Introducing Nafissa Assed
Our correspondent in Tripoli, who’s been sending us such stirring and terriying reports, is now safe in Morocco. She is finally able to renounce her anonymity. She wants me to tell you her name in capital letters, NAFISSA ASSED, daughter of a martyr, proud Libyan citizen. Read her self-description after the break.
A former Libyan exile, I was born and grew up in Morocco with my family. I was seven when my father was brutally murdered in 1990 by Qaddafi’s regime in Libya. Growing up, speaking English with my uncles, Moroccan Arabic and French with my friends, and Libyan Arabic with my grandfather (a former Libyan prime minister), I never knew how different I was from the other little boys and girls. I assumed that all my friends were like me and had multiple linguistic and national identities, without really understanding the phenomena myself. When I recall my experiences as a child and teenager, I am fond of referring to them as ‘globalization in isolation’. After the death of my father, I lived and was raised by my grandfather until he passed away in 2007. In 2010 I decided to move to Libya full-time, to apply my analytical and media research skills towards the cultural healing and rebuilding of my society.
Qunfuz 
Proud to be one of these friends. Keep up the good work. And keep writing your name in capital letter: NAFISSA ASSAD!
Aicha
March 21, 2011 at 4:18 am