Broadcasting 143 and friend Atiaf, a Yemeni American then working in Sanaʻa, to publish photographs of the protests on a website called Yemenis for Justice. Atiaf recalled that while she was in Change Square, We would send Ahlam the photos, the information, and the idea was to have an interactive map of where the protests are, reports related to the revolution, things like that. A bunch of them [abroad] were also very active on Twitter, sending information. Specifically, I had given Ahlam my number, [telling her] “in case something happens, I will message you immediately so that you can tweet it.” Once or twice she tweeted for me while I was at a protest; I texted her, international texts. From her home in New York, Summer also received information from her relatives in Aden about events on the ground and published them on her blog. In light of the near absence of independent media outside of Sanaʻa, she recalled, [Information was] hard to verify. If I’m hearing about shellings or things like that, I would call back home [to family in Aden] at the time and be like, did you hear this, did you hear that? Are there people in the hospital dying of sniper wounds? And then I’d confirm [through them]. Yemenis also broadcast information about the revolution by putting on photography-based events in Washington, DC, and San Francisco. Some also gave talks about their experiences, as when journalist-intern Abubakr talked about his experiences participating in Change Square at universities and think tanks in London. With these strategies, diaspora members enacted voice against the regime in new ways. 5.1.2 Holding Demonstrations and Protests As discussed in Chapter 4, the breakdown of transnational deterrents to mobilization enabled Libyans and Syrians abroad to express their voices openly for the first time en masse and hold protests against the regimes. This form of broadcasting attempted to signal to the public, the media, and policymakers that regime atrocities warranted outside attention and support. Libyan activists held several notable gatherings at the White House and outside the Libyan consulate in Washington, DC. Residents of Manchester and London also demonstrated outside the BBC building and the Libyan embassy regularly. Syrians held demonstrations outside the Syrian embassy (before its closure by the Obama administration), on the Washington, DC, National Mall, and in other city centers. As a participant-observer of these protests in Southern California, I spent Saturday afternoons driving from my home to places such as the shopping district of Costa Mesa, the Little Arabia section of Anaheim, and the Chinese Embassy, the Federal Building, and City Hall in Los Angeles to attend demonstrations for the Syrian revolution. Whereas we usually chanted slogans and sang songs in Arabic, I was sometimes asked by participants to write placards in English. Others had pre-printed posters that were carted by organizers from one event to the next bearing slogans such as “Save Syrian Children” and “Shame on CNN” for its perceived https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009272148 Published online by Cambridge University Press

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