You can take a look at a couple of videos here to see what this is about:

Gaza / Sderot November 21st

[It looks weird embedded here, there are two videos. Click play on either and it should work properly, or watch here.]

For those who still don’t know about Dis-Moi, we want it to be the french version of what we are doing here on mideastyouth.com. We launched the site a few months ago, and tried to find contributors and encourage them to share their articles with us.

Now about the news, I just added two new authors to this project: Jahanshah Rashidian (Iran/Germany) who is also a MEY author in english and luckily speaks french as well, and Frederic (France/Israel) who just joined us on Dis-Moi and may contribute to MEY in the future. Two interesting profiles that i’m happy to have with us!

So if you can read french, check out their latest posts on Dis-Moi:

La Pendaison Continue en Iran

Pas suspendus – Israël et Palestine

Don’t hesitate to join us if you can, or maybe help us have more audience and authors.

After the Blank Post Action launched on the 25th of december to protest about censorship on the internet and joined by many arab bloggers and some people from other regions, and the campaign for the Maghreb Union launched on the 1st of june and joined by bloggers from different countries of the Maghreb, tunisian blogger Samsoum launched a new campaign on the theme “Freedom of Speech” for the 1st of July.

This campaign is meant to be an occasion for every participant to talk about his own definition of freedom in general and freedom of speech in particular, the importance of freedom in day-to-day life, how to gain freedom and to use it, and every other related question, whether it concerns social, cultural, religious, political or intellectual freedom.

As for the previous actions, many bloggers already chose to take part of it, while others are disapproving and claiming that this campaign is useless and is encouraging people to talk in vain and to set limitations to a principle which have to be defended every day.

However, this campaign is open to every supportive participation as to any criticism and is an occasion to discuss the subject.

A few weeks ago, I decided to accept a job offer in Europe, I signed a contract and I’m going there on september. This was an important decision for me, not an easy one. But I’m old enough and have some experience and I know exactly what I’m looking for and what are the consequences of such decision.

However, some people in my family didn’t have the same opinion about that. The most important detail you have to keep in mind is that my parents didn’t know about this “council”, they weren’t invited and had nothing to do with it. They’ve always respected all my choices and encouraged me to do what I really want to do.

So, on saturday, I was invited by my aunt and her husband to go see them and have a little “discussion”. I knew from the beginning that they were going to talk about my leaving home, and all day long I was like “Oh God ! I know what they are going to tell me, I don’t want to hear that, please leave me alone! … I have to stay calm …” … and I was right!

I give you a sample: ” You know you’re 27 … time to have a family of your own … if you go there, you won’t be able to come back … what will to do? … your job is not the only thing that matters … you will be alone … you have to find a husband … a TUNISIAN husband … are you ready to marry someone who is not tunisian ? … is it alright for you ? … you must be careful, don’t hurry … if it is an algerian ‘blablabla’ … if it is a moroccan ‘blablabla’ … if he is french ‘blablabla’ … maybe a german … but the best for you is a tunisian … “

I was trying to stay calm, but inside, I was like “LEAVE ME ALONE FOR GOD’S SAKE !!! I’m 27 ! yes 27 !! which means I’m not a child, I’m able to think about the consequences of my decisions and make a choice by myself. You don’t know a thing about me, my job, my relationships, what I want to do. My parents never tried to tell me what I have to do … I would have accepted a question or two just to be sure that I know what I’m doing, but you don’t have the right to interrogate me this way … it is an intrusion in my private life !!! … and what the hell are talking about? why is it always about weddings and couples ?? why are we talking about marriage in the first place? it is MY life!!”

Anyway , I tried to explain my point of view and let them know I’m really sure about my decision and that they don’t have to worry … but God why do I have to answer to that ???

Why people don’t respect our personal decisions? why do they think they have the right to give an advice about everything ? why are they so sure that they thought about the problems more than we did? why do we have to talk about marriage just because we are 20-something ? And why are we obliged to discuss the nationality of our future husband or wife even before knowing them ?

