This afternoon there was a small protest demonstration in front of the Saudi embassy in Rome. The meeting was organized to ask for the release of Saudi journalist and blogger Raif Badawi.
In 2008, the colleague founded the website '' Free Saudi Liberals '' and had the ominous idea of addressing the role of religion and freedom in Saudi Arabia. Detained since 2012 in the Briman prison in Jeddah, with a sentence of 7 years and 600 lashes for offenses against some religious figures of Islam, Badawi now faces the death penalty.
There was an association of Moroccan women (ACMID), militants of an association against the death penalty (Hands off Cain) and Syrians who, since the Saudis were among the main sponsors of the rebellion in Syria, took advantage opportunity to join the protest.
And then there was the undersigned, Defense Dependent Online, who felt close to that journalist who tried to do his job through the most destabilizing and uncontrollable channel for the powers that are used to control and pay the news: the web.
The couple of hours of screaming to the chorus of "Free Badawi" and various rhymes in Arabic would not have affected me too much if the group of demonstrators had not even released a "liberate i marò!", Repeated for a moment also by the others present.
It took me time to try and decipher my feelings: they went from "What do the maro do?" to "But do we have to think of Moroccans and Syrians immigrating to CRYING what Italians do not do enough?".
And I have not been able to do it yet.
Andrea Cucco
