Razan Ghazzawi, a prominent Syrian blogger and rights activist, was arrested on Sunday while travelling to Jordan for a conference on freedom of expression.

One of her friends told Reuters: "She was arrested as she presented her passport to immigration at the Syrian border post of Nassib to cross to Jordan."

Ghazzawi is one of the few Syrians to blog under her real name. She had recently been campaigning for the release of fellow-blogger Hussein Ghrer who was eventually freed on December 1 after 37 days in prison.

She is also on Twitter as @RedRazan where her account is now being managed by friends. Aware of the possibility of arrest, she is said to have worked out a contingency plan and on Sunday her friends moved quickly to secure her internet passwords.

There is now also a #FreeRazan hashtag on Twitter and a Free Razan Facebook page has been set up.

On her blog, Ghazzawi says she was born in the US but never lived there. Her parents went to Saudi Arabia where the family lived for 10 years in Jeddah. Then they went back to Syria and live in Damascus. She continues:

"After I graduated from English literature department in Damascus University, I wanted to pursue my studies so I went to Lebanon and spent five years of my life there.

 

"I enjoy photography, drawing cartoons, and writing Arabic articles which I do not do most of the time.

"I am vegetarian, genderqueer and kind of pissed of[f] at everything. But a person who cries genuinely while watching Daddy Long Legs cartoon."

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 5 December 2011.