So much questions and I don’t know the answer !!

However, nothing really interesting came out of this agreement. Summits are always blocked because of old tensions between countries, especially Morocco and Algeria about the Western Sahara,and no useful results have been obtained for years now. People from the region barely know each other, and the Union doesn’t really exist.

Many young people in the Maghreb are longing to get rid of their rivalries and disagreements and create an efficient unity based on economic agreements that would be beneficial for these countries and later on a political union to give the region a real power.

As official politics failed to do more than speeches and nice words, bloggers have decided to ask for better actions.

This is why tunisian blogger Big_Trap_Boy launched a one-day campaign on the blogosphere and asked bloggers from Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and Libya to join and make June 1st a blogging day around the Maghreb Union.

The idea is to have a large number of bloggers from the region write something about the Union, whatever they want, even if it is to criticize it. The important thing is to talk about it and have a starting point to discuss the issue.

I expected people to be generally welcoming of this film’s theme, but people took it the wrong way. They were applauding when the Islamist was talking about how these young people are an embarrassment to Islam, and how we mustn’t forget that for as long as we live in a Muslim state we must obey what the Koran states, and apparently our religion is against human rights, democracy, and freedom of expression through any medium, which is painfully inaccurate. But almost everyone in the cinema applauded this claim, and cheered “correct!” which is admittedly really scary.

I thought about something that happened here in Tunisia when I saw “The Yacoubian Building” during the Carthage Festival last summer. This festival takes place in a large roman amphitheater and it was crowded that evening.

Each time an extremist imam said something, a lot of people were applauding, and yelling “Allahou Akbar”. That made me feel really uncomfortable because I didn’t expect reactions like that, and I think it wasn’t the aim of the writer to glorify such speeches.

A lot of them were laughing each time they saw the homosexual journalist on screen, and they were also applauding when he got killed at the end of the movie. I was really disgusted.

They also laughed and whistled each time Boutheina got sexually harassed or tenderly kissed, without making the slightest difference between the two scenes. It seems that it was all about sex for them and didn’t matter if she was aggressive. And anyway, what is so funny about sex ?

When I saw all these things happen around me in the amphitheater, I said to myself that maybe when a writer, a film director or any other artist tries to highlight some problems and make people think about them, it seems somehow inefficient for a large part of the audience because people continue to see things the way they used to no matter what you show them on a screen. They come with their own opinions, and don’t even consider changing the slightest idea they have about some of these subjects. It seems that the message is lost on its way to the audience.

Some people think that art is not a way to change things. But even after seeing such reactions, I really believe that books and movies can help. I believe in culture and art. I believe in communication. It may take more efforts,a lot of work and a long long time to change deep rooted habits, but at least people see different things, and they may get used to those differences and accept them one day. But right now, I admit that this is going to be a long and difficult battle!

In the last few months, events in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria told us that “Al Qaida for an Islamic Maghreb” is not a joke. We may not know the exact truth about the links between well-known terrorist organizations figures, but what we do know today is that the danger is right here, all around.

Tunisian people didn’t even know they could be targeted. They thought everything happens … everywhere else. Then they were told about rockets and gun fire for weeks in the quiet suburbs of Tunis.

Moroccan people thought that after the Casablanca episode a few years ago, everything will be done to stop it quickly. Now Moroccan police is still hunting suspects, some of them preferring to kill themselves and other people around when they are trapped.

Algeria was still hardly trying to get out of the memories of violence and the horrible experience of the 90’s. And now explosions are back. Death is back. Fear is back.

Now the Maghreb is already bleeding, and there’s nothing to hide anymore.

They are telling us how great heroes they are, because they are “attacking corrupt governments or foreign interests”. But can they tell us about the civilian victims, the destruction, the fear they are spreading? … Collateral damage maybe? Can they tell us how exactly they are helping us live better and be free?

