Algeria's 75-year-old activist and revolutionist Djamila Bouhired, is ill and is beseeching her country and countrymen to finance her medical treatment. The news has infuriated many Egyptian bloggers who see her as an Arab icon and a hero.
Writing at Egyptian Chronicles, Zeinobia believes that we as Arabs are good at destroying national heros:
Djamila Bouhired has sent an open letter to the Algerian State and people to help her in her illness. The famous Arab nationalist heroine of 1960s who became a symbol of independence in the whole Arab world is begging from the Algerian government !! The woman is asking the government to help her especially as a woman of national pride and dignity she refused aids from the Gulf 🙁
Djamila's situation reminded Zeinobia of our own Egyptian war veterans:
she has brothers in Egypt from 1973 Suez resistance veterans whose pension is disgrace forcing them to work as drivers on micro-buses in Suez. Those veterans stood against Sharon for weeks defending our dignity !! In fact she has brothers and sisters across the Arab world , those who did not think too long when they gave their lives to the nation but the nation is thinking too long to give them back what they do deserve.
Instead of football wars, Zeinobia wished that:
our relations would have been in better condition , it would be great if we send to Djamila the best of our physicians or invite her to Cairo again as she has been always a welcomed guest.
Nawara Negm posted two videos on her blog; the first video is a message from the AlgerianKommondoss Team welcoming her among them and offering to pay her medical expenses. Thesecond is a video of an Algerian explaining to the whole world who Djamila Bouhired is and how the Arab world has let her down!
Nawara commented saying:
Tarek Ez ElDen posted her letter to the Algerian President Bouteflika; Djamila's letter says:
She also urged the president to stop his continuous "insult" by revisiting the "humble pension given to the people who fought for their country – people who deserve to live the little that's left in their lives with dignity."
