- Mideast Youth
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Mideast Youth 
Founder(s) Esra'a Al-Shafei Founded 2006, by Mideast Youth Organization Area served MENA Region Focus Social Media Website [1] Mideast Youth is a regional not-for-profit organization focused on amplifying voices of dissent throughout the Middle East and North Africa via digital media. It is a forum that allows non-governmental actors in the Middle East to engage in political warfare activities against corrupt regimes. According to their website, “We are a grassroots digital network that leverages the power of new media to facilitate our struggle against oppression in the The Middle East and North Africa region.”
MEY website is available in Arabic, Farsi and English and its objective is to unite Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) youth together through uncensored means via the Internet to change the Middle East into a progressive and peaceful region.
The network's activity is driven by the passion for civil engagement, freedom of speech, tolerance, supporting religious and ethnic minorities, raising awareness, and employing innovative solutions to these pervasive and persistent problems due to censored media, to tribalism and sectarianism, thus breaking the boundaries between the MENA nations and giving room for critical free thinking and exchange of information between people via the internet, connecting them to one another.
Mideast Youth provides a free, uncensored platform for dialogue amont MENA's young people. The network uses the freedom provided by the internet to create social change and to prove that the collaboration necessary for stability is possible. Mideast Youth, which relies on open source platforms, like WordPress and Ruby on Rails, was launched in 2006, as part of the non-profit organization, Mideast Youth, by Esra'a Al-Shafei, a TED and Echoing Green fellow, as a simple group-blogging idea. However it has grown wildly since then, with more than 300 active authors from across the world,[1] and thousands of visitors daily.
Mideast Youth Arabic and Mideast Youth Farsi were later launched in 2008, allowing the network to cover 3 major languages in the MENA region, which is the organization's targeted area, along with 12 different projects, campaigns, and initiatives[2] covering different sensitive (taboo) issues in the MENA region.
Mideast Youth is present on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, as well as other social networking sites, and has iPhone and BlackBerry apps.
Mideast Youth has had a pronounced effect on political activism in the region. However, the network struggles to launch successful web campaigns in the midst of repressive regimes threatened by their work. The governments of Iran,[3] Yemen,[4] UAE,[5] and Bahrain[6] have used cyber-censorship to block citizens' access to Mideast Youth's projects. They have had a growing amount of media coverage worldwide as the network raises issues not generated by the press in Middle Eastern and North African countries.[7]
Contents
Objectives and Means
Mideast Youth (MEY) is founded upon the basis of objective debating with mutual respect between youth from the whole spectrum of the MENA nations. Without any form of discrimination based on race, color, or religion, its objective is to initiate a momentum of social change and create the possibility of having stable inter-faith multi-cultural societies in the region.[8] They intend to induce tangible change by advocating for freedom of speech, acceptance of differences, aiding the minorities and ending all forms of conflict, e.g. sectarian violence, by eliminating censorship and allowing for freedom for both the authors and visitors of the network.
Mideast Youth Network's content, in addition to its projects and applications, is free open source content to ensure right to access information for everyone.
The network's content is entirely user-generated with full accessibility to all of the site's visitors, with any visitor with ties to the Middle East and North African region being entitled to join. Once registered, authors can write under any category or tag, without further editing, moderation, or censorship by admins.[9]
Mideast Youth uses a broad spectrum of social media tools, ranging from written blogs, podcasts, vlogs, comics, video animation and pictures to live broadcasting through radio in addition to huge networking pages on different social networking websites.
MEY does not declare any affiliations with political groups in the region.
Projects and Applications
Mideast Youth runs various active projects that include CrowdVoice, Mideast Tunes, Ahwaa, Migrant Rights, Alliance for Kurdish Rights, The Muslim Network for Bahá'í Rights, Assyrian Rights, The March 18 Movement, Postcards for Iran and Israelis for Palestine[10]
In the past, the network has run projects like The Free Kareem Campaign, Global Village TV (MEY TV), Sexual Terrorism, Afghan Press, No Honor, Middle East Interfaith Blogger Network, and Darfur Awareness.[11]
Mideast Tunes is a platform profiling and connecting underground musicians using music as a tool for social change. Meanwhile, CrowdVoice is a user-powered service that tracks voices of protest from around the world. And both had wide media coverage.
In addition, Mideast Youth has several applications and labs like Mideast Tweets, Blackberry applications, iPhone and iPad applications, Facebook applications, and Baha'I Tweets Map. They also host comics, video animations, illustrations and infographics that document and expose human rights violations against ethnic, religious, sexual and intellectual minorities in the region on their site.
Mideast Youth has partially supported Alkasir and "Can You Solve This?" Campaign. The latter was a very successful Right of Education in Iran campaign, using QR code.
Aside from building and designing their own websites and tools, MEY has provided in the past free hosting, development, and design to Middle East and North African Activists who share the network's vision and values and who have been up and running for at least three consecutive months.[12] Mideast Youth is committed to helping non-profits and individual activists because they understand the financial limits that these people and groups face.
The network has also launched a profitable project called Naseemi that provides hosting space and customizable modules for website building, to help sustain the network's humanitarian causes.
