Revolutionary artists jailed, oppressed, after Arab Spring

Revolutionary artists jailed, oppressed, after Arab Spring
Revolutionary artists jailed, oppressed, after Arab Spring

Revolutionary artists jailed, oppressed, after Arab Spring

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The Arab Spring exposed the world to numerous artists with a revolutionary message. But their popularity as a result has been costly. Repressive regimes have cracked down on musicians, artists and writers through free speech suppression, torture, disappearances and murder. Mark LeVine, professor of Middle Eastern History at University of California, Irvine, and a distinguished visiting professor at Lund University, knows and performs with many of these artists. He’ll tell us who they are, what they’re enduring and why he wishes celebrities who perform in these repressive countries would do more on their behalf. (Photo: Mouad Belghouat known as el-Haqed or “the Enraged,” speaks to the media during a press conference at the old slaughterhouse in Casablanca, Friday March 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar))