Kuwait: Flip your Avatar, Show Support to the Bidun!

Do you know what does stateless (Bidun) mean in Kuwait? It means you do not exist! You have no access to public education or health care, no employment in the government sector, and no certificates for marriage, divorce, birth, death and no civil identification papers, driving license, passport, and surely no citizenship! Many of those people have been in the country for three generation, some are the sons and daughters of martyrs - people killed during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait - yet they are not Kuwaiti and they have no papers.

Last February, after a long period of silence, the Bidun of Kuwait decided to take the streets, and although they are around a 100,000 in the country, only 1000 had the courage to go there and face police brutality, and afterwards, the disrespect and discriminatory remarks from the society and mainstream media. Unfortunately, not many Bidun have used social media and they are more active in websites, forums, and just few of them blog, but this is not the case anymore specially after the popularity that the Arab Spring of revolutions brought to Facebook and Twitter. The Bidun now are active on both Facebook and Twitter and in addition to tweeting, they came up with this simple idea to “flip your avatar upside down to remind people of our rights.” It is all expressed in the hash tag #EQLB meaning “flip”.

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