Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2011

Asmaa Mahfouz

Symbolising the power of individuals to change things ©Flickr/Maggieosama

It's a simple video: a young, veiled woman looking straight into the camera. Her voice is forceful but not loud or threatening, there is no music and no battle cry - four and half minutes of straight talk, no cuts, no fancy editing.

"Never say there is no hope. Hope only disappears when you say there is no hope"

                                                                                                                     Asmaa Mahfouz

But Asmaa Mahfouz' call to join the small group of protesters and stand up to oppression was strong. Her video and posts on Twitter and Facebook helped motivate thousands to descend into Cairo's Tahrir Square in February 2011 and call for freedom and human rights. She later told journalists that she received death threats after her video became popular. But that hasn't stopped her. In August, she was arrested for "insulting the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces" which has controlled Egypt since Hosni Mubarak's fall. She was released on bail after country-wide protests.

Asmaa Mahfouz is a symbol of the power of committed individuals to influence their society and topple undemocratic government. Born in 1985, she studied economics at Cairo University and later worked for a computer company.

In 2008 she joined the Egyptian April 6th Youth Movement, a group of young Egyptian activists that started a Facebook page and used blogs and Twitter posts to support a strike planned for 6 April, 2008, in the industrial city of El-Mahalla el-Kobra. In a matter of weeks the page attracted 70,000 members.

The strike ended in violent clashes between workers and police and a crackdown on Internet activists. But the group had shown the value of Facebook and other social media sites as a tool for protest. In the spring of 2011, Asmaa Mahfouz' powerful video rallied the masses...and the rest is history.