Amira Yahyaoui is a peace activist and a dogged proponent of free speech. Aged just 16, she was tailed by Tunisia’s secret police and beaten as a result of her activism. She stood as an independent candidate in the country’s first free election after the ouster of former president Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali and recently founded Al Bawsala, an NGO that monitors the country’s legislature and promotes free expression and the protection of human rights.