But after a short period of time, you see that you have to face the same old habits that you are dealing with in real life. A few hundreds of bloggers may not be representative of the whole Tunisian society, but they aren’t so different from your neighbours. At this point, you have a choice to make: continue to be free and accept the consequences, or just forget about the entire “enriching communication” thing.

In what we call “the Tunisian blogosphere” you can meet some individuals that will tell you a lot of interesting things, come and discuss important and serious subjects with you. You can also find people who are just sharing some of their day-to-day little stories, sometimes funny, sad, moving experiences – or things they like, music, videos, jokes, news, technical information etc. And you have those who don’t have a blog of their own, but who write comments every now and then.

Everything is OK!

Then comes the day when you publish something about religion, women rights, sex, or the Middle East crisis, and you prepare yourself to have trouble. If you are ready to deal with conservatism without getting mad, and accept to be treated like the devil, the ugliest prostitute on earth, or a traitor, you can take the risk.

You have to understand that for some of your “new friends”, you CANNOT have a different opinion; you just have to stick to the traditional and socially acceptable views, for your own good. If they are polite, they just try to get you back on the right path, explaining to you that you, poor thing, don’t understand or don’t know the truth, and that you must be saved before it’s too late.

You still can have the “chance” to be left alone and have your little discussion with the few bloggers that share your views or at least respect them. But then come the I-Don’t-Have-A-Blog-But-I-Want-To-Insult-You non-bloggers. These are trouble. They always have something to say, long theories, very well-argued speech, but they never consider creating a blog. They always have an opinion better than yours, and you are a coward and a real piece of shit compared to them. You are serving the American propaganda and you are a dangerous manipulator. You can also be a very disgusting perverse. Sometimes you can still have some respect and be an ignorant pathetic poor little thing.

And if you’re not used to be treated this way, you may ask yourself “What the hell am I doing here?”

The truth is that these people never learned to argue, and when they don’t accept your point of view, they just attack you, judge you, and insult you, as if it was the only way for them to prove that you’re wrong. It’s easier for them to drive you crazy and frustrate you than to have a real conversation.

You know that. But can you bear it? Do you really want to blog this way? And what is blogging anyway? Should you just share your favourite music and forget about the rest, or try again and again, with some others, to protect your right to have opinions?

I have an important announcement to make. Today we officially launched a new Mideast Youth project which is a french version of the work done here.

Do you want to see that? Take a look at Dis-moi (which means “Tell me”).

Souad from Morocco and myself are co-editors on the site.

As a beginning, I published a message to introduce the project and ask people to join us. So if you are familiar with the french language and want to contribute, you can email me at: nadia@dis-moi.org

You can also help us find contributors. If you know people who would be interested, tell them about it.

Esra’a contacted me a few days ago to ask me if I would like to work on a new project I will tell you about later, and as I was already interested by the whole concept and thinking about joining you, here I am!

This is my first post, and I hope that I will have time and inspiration to come back and share some ideas with you from time to time.

I started blogging a year ago, but I write almost everything in French as it is my second language, and I’m glad to try something new here.

About me now! I love reading books, listening to every kind of music, especially hard rock and the great arab classics (I know it’s disturbing to see Metallica and Om Kalthoum in the same playlist, but I really do that sometimes ! ). I also love cinema and I try to see as much movies as I can.

I’m very interested in history, interfaith dialogue, and learning about other cultures from everywhere on the globe.

It’s important for me to share every thing that I like, and also to discuss important issues as long as it is done with mutual respect.

Some subjects aren’t easy to discuss on the net, sometimes it’s quite painful to see how people cannot respect others opinions, especially when it has something to do with religion, or political issues in the Middle East, and I had some good and bad experiences on my blog or other blogs because of that.

That’s why I’m happy to be here with you so I can read different things from different people and learn a lot from all of you.