What is it about?
This is Chapter 4 in my first research monograph, entitled New Forms of Self-Narration: Young Women, Life Writing and Human Rights (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). This chapter examines Bana Alabed’s harnessing Twitter to construct an activist self. It analyzes the intriguing ways technological and affective affordances made it possible for a 7-year-old Syrian girl to report from a war zone.
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Why is it important?
Alabed has evolved past the trope of innocent suffering child typical of human rights narratives, and on to a discourse of peace and fraternity which has awarded her several prizes. Mediation—and the role her mother has played—as well as imagery to convey trauma should be further addressed and problematized.
Perspectives
Apart from all the above, it is important to reflect on the importance of (activists') names. Like Malala, Bana is mainly known by just her first name. Getting to know these girls on a first-name basis is crucial for the degree of empathizing that may be reached.
Dr Ana Belén Martínez García
Universidad de Navarra
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Bana Alabed: From Twitter War Child to Peace Icon, January 2020, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-46420-2_5.
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