this fact and continue to breed violence completely oblivious or uncaring of what that leads to. There are almost five million Brotherhood sympathisers in Egypt, given the parliamentary and presidential elections figures. The number might have decreased after the Brotherhood’s rule indeed but how much? A few hundred thousands are enough to turn this country upside down. We should also count those who are not Brotherhood sympathisers but had their loved ones go through the same suffering. The families and friends of the tortured, murdered, unjustly imprisoned will be bitter enough to hate everyone else, and hatred is the root of evil. Does no one in this regime see that? Calls for dialogue and reconciliation are met with “supporting terrorism” accusations. It is baffling how the call for peace is deemed “terrorism” and the call for blood is viewed as the solution to end violence!

Rana Allam is a seasoned Egyptian journalist and the former managing editor with the Daily News Egypt. She is now working as a freelance writer and lives in Cairo. On March 16th of 2015, she joined an event – put together by the project's outreach partner Peace is Loud, and co-sponsored by project funder The Permanent Mission of Norway to the UN, and partner organizations The Overseas Press Club of America and the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN)– for an interactive panel discussion with women human rights activists from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia. HEND NAFEA: BEYOND THE DOCUMENTARY

On February 4, 2015, Hend was sentenced in absentia by Judge Nagi Shehata of Giza’s 5th Circuit Court, along with 230 other protesters, for their involvement in protests against military rule. They all received the maximum sentence of 25 years to life imprisonment, except for 39 minors who received a reduced sentence of 10 years.

On March 3, 2015, 16 of those sentenced in absentia handed themselves over to police in order to annul their life-sentences and ﬁle for a retrial. Rather than releasing them before the trial, as expected, Judge Shehata ordered them into pre-trial detention. That trial is still in progress and some or most of the 16 are still in prison (this will have to be veriﬁed independently as the situation changes daily.)

Judge Nagi Shehata has received international media attention for presiding over the case of the Al Jazeera reporters and for his harsh treatment of Arab Spring activists, having issued mass death sentences against hundreds protesters. Shehata will continue to preside over the 5th circuit until the fall of 2015 when judges are due to be rotated.

Based on the recommendation from her attorney, Hend did not appear for sentencing (voluntary) under Egyptian law. She subsequently went into hiding. Since the sentencing, Egyptian ofﬁcials have begun rounding up her fellow defendants. Within three weeks after her sentencing, Hend decided to leave her home country with the help of an international network of advocates in support of female human rights defenders.

After two months in hiding and through the support of the Network, Hend was advised that her only option to leave the country was an attempt to fly out of Cairo International Airport directly to Lebanon where Egyptians are not required to get a travel visa’s. Without knowing if her name had already made it onto the official no-fly list, she attempted to pass through the checkpoint to depart. Thankfully she was able to leave Egypt safely and quietly. Once in Lebanon, the Network made arrangements for her housing, and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival began efforts to expedite Hend's B1 visa. She attended the world premiere of The Trials of Spring in New York on June 12, 2015.

Since her arrival, Hend has decided to try to make a temporary home in New York. She has been studying English and has started once again to post on social media (she was asked to shut down all social media activity by the Network, as a precondition to them helping her). She is determined to continue her work of defending Egyptian human rights activists from afar, while bringing attention to the continued repression by the Egyptian authorities. She dreams of returning to home. I AM REFUGEE by Nada El Majri, as featured in the Libya short

I’m from Benghazi—the largest city in the Cyrenaica region, Libya’s second largest city and the former joint capital of the country.

Libya is a North African country, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the North, Egypt to the east, Sudan, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west. With an area of almost 1.8 million square kilometers, it is the 17th largest country in the world.

The capital, Tripoli, is home to two million, of Libya’s six million people. Libya has the tenth largest proven oil reserves in the world. Persians, Egyptians and Greek-Egyptians variously ruled the country before it became a part of the Roman Empire. Libya was an early center of Christianity, but during the seventh century, Islam arrived with the Arabs, who merged with the local inhabitants to form the modern Libyan population.

In 1969, Muamar El-Gaddaﬁ became president and he remained for forty-two years— forty-two years of horrible torture and autocracy. Any protests in opposition to his power was followed quickly by imprisonment or execution. Once, he killed 1,200 political prisoners at Abu Salim in two hours in cold blood.

