Loubna Mrie (Arabic: لبنى مرعي ; born 1991) is a Syrian civil rights activist.
Life
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Mrie comes from an Alawite family from a village near Latakia. Her father is a high official in the Syrian Air Force Intelligence. Despite her family ties, she is one of a few Alawites to join the fight against the Assad regime and has been branded a traitor by her father.[1]
As rioting broke out in the initial stages of the Syrian Civil War, Loubna attended Latakia University[2] but moved to Damascus in 2012 as Latakia was deemed to be unsafe for activists.[3] This was due to Assad troops opening fire on civilian protestors.[4] She later joined the Free Syrian Army (FSA) where she helped with the transport of food and medical aid, then with the smuggling of ammunition.[3] She promoted the aims of the revolution in the Alawitian community and spoke with the victims of government-run troops.[5] After her father issued a warrant for her arrest, she fled in August 2012 to Turkey.[6]
On August 11, 2012, her mother was abducted, according to her father, who subsequently broke off all contact with her.[5] Loubna later received information from a friend about the death of her mother.[5][1]
She later became a photojournalist with Reuters based in Aleppo where she covered the conflict then moved to New York where she is a researcher and commentator on Syrian and Middle Eastern affairs. She has been published in The Washington Post, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung,[7] and The New Republic, among other publications.[8]
References
edit- ^ a b "Syria conflict: 'My father wants me dead'", BBC News, 2013-05-02, retrieved 2016-12-08
- ^ "Alawite FSA supporter whose father backs Assad tells of a Syrian family ripped apart | The National". Retrieved 2016-12-08.
- ^ a b "I Left My Family for the Free Syrian Army | VICE | United States". VICE. 2012-11-27. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
- ^ Slackman, Michael (2011-03-25). "Syrian Troops Open Fire on Protesters in Several Cities". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
- ^ a b c Chulov, Martin (2012-11-11). "Syrian exile: 'My mother is dead. And it was my father who killed her'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
- ^ "İstanbul'da yalnız bir Suriyeli - Akşam". aksam.com.tr. Retrieved 2016-12-08.
- ^ "Afrin After the Turkish Invasion". rosalux.de.
- ^ "Loubna Mrie, Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University". neareaststudies.as.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2016-12-08.