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Mourning a Champion of Tunisia’s Rights

Tributes are pouring in after prominent Tunisian human rights activist and blogger Lina Ben Mhenni, one of the heroes of the 2011 revolution, died in the early hours of Monday from a chronic illness. The 36-year-old was an English teacher at the University of Tunis. Her father and fellow activist, Sadok Ben Mhenni, was a political prisoner under Habib Bourguiba and one of the founders of the Tunisian branch of rights group Amnesty International. The activist was awaiting a kidney transplant. Her blog, A Tunisian Girl, was banned in 2007 for documenting abuses during the rule of former Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Ben Mhenni, a 2011 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, later chronicled the protests that triggered the Arab Spring. In her final column Sunday, she urged Tunisians to learn from their troubled past.

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST EYE