On February 15th, 2011, the security force captured a lawyer and activist named Fathi Terbil at nightfall. The people of Benghazi reacted in anger and anger lead to protest two days later. Fifteen women, mothers, sisters, daughters, and relatives of prisoners from Abu Salim, began the ﬁrst protest on the evening of February 17th. It was a strange sight to see a group of women protesting since it was against our tradition, but more women joined. Although they were afraid, young men joined the women, because their future depended on it. Finally, the men came out—older men, men like my father, my uncle, and many others from around Benghazi. The protest grew and grew, until everyone was outside, screaming at the top of his or their lungs. It became like a walking wall; nothing could stop it. It marched all the way to the city centre.

There, the crowd continued to grow even more, and soon, the police started firing water cannons and rubber bullets. Groups of protesters attacked the police with clubs and broken bottles. The next day, the demonstration grew more violent, and the first group of mercenaries came to fight the protesters. Some appeared to be foreign workers, including Bangladeshis and Chinese. Many were not mercenaries at all, but men from southern Libya or African migrants in search of work. People said that they were promised payment by the government to fight us.

The first guns came on the February 16th. The police attacked with high caliber weapons and tanks. Dozens of bodies were left on the ground, blood spilling down the pavements. The number of funeral tents grew and grew. And then Gaddafi started to bomb, but this only caused more anger. Lots of men and young teenagers were collecting all of the knives and weapons that they could and going off to fight on the front lines. My oldest cousin, my aunt’s oldest son was out there, along with many of his own cousins from his father’s side and lots of his friends. Lots of men died, ripping families apart, and forcing them to flee to other countries for safety.

Months later, after all of the cities of Libya had been freed, Gaddafi finally fled to his hometown of Sirte. He was found and the local people and started to beat him in front of everyone. At last, when Gaddafi had gotten so many bruises that you could hardly see his face; a man came up with his gun, and shouted, “For Libya!” as he shot him in the head. There were many people working in the courthouse at that time—some were actual lawyers and politicians, but many were just normal working people. They came to help rebuild the law, the courthouse, and the country all over again. My mother, Iman, was a local orthodontist who taught in the Benghazi University. With my aunt, Salwa, she was also one of the first women to protest. My mother became the spokesperson for the Provisional Transitional National Council of Libya and, as because my aunt was already a dedicated lawyer, they worked together with many other people trying to remove the “Muammar” mentality in the people’s minds.

After my aunt’s death, the whole country mourned for her. The Guardian stated that “the US ambassador to Libya, Deborah Jones called the news “heartbreaking,” and on her Twitter account denounced “a cowardly, despicable, shameful act against a courageous woman and true Libyan patriot.”

She died a brutal death— shot in the head in her own home on Wednesday, June 25th, 2014, after she had come back to Benghazi to vote for a brighter Libya.

At 10 PM that night, I was in my room and getting to travel the next day. My father stumbled in with his shirt splattered in blood, Salwa’s blood. I heard my mother screaming and my father crying. My parents and I went to my grandmother's house, and were met by thousands of sobbing women in front of the door. I was taken away from the commotion and put in my grandfather's house alone. I screamed for a whole four hours and then fell asleep, hoping I'd wake up and that the whole incident was just a dream. It wasn’t.

The next morning I woke up and was taken to my house again, where I took my packed bags and went to my best friend's house for about two weeks. My best friend was actually moving to America so I had to move to my grandmother's house for the rest of the time. The same day I moved, I was taken back to go say goodbye to my auntie. My mother walked me into the salon, holding my hand and asked if I wanted her there with me. I shook my head no, and locked the door behind me. As I got closer to the open cofﬁn in front of me, I could see her face— all bruised and covered in scars and dried blood. I kissed her head, looked at her shot marks, and read her a verse of the Quran. That picture of her dead, and ice cold awakens me, and saves me from nightmares. I can't get it out of my mind.

Funerals were held for her across the globe, from the USA to England and Jordan to Dubai.

She had a voice, she was like a haven, and she kept telling the people of my country right from wrong. People looked up to her, and they respected her, and saw her as a candle in the wind. And that is why I am here, in Jordan; I’m here for my safety, and my family’s.

I am a refugee.

Nada El Majri is the 13-year-old niece of celebrated Libyan human rights activist, Salwa Bugaighis, who was the subject featured in one of the short ﬁlms. Salwa was a visionary activist and early leader of the revolution against Muammar Ghaddaﬁ. She was instrumental in early political organization in Benghazi and in helping to select the transitional council that guided Libya after the government collapsed. After refusing to leave the country due to rising political violence in 2013, Salwa was assassinated. In spite of her tragic death, however, her spirit is carried forward by her niece, Nada. While Nada has left the civil war in Libya behind and now lives in Jordan, her clear voice is that of the next generation of Arab women, who continue the struggle to improve their world.