“Outrageous”: Mideast Youth in Boulder
I’m happy to report that MidEast Youth was well-received at the Conference on Media, Spiritualities and Social Change (of which we are all three) at the University of Colorado, Boulder this week. I spoke to academics, activists and students about our work in a multimedia presentation (what other kind could we have?) which included a recorded personal statement from Esra’a and live video Skype with her from Bahrain. Since some of the other conference participants were using overhead projectors, there were a lot of eyebrows raised in appreciation.
My speaking copanelist was Jens Kutcher, a young German doctoral student who was impressed at our collaboration with Zuender. He talked about his research on online fatwas and websites like Ask Imam and Islam Question and Answer.
I lectured about Mideast Youth both during a conference panel and also in an Ethics course at the university. I started by telling people that it was a lie for me to stand in front of them and represent Mideast Youth, firstly because most of us only interact online and not in person, and secondly because one person cannot hope to represent the diversity of voices we see here daily. Many people nodded their heads when I mentioned the Free Kareem campaign, and one professor from Roger Williams college said that the top administrator of his school was a huge supporter.
I have to say I learned a lot about my reasons for being committed to this site. In articulating what we are, I explained that the old paradigm of virtual/real doesn’t apply anymore; the real binary is virtual/physical. Today, “imagined communities” become real communities with real interactions online, and communities that couldn’t exist suddenly take on the shared values, practices and goals of real communities. Mideast Youth is no less real than a community group that meets together in the same space - and our activism is no less effective. In fact, because our mode of interaction is already the internet our campaigns by default virtual and viral and therefore cutting edge and in some cases very successful. Our commitment to help bloggers who experience oppression and repression signifies that we feel we have a responsibility to one another and are indeed a real community.
There were some other interesting presentations about use of the internet; Boston professor Solomon Schimmer talked about Orthodox American Jews blogging anonymously to criticize their religious establishments. Tomorrow, Sarah Whedon from UC Santa Barbara will talk about “Fundamentalist Mormon polygamous women and the internet as a site of resistance.”
I showed the Bahai rights/Egyptian tourism video, and one student asked a banal yet provocative question. “If your campaign was successful in getting the Egyptian government to allow every religious affiliation to obtain an ID card, why is the video still on Youtube? How will people know the campaign was a success?”
She does have a point. Nevertheless, people think what we are doing is cutting edge, brave, and outrageous.
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Great job, Mimi! And great post. To answer the student’s question:
Firstly, I would not go as far as to say that the video is the only one that helped Baha’is in Egypt gain a respectable status or at least be recognized as civilians, but many Egyptian Baha’is agreed that it was a moving force of change towards the Baha’i minority in Egypt, whose issues today are hardly solved, hence why we continue to write about Baha’is in Egypt in our campaign.
Secondly, the video serves as an example - and a model - to activists or religious minorities everywhere on how you can use the internet to really generate international support and turn something that people rarely discuss in the mainstream media into the most discussed topic. The video contributed significantly to the discussion, and we received many messages (both critical of the video and in support of it) via email, blogs, YouTube, Facebook, and more. We contributed to an important discussion, which was continued in some prominent Egyptian papers.
And what record would we have of supporting the Baha’is if we keep removing our material? Many videos in support of imprisoned bloggers are still on YouTube even if their subjects are released by now. Why should people remove it? Let people know what the regional governments are doing. If said governments admit to their mistakes and give minorities or bloggers their rights, or their freedom, we may forgive; but we should never forget what happened. I am against removing videos/campaigns especially if other people can learn from it.
The video is more than just relevant today, since Baha’is are still generally mistreated. It is a historial and grave case. The Baha’is struggle is one that has continued for decades. This video really sheds the light on their plight and it increased global awareness in ways that we couldn’t imagine.
The white dude on the pic look so out of place.