Americans use Facebook to share details of their daily life and pictures of pets. In Egypt, Facebook was used to bring about the largest general strike in recent history.

Last month, a young woman named Israa Abdel Fattah created a Facebook group to call for an April 6 strike. (Sunday is a normal work day in Egypt.) Word of the strike spread beyond the Internet by cell phone and word of mouth.

It was a great success. "The eerie emptiness of the normally teeming streets of Cairo," wrote The New York Times on Monday, "signaled the depth of discontent with President Hosni Mubarak's government."

Ms. Abdel Fattah (below) was arrested last week. A new Facebook group, "Release Israa," has 3,000 members.

Here is the text of her Facebook statement (translated by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information):

Tomorrow's peaceful strike, Sunday April 6, 2008

No Work
No University
No School
No Selling

We need Just Judiciary
We need Enough Salaries
We need Work
We need Education for our Children
We need Appropriate Transportation
We need Hospitals
We need Medicines for our Children
We need Freedom and Dignity

No Thug Policemen
No Cases Fabrication
No Price Hikes
No Patronage
No Torture in Police Stations
No Protection Money
No Corruption
No Bribes
No Detentions

Tell your friends and family to also start work strike by tomorrow APRIL 6.