Her Voice Counts: Sarah_Elliott_Libya_Egypt_Women_26

Left: Farida, 24 and Mayar, 23 both participated in the demonstrations on the 25th of January and spent time sleeping in Tahrir Square and returned on November 18th and have been there ever since. The two girls met in the square and have become very close friends. “We've mostly been working in emergency services, giving people wet towels to help with the tear gas. We’ve mostly been involved in helping others. We will stay here until our demands are met. We want the military council to leave, and give civilians control of the country. We still haven’t seen anything productive. Farida passed out due to teargas inhalation and was carried by a man to a medic tent and Mayar hasn’t gotten back her sense of smell. “We wore masks and threw rocks, I was hit in the leg with a metal object,” says Farida. “My family knew I was in Tahrir Square in January, but they told me to stop going once Mubarak stepped down. They don’t know that I’m here now, I tell them that I’m going to work, but I really come here,” says Mayar.Right: Salma Taghdi 22, Aseel Tajuri, 22 and Maysam Shebani, 22 started a weekly Newspaper titled {quote} Men Trabuls- From Tripoli{quote} in June of this year. “We couldn’t be in the fighting, we couldn’t take the guns. People were scared for women to go out and fight because of the raping and kidnapping, so we decided to do something different,” Maysam said. Their goal was to get revolution news to local citizens. Sections of the paper included revolutions updates, and security and safety advice. Aseel went out in Tajoura on the 18th of June “to take part in a peaceful woman’s demonstration to show the world we’re against Gaddafi. We covered our faces when we went out, so nobody knew who we were. We did it because everybody was frustrated here in Tripoli.

Left: Farida, 24 and Mayar, 23 both participated in the demonstrations on the 25th of January and spent time sleeping in Tahrir Square and returned on November 18th and have been there ever since. The two girls met in the square and have become very close friends. “We've mostly been working in emergency services, giving people wet towels to help with the tear gas. We’ve mostly been involved in helping others. We will stay here until our demands are met. We want the military council to leave, and give civilians control of the country. We still haven’t seen anything productive. Farida passed out due to teargas inhalation and was carried by a man to a medic tent and Mayar hasn’t gotten back her sense of smell. “We wore masks and threw rocks, I was hit in the leg with a metal object,” says Farida. “My family knew I was in Tahrir Square in January, but they told me to stop going once Mubarak stepped down. They don’t know that I’m here now, I tell them that I’m going to work, but I really come here,” says Mayar. 

Right: Salma Taghdi 22, Aseel Tajuri, 22 and Maysam Shebani, 22 started a weekly Newspaper titled " Men Trabuls- From Tripoli" in June of this year. “We couldn’t be in the fighting, we couldn’t take the guns. People were scared for women to go out and fight because of the raping and kidnapping, so we decided to do something different,” Maysam said. Their goal was to get revolution news to local citizens. Sections of the paper included revolutions updates, and security and safety advice. Aseel went out in Tajoura on the 18th of June “to take part in a peaceful woman’s demonstration to show the world we’re against Gaddafi. We covered our faces when we went out, so nobody knew who we were. We did it because everybody was frustrated here in Tripoli.