Support in 50 languages instead of 50 lashes each week!

Support in 50 languages instead of 50 lashes each week!

By Simone T., London (@CiLuna27)

    What is the background?

A few months ago one of the activists came up with the following phrase of support for Raif Badawi: “We will hold Raif Badawi in our hearts and minds until his family can hold him in their arms”. This phrase proved to be very popular and soon a lot of people were using it on Twitter.

I thought it would be great, if we have this wonderful phrase of support for Raif not only in English, but in many different languages. Raif Badawi became during the weeks and months after he was flogged the first time an international symbol for the struggle of so many people for human rights and freedom of speech. This international interest in his case and his fate should manifest itself in support for him in languages from all over the world.

Initially I was not sure how many translations I wanted to collect, but then I decided that it really should be translations in 50 languages. Saudi Arabia decided to flog Raif Badawi in January 50 times and they planned to give him 50 lashes each week, we should show him our support in 50 languages – one for each lash he had to endure.

    Which languages are represented?

If you look at the list of languages below, you will see an amazing variety of languages.

There are European, African and Asian languages. The seven UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) are represented. You will find translations in the 12 languages which are spoken by most people in the world as their native language (Hindi, Bangla, Portuguese, Italian, German, Japanese in addition to the UN languages). But you can also find languages as Scottish Gaelic and Romansh which are only spoken by a few ten thousand people or languages as Luxembourgish and Maltese which are spoken by some hundred thousand people.

The languages represent different cultures and connected with the different cultures also different religions. However, the support for Raif Badawi and for human rights goes beyond culture and religion.

    Who translated the phrase?

I got all the translations via Twitter and again the broad range of different people who were willing to help was astonishing. People from Iceland in the North to Australia in the South and from Canada in the West to Malaysia, Indonesia and Korea in the East helped with the translations. I had people from each continent of the earth who helped with this project.

Also the background of the people and their involvement in campaigns for Raif Badawi covered a broad range of different types of involvment. I asked many Amnesty International divisions for translations and a lot of them helped me. I asked the people who tweet a lot for Raif. But I was more surprised that also such people were happy to help who had only signed one petition for him or even people who did not seem to have any prior involvement in campaigns for Raif Badawi. Some of them not only translated the phrase for me, but also used the picture afterwards themselves and asked their followers to take action.

I think this is a moving sign for the global support and global outcry Raif Badawi’s case has attracted.

    What follows next?

It would be great, if people use the phrase in all this different languages. You will find below a list of all the languages and also all the pictures.

You can download each picture and use it on Facebook, Twitter or in any other way.

In addition, if you speak a language which is not yet represented, then please tweet me at @CiLuna27 or go to the contact page and send an e-mail with your translation.

I would love to have more languages and in fact, as I am writing this the 50 languages are in the meantime 56 languages and I am very happy to keep collecting support in all languages of the earth.

LANGUAGES SO FAR:

NEW LANGUAGES ADDED NOVEMBER 2015