Samir Saadawi (Biography)

Samir Saadawi is a prominent journalist & political analyst. He is the international affairs editor of the leading Pan- Arab newspaper “Al Hayat”.

With the uprising of “February 17”in Libya, Samir Saadawi emerged as a fierce critic of Moamar Gaddafi, and called in a series of article and TV interviews, for an end to Gaddafi's dictatorship and the establishment of democracy in Libya.

Saadawi was born in Beirut (1959) for a Libyan family in diaspora. His grandfather played a leading role in unifying the territories of Libya and its independence in the first half of the last century.

Bashir Saadawi and his brother Nuri Saadawi led the National Congress Party in Libya which emerged as the most popular party in the western areas of the country (Tripoli and Misrata) during the first elections held under the reign of the late King Idriss Alsanusi in 1952. The alliance between Saadawi’s and other prominent families in the western and middle parts of Libya with King Idriss forced the colonizing powers in Libya at that time (Britain & Italy) to accept the Independence of the unified Libyan territories.

With this political heritage in mind, Samir Saadawi adopted early in his life and during his study periods at the American University of Beirut, liberal values and began exploring ways of democratization in Libya, especially after Gaddafi’s coup in 1969 which resulted in  years of tyranny in Libya.

 As a writer, Samir Saadawi called for promoting civil society, human rights and freedom of speech in Libya and the rest of the Middle East, he envisaged that this can only be achieved through building democratic institution, adopting transparency and establishing the rule of law.

Few days after the “February 17” uprising in Libya he wrote in “The Daily Star” a leading English newspaper in the Middle East, an article entitled “Roadmap for  Ending Tripoli’s Siege” in wish he detailed  his views on dealing with the emerging Libyan crisis.

Since then, Samir Saadawi (whose family originates from Misrata) became an activist in support of the Libyan uprising in various forums and on Facebook. He managed to establish a network of relations with other prominent activists in Libya to encourage democratic transition in the country.

Saadawi lived in Britain between 1984 and 2000. He joined “Al Hayat” newspaper in 1990. Before that he was working as freelance writer for several Arab publications. He also worked as a public relations consultant for several British companies, advising them on dealing with public sector in Arab countries. During his stay in Britain he joined many seminars, and gave lectures and courses on public sector development and the relation between the public sector and the media.

(Saadawi can be spelled in different ways to give the same pronunciation in Arabic like: Al-Saadawi, Saadaoui, Sedawi, Sa’adawi etc…)