Safaa Al Sarai

Safaa Al Sarrai (Arabic: صفاء السراي‎; 28 July 1993 – 28 October 2019)[1] was an Iraqi human rights activist who has been called the icon of the Iraqi uprising.[2]

Background

He was born into a family from Baghdad that lived in a beautiful area and lived in the Shaab neighborhood. He graduated from high school to enroll in the Technological University , and during his school years he worked as a porter in a market in the Jamila commercial district. His father passed away early in his life, then his mother passed away after suffering from cancer in 2017 , and he graduated as a programmer from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Technology. After graduating, he worked in writing petitions in front of one of the buildings of the Traffic Directorates.[3] And a week before his death, he got a new job in his specialty, when he was employed at a private university. Safaa Al Sarai wrote popular and eloquent poetry on a small scale. He was also a skilled painter, and in poetry, he showed unrivalled admiration for the Iraqi poet Muzaffar al-Nawab. He participated in the "I am Iraqi, I Read 2018" festival, and painted paintings of Iraqi national symbols such as Zaha Hadid, Muzaffar al- Nawab, Muhammad Mahdi al-Jawahiri, Badr Shaker al-Sayyab and many others.[4]

Human Rights activities

He participated in the 2011 demonstrations in Tahrir Square, during the era of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki , and in 2015 , during the era of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, he participated in the July 31 demonstrations in Baghdad. He was arrested in 2018 , for his participation in the demonstrations in poor areas in eastern Baghdad and he was released afterwards and was receiving threats to discourage him from continuing to participate.[5] [6][7]

Letter to the PMF

Before his death, he wrote a letter titled to the Popular Mobilization Forces, praising their sacrifices, and warning them of a scheme in which they were intended to participate in suppressing the demonstrations, hours after the statement of the Deputy Chairman of the Popular Mobilization Authority, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, in which he said that his forces would intervene at the appropriate time, the last of what he wrote: "Shame on you."[8]

Death

He was injured on Monday evening ( October 28, 2019 ), in the center of Tahrir Square, while the security forces continued to randomly fire gas bombs on the square. He was transferred to the Al-Jumla Al-Asabia Hospital, and doctors performed an operation for him in which they removed the gas bomb fragment from his head and stopped the bleeding, but his condition remained critical, then he died of his wounds, and his body arrived at Tahrir Square after the dawn call to prayer, despite the curfew, so his friends carried him under the Freedom Monument in the middle of the square, during the early dawn hours, and the mourners chanted “Thanwah,” with the words "Raise his head, O Thanwah Abinj."[9]

International reactions

Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, condemned his death, saying: "The martyrs do not go to Heaven. They roam the heavenly books, each in his own way, like a bird, a star or a cloud. They appear to us every day and cry for us, we who are still in the hell that they tried to extinguish with their blood."[10]

The BBC counted him among the five most important faces of protest around the world.[11]

References

1. 24 December 2019 | 04:13 بالصورة..رسالة الشهيد صفاء السراي تصل إلى يونس محمود بغداد بوست Archived 11 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine
2. تحوَّل صفاء السراي أيقونة للانتفاضة العراقية؟ بانوراما الخميس: 21 November، 2019 Archived 9 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine
3. حياته من أجل قضية.. قصة صفاء السراي رمز الانتفاضة العراقية 14/11/2019 الجزيرة.نت Archived 2020-04-11 at the Wayback Machine
4. السراي.. ابن ثنوة الذي خطفه الموت من مظاهرات بغداد | الحكاية في دقائق Archived 2020-04-11 at the Wayback Machine
5. الرئيسية الناشط صفاء السراي ثار من أجل الوطن فعاجله رصاص الأمن التاريخ: 30 أكتوبر 2019 Archived 2020-04-11 at the Wayback Machine
6. مظاهرات العراق: صفاء السراي ناشط عراقي قتل بقنبلة غاز أصابت رأسه 25 نوفمبر/ تشرين الثاني 2019 بي بي سي Archived 2020-01-22 at the Wayback Machine
7. صفاء السراي أدوات المدافعين Archived 2019-12-25 at the Wayback Machine
8. الخوف حياً.. وكسرت جثته قرار حظر التجوال قصة صفاء السراي الذي قتلته قنبلة السلطة:مُبرمِج “حمّال”.. وفنّان ثائر 07:23 الثلاثاء 29 أكتوبر 2019 Archived 2020-04-11 at the Wayback Machine
9. قصة صفاء السراي الذي قتلته قنبلة السلطة ناس نيوز Archived 2019-12-28 at the Wayback Machine
10. زعيم لبناني ينشر صورة للناشط العراقي صفاء السراي ويغرد عنه 22 ديسمبر، 2019 الحرة Archived 2019-12-23 at the Wayback Machine
11. https://www.the961.com/lebanese-martyr-bbc-world-revolutions-faces/