The fall 2012 Widener Magazine featured a cover image of fingers raised in what is often interpreted as either a peace or victory sign. At Widener’s commencement this past Saturday, however, the raised fingers stood for persistence as practiced by Rula Al-Saffar, a 2000 master’s nursing graduate who was imprisoned in her home country of Bahrain for treating protestors injured during the Arab Spring.
Al-Saffar, who recieved an honorary doctorate in public service, asked graduates to raise their fingers with her in the symbol she has used in the struggle for democracy and medical neutrality in Bahrain. For more about commencement, read the press release; for more about Al-Saffar, read the award-winning profile by Dan Hanson ’97, Widener’s director of public relations.
