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Egyptian 'Facebook Girl' Could Win Nobel Tomorrow

Esraa Abdel Fattah organized protests, spent time in jail

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 6, 2011 4:21 PM CDT

(Newser) – She spent weeks in jail after organizing a key strike to protest the government; now, the Egyptian woman once known as “Facebook Girl” is up for the Nobel Peace Prize. But it’s not about her, Esraa Abdel Fattah tells the Christian Science Monitor. “If I win this, if any Egyptian wins this prize, it will be for Egypt's revolution. It's for the Egyptians in the street.” Amid post-revolutionary turmoil, it’s a victory Egypt’s activists could use, the Monitor notes.

Abdel Fattah used the social network to help plan a national strike in 2008 that many see as the catalyst to this year's revolution. When the government jailed her for 18 days, she became a figurehead for the protest movement. Last week—on Facebook—she discovered she was in the running for the prize, to be announced tomorrow. There's even speculation that Mark Zuckerberg himself is a contender, notes the Los Angeles Times.

An Egyptian anti-government demonstrator sleeps on the pavement under spray paint that reads 'Al-Jazeera' and 'Facebook' at Cairo's Tahrir square on February 7, 2011. (Getty Images)

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Egyptian 'Facebook Girl' Could Win Nobel Tomorrow

Esraa Abdel Fattah organized protests, spent time in jail

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