Mona !

When I first joined Twitter just over a year ago, Mona el Tahawy was among the first Arab tweeps that I got to meet on line. I followed her tweeting with utmost interest and I remember visiting her blog and reading about her tweeting experience. I got so inspired by her and wanted in a way to be active on Twitter like her.

Later on when I started blogging I remember wondering how she made her blog look so great. It had so many interesting things. I looked up to her and her activism, online and offline.

Apart from a few exchanges on Twitter - about her beautiful traditional Egyptian jewelery -, Mona and I have never actually met in person or skyped or talked on the phone. But I feel I have known Mona for years. Mind you, I don't agree with all of her views, she probably doesn't agree with all of mine either. But I have deep respect for her. She is that Arab woman that will go as far as possible, and further each time she can, to defend every other Arab and non Arab woman. She has been amazing on US media outlets, transmitting that passion we all have for change in the Arab World now that our people are demanding it and working for it. Sometimes they get killed, arrested, injured, abused, raped, etc for it.

Ironically now Mona is one of those casualites. I think she only just arrived in Egypt a couple of days ago at most.

I am not sure how she got arrested but it was just over an hour ago. Last thing we know from her tweets is that she was on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, off Tahrir Square, a few hours ago. Then she sent a tweet telling us she is beaten and arrested at the Ministry of Interior.

Luckily for Mona she recently obtained the US nationality. Luckily, I say, because it means that she is more likely to be freed than other Egyptian citizens. Luckily, yet sadly.

Mona's arrest is yet another sign of how the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces  (SCAF) is really just as bad as Mubarak or worse. Killing protesters, arresting them, torturing them. Mona has been very vocal in past months about SCAF's dictatorship. Her arrest will help raise more awareness about this bitter reality, while prostesters across Egypt are continuing their unfinished revolution.

I hope Mona is released soon. I pray she does not go through the same abuse that she works so hard to save other women from.

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Read my blogpost on virgnity tests in Egypt a topic Mona defended so passionately, a topic I got to know about through her !

Find out about Mona's 12-hour ordeal How Mona Was Assaulted by Egypt's Police

Check out my blogpost about another Egyptian-American arrested in Tahrir too The Jehan I know is No Spy !

Mona's photo from : Media In Egypt