About Us

Short version: MideastYouth.com is a student-owned independent network that promotes constructive dialogue and understanding within the Middle East and North Africa.

Arabs, Iranians, Kurds, and Israelis work side by side on a variety of different projects in order to advance towards moderation and interfaith understanding.

Our mission: To inspire and provide young people with the freedom and opportunity of expression, and promote a fierce but respectful dialogue among the highly diverse youth of all sects, socio-economic backgrounds, and political and religious beliefs in the Middle East. We use this freedom to create social change and to prove that the collaboration necessary for stability is possible.

Executive Summary: The need for MideastYouth.com is clear. In a region where speech is censored and controlled, where stereotypes and conspiracy theories abound, and where minority voices are suppressed, it is imperative to nurture a dialog that can bring us closer to peace and stability. All of our volunteers and bloggers are committed to tell their stories and, more importantly, to listen to the stories of others. We have shown that Israelis and Arabs can communicate respectfully with one another, that Muslims can fight for the rights of secularists and Bahai’s, that Jews can work for the rights of Palestinians and Muslims, and that we can all agree to respectfully disagree.

Long version: One thing we in the Middle East know is that liberty does not come at the barrel of a gun. It does not just happen when tyrants are deposed or systems overturned. Liberty depends on the support of a network of institutions, many of which we do not have. At MideastYouth.com, we target one aspect necessary to the development of liberty and that aspect is free speech.

At MideastYouth.com, free speech is more than an idea, it is a practice. We use the internet platform to practice communicating our own stories to each other while listening to those of others. As simple as it may seem to a Westerner, the very creation of Mideastyouth.com, its power and influence, its underlying principles, and its hardheaded determination are radical in and of themselves. MideastYouth.com has undertaken unprecedented initiatives, including fighting for the rights of religious minorities, highlighting the plight of the region’s migrant workers, and promoting independent, grassroots journalism in Afghanistan.

All of our writers are aware of the limitations on their freedoms. They know what censorship really means. They know what it means to express controversial opinions and to question commonly held opinions.

In a region of the world that lacks institutionalized support for free speech, practice tolerating diverse opinions is hard to come by. Newspapers get closed, journalists are harassed and arrested, bloggers are sometimes imprisoned. Our governments do everything possible to retain control of public opinion and access to information.

The internet is a place that affords the modicum of protection necessary to practice free speech. This is what MideastYouth.com does. We provide that forum.

For more information, you may wish to read: FAQ, donate, a list of our active voluntary staff members, and our press coverage.

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