Arabeyes: Mourning for Hadeel

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/05/19/arabeyes-mourning-for-hadeel/

This news is from Saudi Arabia
Follows are translated article exluding Saudi Arabia's sentences which is repeated.

Saudi blogger Hadeel El Hadeef passed away exactly a month after her 25th birthday. Bloggers from around the region come together to mourn the death and celebrate the life of the blogger, whose contributions and humanity will continue to remain a living legacy on the world wide web.

Known for her beautiful writings, the daughter of renowned Saudi reformer and writer Dr. Mohamed El Hadeef, grabbed the attention of the blogosphere after slipping into a coma last month.


On April 17, Hadeel was celebrating her 25th birthday and wrote :

I’ve been preparing for tomorrow's big celebration for a month. I have planned everything and personally took care of all the small details. I was keen for a celebration which suited the 25th year of my life. I decided to celebrate this year to the fullest, and celebrate it alone. No need for friends’ blessings or acquaintances’ compliments. Reaching the middle of my life is very personal, and I reckon nobody would remember that, had it not been for my FaceBook profile or the birthday alarm that everybody asked me to fill out - so that they don't forget it.

Regarding the idea of the middle age, it’s because of my old and permanent wish to die when I am 60. That’s why the years starting from tomorrow for the next five years are the middle age years that I have decided for myself. It would be important to spoil myself these years before the start of the countdown.

Tomorrow is my birthday, and I know nobody cares about this, not even my parents who don’t know much about my birthday, even though I am their eldest daughter, but seven (other siblings) came after me, and so I forgive them for not remembering.

Happy birthday to me. Every year I find good reasons to celebrate. And every year I find a new reason to love myself.

A few days later, the news spread everywhere: forums, blogs, websites, newspapers. Hadeel went into a deep coma. Not a single doctor knew the reason for her coma. Bloggers started praying for her recovery and a Facebook group was opened to pray for Hadeel to get out of her coma. Her last post on her blog “Heaven Steps” turned into a yard for comments.

On May 17, the Facebook group announced the news of her death. Soon the Saudi and Egyptian blogospheres turned into a wide page of condolences to her family, regretting the loss of a talented, cultured and passionate human like her.

Abdou Basha, an Egyptian blogger wrote a post entitled: The death of a Saudi blogger:

Hadeel El Hadeef.. Passed away today. How did I know?.. I knew minutes ago by a message from the electronic group opened by her friends after her illness. Who is Hadeel? Just a Saudi blogger?
I would reply confidently: No, I can say she is a special Saudi human being. And every Arab can be proud while reading her words and feels there is hope.. hope in the humanity, their words and visions.

I know that my words here won’t benefit anybody but me. I wrote these to record my shock hearing the news, and to admit that Hadeel was a personality that could not be easily forgotten even if it was only through virtual existence. And the above random title for this post “The death of a Saudi Blogger” would never go with a person like Hadeel. For she was to her readers, followers and colleagues, much more than this.