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Wael Ghonim
Egyptian activist and computer engineer
Quick Facts
Wael Ghonim (born December 23, 1980, Cairo, Egypt) is an Egyptian democracy activist and computer engineer who was one of the organizers of a social media campaign that helped spur mass demonstrations in 2011 in Egypt, forcing Pres. Hosni Mubarak from power. (See Egypt Uprising of 2011.) After being held in secret detention by Egyptian security forces for 11 days during the protests, Ghonim came to be seen as a symbol of Egypt’s youth- and technology-driven democracy movement. Ghonim was born into a middle-class family in Cairo. He graduated from the University of Cairo in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree ...(100 of 453 words)