02
Oct
2008
7 Comments
What is it that youth need in the Middle East?
Good day to you all,
I am posting this topic in order to learn more about what it is exactly that youth are lacking in the Middle East region? What is it that we want the most? Is there a lack in opportunity for us? Do we need something that can make our “dream come true”?
Youth employment, entrepreneurship, empowerment, citizenship and education. All these topics can be discussed. Or you can just share with me what you are aiming for in life – it can simply be anything!
Information and suggestions you will be providing regarding youth needs will surely be listened to as I will be taking part in youth discussions that will be presented to the World Bank and IMF.
Working together will help us reach what we want!
Wishes,
AlAnoud
Join the Conversation
Very interesting questions and i am surprised to see no discussion here in the comments. It would be great if you could share some of the trends you see in personal responses you’ve received from people. Thank you!
Dima is right, I’m also surprised that no discussions took place. But I guess I can start, and I will speak for myself as a young person in the Middle East.
I want intellectual freedom, and I’m still very bitter that I was deprived from this in my education. Any student who thinks beyond social taboos had to suffer dire consequences, either intentionally failing grades or harassment. We were trained not to think beyond what we were told what to think, this was infuriating. I see very little progress in this field and I find that dangerous.
I want a wide range of opportunities, and not just those within traditional fields. Investing in young minds and believing in our potential is all that we ask for from influential leaders who can help great people achieve great goals, but many young leaders today are feeling hopeless and directionless due to lack of support. Rarely do any powerful and approachable foundations exist whose aim is to simply empower young people committed to significant dreams.
Obviously, I would love for there to be less censorship in the mainstream media so I can be truly aware of what is going on. There is progress being made compared to 10 years ago, but still not enough for us to be effectively involved in the field and for us to securely contribute to it without having to risk our lives.
I aim to go down the non-traditional route and to be amongst the list of people who actually do things with their ideas. My passion is using technology for social change. I think this is where the future is, and I am working hard on making this my lifetime job because I know it makes a difference in many lives and I consider it to be a big contribution to social awareness/education/freedom/youth empowerment. What I need is an organization/individual that I can go to, and present my sincere, harmless idea (harmless in the sense that we do not support terrorism or violence) and have them offer constructive feedback and support without trying hard to claim complete ownership of our work or censoring our material entirely, which is very too often the case. I as an individual need people to trust me and help me achieve a goal that I believe is really helpful and unique for this entire region and beyond.
Does this make sense?
I hope so. I’ll conclude by saying youth in the Middle East rarely get enough support no matter how far they come with their ideas. Very few end up establishing their goals and too many are left hopeless and powerless because no one would listen to them.
Esra’a's response was great, but what I would like to add is that equal access to opportunities is ensured, regardless of gender, ethnicity, etc. Gender discrimination is still regarded by many as simply “putting people where they belong” .
Most educational curricula in the region do not equip students for life in a globalized, ever-changing world. They need to be replaced with ones that encourage not only critical thinking, but teach youth the important values of acceptance, tolerance and open-mindedness.
We also live in a society where there is a limited definition of what constitutes a “respectable career”. Youth in many countries scramble to find jobs in engineering or medicine, driven by a society that classifies everything else as “career paths for those not smart enough to become engineers or doctors”. But accountants, artists, technicians, plumbers (etc) are all integral building blocks of our societies.
On a separate note, “The National”, an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper, will be publishing a series of articles over the next few days under the banner of “Young in the Muslim World”.
I’ve lost interest in news reports on Arab youth (please spare me the argument of whether or not I am an Arab) because they strike me as simplistic and fail to capture the diversity of our experiences. This series claims to do just that:
Though I don’t reside in Middle-East, I would like to emphasise that young people anywhere— need freedom to pursue their goals, aspirations and dreams without fear of social taboos, fatwas, backlash from right wing be it religious or otherwise. They should not be stifled with unnecessary laws and restrictions. And last they require opportunities and recognition of creativity, achievements and their intellectual resources.
This conversation in my opinion is incredibly important- I would love to get a better idea (from here in the US) of how the youth in the US can help with regard to entrepreneurship and employment in the Mideast. Are there any organizations or people that anyone here would recommend starting with- or anyone who would like to talk about this?
Thanks!
A good organization to start with (and well, the only one that springs to my mind at the moment) is Young Arab Leaders
Hope it helps!
I think this is a very important topic to be discussed. Well I am a Qatari, so I will speak about what is lacking in Qatar for the youth.
Well, firstly I think our education SUCKS, in some schools there is barely any, let alone teaching constructive thinking and creativity, not everyone can afford private schooling and some of these school lack essential components in a proper education. Basically to describe our education in Qatar right now, at best we can say our education is a mess right now.
I would LOVE to see a government funded foundation that is aimed at the youth. The foundation would have many different programmes that they can join for free. Our nation has so many young people with nothing to do, if only we can start taking advantage of their minds and time, they will learn so much about their country, the world and so much constructive skills like teamwork also they will be putting their energy towards a good cause. The programmes could be things like, building shelters, volunteer work, fund raising, writing, starting a youth-based magazine? And maybe during summer they could take them on different educational traveling trips to historical places they could learn about. So many things. Before all of that I would like to see the promotion of active young people, to me our youth seems so dead and our government though improving seem like they’re not making that big of an effort, it seems to me investing in their youth would be the biggest advantage the country could gain because right now, our young people mostly are ignorant and careless.
Another thing I would like to see is the promotion of women, we have come a LONG way but still we are not even a quarter of the way. Our people need to be educated more so they give their women the opportunities they deserve to flourish in life. We need to let go of a lot of our bedouin and uncivilized ideas that we hold so dearly to our hearts because they are discriminitory and demeaning to us as human beings.
If there is anything else I remember I surely will add, hope to see this discussion come alive.