Funding
Mideast Youth is funded through private donations and grants from non-governmental organizations. It does not accept funding from foreign governments. By maintaining independence from any government, Mideast Youth is able to pursue its interests rather than those of a foreign government.[13]
In 2008, Mideast Youth won the Berkman Award from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University in the Human Rights/Global Advocacy category. This $10,000 award was Mideast Youth’s first source of funding. This award is presented to “people or institutions that have made a significant contribution to the Internet and its impact on society over the past decade.”[14] In 2009, the March 18 Movement, a project of Mideast Youth, received the Think Social Award, which demonstrates how social media can be used to solve the world’s problems.[15] Esra'a Al-Shafei was named a 2009 Echoing Green Fellow for Civil and Human Rights, a seed funding award for young entrepreneurs engaged in social change.[16] Financially, the fellowship consists of a $60,000 stipend paid over two years, a professional development stipend, and a health insurance stipend.[17] Most recently, MEY has received a grant from the Omidyar Network to help fund the development of future projects.[18] Additionally, Mideast Youth offers a selection of clients freelance development and community management consulting.
Awards
- Monaco Media Prize 2011 for Mideast Youth founder and director Esra'a Al-Shafei.
- The BOBs (weblog award) Special Topic Human Rights award in 2011 for the Mideast Youth website Migrant Rights.[19]
- ThinkSocial Award in 2009, as powerful model for how social media can be used to address global problems.[20]
- Echoing Green 2009 Fellowship.[21]
- TEDGlobal 2009 Fellowship.[22]
- Berkman Award for Internet Innovation from Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School in 2008 for the outstanding contributions to the internet and its impact on society.[23]
Leadership
Mideast Youth was founded by Esra'a Al-Shafei, a blogger from Bahrain in 2006. As the director of Mideast Youth, Esra'a runs the management side of things, focusing on development and growth as well as the stability and designs of their sites. Then comes Ahmed Zidan of Egypt who serves as the editor-in-chief of Mideast Youth Arabic and English, the co-founder of Ahwaa, and also a podcaster.[24] Other team members, mostly from the MENA region, include: Sarah Elgindy (Egypt) who runs Mideast Tunes, Suzan Boulad (Syria) who runs Kurdish Rights and Bahá'í rights, Rima Kalush who runs Migrant Rights, Hajer Ghareeb (Bahrain), Nuha S. (Kurdistan), R. Reyhani (Germany), and Ali B. (Iran) who serves as the editor of MEYFarsi. The network relies on a growing pool of authors and volunteers.[25]
2011 Middle East and North Africa Protests
Blogs and social networking played a large role in the protests throughout the Middle East and North Africa during 2010-2011, also known as the Arab Spring. In a region characterized by political oppression, the internet is being used as a way to organize political movements and avoid political oppression.
Egypt
Mideast Youth members, including Ahmed Zidan, covered the protests as they unfolded in Egypt in January and February 2011. Twitter and other social networking sites provided forums for dissent with Mubarak’s regime and allowed for updates on the protests to reach the entire world.[26] When the Egpytian government shut down the internet, Zidan believes, it gave the young people of the nation nothing to do but to go out into the streets.[27] Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign on February 11, 2011 as a result of the protests against his oppressive regime.[28]
Media Coverage
Mideast Youth has enjoyed an enormous media coverage from news agencies, TV satellite channels, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, in addition to various social media websites, blogs, and organizations. For instance, Sky News, CNN, New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, NPR, Time, MTV political blog "Act", VH1, Daily Telegraph, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Rundschau FR-online, Toronto Star, The Jerusalem Post, Rolling Stone Middle East, Abu Dhabi TV, Gulf News, Al-Hasnaa' magazine, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, TechCrunch TV, Radio Sawt Beirut International, Radio Farda among many others.[29]
References
- ^ Mideast Youth authors.
- ^ Mideast Youth projects.
- ^ "Mideast Youth Blocked in Iran"
- ^ "We are Now Blocked in Yemen"
- ^ "Our Sexual Terrorism Site is Blocked in the UAE"
- ^ Crowd Voice Blocked in its Own Country"
- ^ The Official Mideast Youth Press Room
- ^ Mideast Youth About Us
- ^ Mideast Youth membership
- ^ Facebook group "dedicated each in our own way to oppose the oppression of Palestinians"
- ^ Mideast Youth projects
- ^ Youth services
- ^ "The Midas Touch: Political Hypocrisy and Foreign Government Involvement."
- ^ Berkman Awards
- ^ Think Social awards
- ^ Echoing Green fellow - Esra'a al Shafei
- ^ The Echoing Green Fellowship
- ^ FAQ
- ^ The BOBs: 'A Tunisian Girl' wins Deutsche Welle Blog Awards
- ^ OR318 wins ThinkSocial Award in 2009.
- ^ Echoing Green 2009 Fellowship for Esra'a Al Shafei.
- ^ TED 2009 Fellowship for Esra'a Al Shafei.
- ^ Berkman Award for Internet Innovation for Mideast Youth in 2008.
- ^ Mideast Youth - Ahmed Zidan
- ^ Mideast Youth team
- ^ "Behind #Jan25: Young Egyptian 'Digital Activist' Speaks."
- ^ "Quiet Acts of Protest on a Noisy Day."
- ^ "Egypt crisis: President Hosni Mubarak resigns as leader."
- ^ Mideast Youth Press Room.
External links
Categories:- Social media
- Non-governmental organizations
- Non-profit organizations
- Social entrepreneurship
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