Atef Said is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Sabria Khamis Zidahie, one of the women of Abu Salim, Libya. Her brother was among the 1,270 political prisoners who were executed June 29, 1996, in the Tripoli prison. Family members of the dead have been demonstrating weekly since 2008 to demand justice. The Benghazi courthouse, the symbolic site of the Libyan uprising, now honors the martyrs to the revolution and the political prisoners executed in Tripoli in 1996. Pierre-Yves Ginet/ReduxBelgacem Ben Abdellah, 32, in front of the UGTT (Tunisian Workers National Union), graduated in biological science in 2006, but is underemployed and has gone from one casual job to the next, a problem for many young Tunisians. Tunis, February 2011. Johann Rousselot/laif/ReduxAfter two days of clashes with Mubarak supporters, demonstrators against the regime spent the night in Tahrir Square to carry on their protest. This woman, a former television journalist, staffed a checkpoint on the square, where she searched the women who wished to enter. January 2011. Jacopo Quaranta/LUZ/Redux