Published by the American Time magazine (The Time) Its annual list of the most important influential figures in the world, this year included five Arab and Islamic figures.
The list included Mrs. Balqis Al-Hindi, who led protests against racial discrimination in her country, the Syrian photographer who goes by the pseudonym “Caesar,” who exposed the criminal practices of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the Egyptian journalist Lina Atallah, the journalist Waad Al-Khatib, and the Uighur activist Nuri Turkel, who alerted the world to the plight of his people..
Below is an introduction to each of these five personalities as mentioned in the magazine:
1- Belqis Al-Hindi… Leader of the Marginalized
Holding a rosary in one hand, and the Indian flag in the other, Mrs. Bilqis, 82 years old, became the voice of the marginalized in India, after she began sitting from 8 am until midnight in the most protest sites against the racial discrimination law against Muslims in her country, which was approved by the government of extremist Minister Narendra Modi with the aim of preventing Muslims from obtaining citizenship in the country..
Last December, Bilqis persisted through the cold winter, along with thousands of women who joined her in Shaheen Bagh, a neighborhood in New Delhi, to become a symbol of resistance in a country where the voices of women and minorities were systematically vanishing due to the majority dictatorial policies of the Modi regime..
Belqis gave hope and strength to activists and student leaders who were thrown behind bars for defending unpopular truth in a democracy that had descended into tyranny. She told a TIME reporter: “I will sit here until the blood stops flowing in my veins, so that the children of this country and the world can breathe the air of justice and equality.”“.
2- Syrian photographer Caesar… exceptional courage
Caesar is the pseudonym of a former photographer with the Syrian regime’s government. He took more than 50,000 photos, including pictures of at least 20 emaciated bodies in the garage of Military Hospital No. 601 in Mezzeh, Damascus..
From 2011 to 2013, Caesar focused his camera on the bodies of people who died under torture, starvation and imprisonment. Then he took a huge risk when he prepared copies of his photos to document the war crimes committed by the head of the regime, Bashar al-Assad.
These photos, along with his courageous testimony before the US Congress, led to the issuance of the “Caesar Act” to protect civilians in Syria of 2019, which punishes the Bashar al-Assad regime and anyone who deals with it, for the war crimes it commits. Caesar’s courage also helped the international community take a much-needed step to hold the Assad regime responsible for killing his people and not impunity..
3- Lina Atallah: We are here by choice
Egyptian newspaper Lina Atallah, editor-in-chief of the opposition website Mada Masr, was arrested after publishing “embarrassing” news about the son of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his relationship with General Intelligence. Her office was raided, and her journalists were subjected to intimidation, arrest, and detention. The authorities blocked the “Mada Masr” website, but it continued to publish until now..
Time magazine says that “shedding light on hidden corners” is the mission of traditional journalism, but it comes at a high personal cost in countries that want to maintain darkness, confusion and intimidation so that power can consolidate its grip, such as Egypt and its military regime..
4- Refugee Women’s Narrator: Waad Al-Khatib
The Syrian journalist narrated andAl-Khatib made reference to her nationality with heart-stopping footage from the last operating hospital in eastern Aleppo, dominating news platforms, and with her award-winning film for “Sama,” the story of the Syrian war through the eyes of a new mother..
Waad told a story whose heroes are ordinary people who risk everything to live free from tyranny, from doctors working under fire to save others, to teachers teaching children in underground classrooms as bombs fall outside..
Stories of extreme brutality, according to Time, but stories of endless hope. In a year in which the film awards were once again criticized for their lack of diversity, it was striking to see Waad, a Muslim refugee, walking the red carpet at the Oscars with her young daughter at her side, wearing an embroidered abaya that read in Arabic, “We dared to dream and we will not regret clinging to our dignity.”“.
5- Uighur activist Nuri Terkel
In a country like China, it is difficult to say a word against the communist regime, but Nouri, a young man who belongs to the Muslim Uighur ethnicity, stood with the plight of millions of Muslims among his people being taken to concentration camps, where women are sterilized or raped, and others suffer torture, or are forced into industrial slavery in Chinese factories..
As a US-educated lawyer, Nuri worked tirelessly to build the Uyghur Human Rights Movement, which represents 150 Uyghur political refugees, to win asylum in the United States and draw world attention to the plight of his people..
Nouri is the first Uighur American to serve on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi helped establish last May, helping shape US and global policy responses to the crisis..
