“Why I am Tawfik? Because he was already what I am still not and looking forward to become,” says Marwan Alnaas, a young musician whose first music video includes lyrics the young activist had written. “He was the youngest travel buddy I traveled with! He is a legend! I am because he was, and still is Tawfik,” he says as he poses for a photo holding the unmistakeable sign.
From Russia to Colombia, from Scotland to South Korea, hundreds of portraits are travelling the net with the hashtag #IAmTawfik, a statement in support of Tawfik Bensaud and Sami El-Kawafi, two young Libyan peace advocates that were silenced in Benghazi last September 19.
The campaign, which has garnered over 7,500 followers on Facebook, aims at creating an immense portrait of all the pictures to be hung in several different cities as a stand for peace, defending the 18-year-old peace activist principle: “Civilized even if the struggle lasts long.”
“It’s not a matter of holding a sign and standing behind it, It’s a matter of making a promise to yourself to continue the peaceful path the martyrs lost their lives believing in,” the group expresses. This month, campaign representatives will take part in the conference Today’s Youth, Architects of Peace? to be held in London on October 22.
For more information: Visit the I am Tawfik Facebook page, or follow the hashtag #IAmTawfik