About Mideast Youth

Mideast Youth is a network shared by young Arabs, Iranians, Israelis, Kurds, Turks, and Armenians. Writers, artists, and musicians gather to express their opinions about a variety of different subjects. We promote tolerance, constructive dialogue, and understanding. We stand as proof of the fact that moderation and interfaith understanding exists in this region. Members are expected to work together on outside projects, such as the Middle East Interfaith Blogger Network, Migrant Rights, Sexual Terrorism, Free Kareem, and the other campaigns that we initiate lead. We also have projects in Arabic and French, and soon we hope to lead some in Hebrew and Farsi. We love our cultures, and representing different languages helps us preserve and celebrate the diversity amongst us.

What are your day-to-day responsibilities as Editor?

My job is to maintain the theme and atmosphere of the website, recruit new members, organize web campaigns, manage content, attend and present to regional conferences that are relevant to this initiative. I also pick projects that I believe in and help them be more active and professional through giving them free domains, hosting, and technical support through our network. It keeps them encouraged and helps them take their work much more seriously. We help anyone from Afghan bloggers to young Egyptian translators.

Most notable milestones

Launching at least eight projects in less than eight months.

Tell us more about Mideast Youth's Projects

Every few months, Mideast Youth launches a new project directed by different (and usually new) members of the Mideast Youth team. This is our way of training people to lead new projects. We pick issues that nobody else is tackling, and we try to be as professional and productive as possible. The Middle East Interfaith Blogger Network was our very first project and we are very proud of the things that it has accomplished so far. Finally, we are learning things about Zoroastrians, Iranian, Kurdish, and Arab Jews, Bahai's, and other religious minorities in the region. We help them gain a powerful voice, both online and in our local communities. The creators of this network are proud Muslims, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't fight for the religious rights of others.

Having said that, this is exactly what we do with the Free Kareem campaign. Kareem is a young Egyptian blogger who has to suffer through four years in prison merely for expressing his opinions on a blog. That is his only crime: speaking his mind. He spoke harshly against Islam but we are standing by him despite what he said about our religion. The Free Kareem campaign is successful because we made it our purpose. We worked hard through public relations, worldwide rallies, and effective strategies. We never gave up. We didn't achieve the main goal of the campaign but we managed to gain worldwide awareness of it.

Migrant Rights and Sexual Terrorism both started when we realized that no one in the region took it upon themselves to start a campaign specifically for these important causes. Our mission for the Sexual Terrorism project is to increase awareness on forced prostitution in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia.

As for Migrant Rights, it is to increase awareness on the critical conditions of migrant workers in the Middle East. We track every case we could find and report it. Through this network, we wish to not only fight for their rights, but we also aim to effectively lobby our governments to change their employment laws.

We also have different projects in different languages, like Inter Iman (In Arabic) and Dis Moi (in French).

What's the niche?

Our strategies and activities make us unique. This is more than a forum for us. We take it as seriously as an actual business. We appoint budget officers, PR directors, project coordinators, and we give our colleagues different opportunities. Never has such a network existed without intervention from outside organizations or professional support. We were average young people who turned our vision into reality and we keep building what others now consider a dream come true. Furthermore, we were the first to start official campaigns for things such as Sexual Terrorism within the region. And finally, the best thing about our network is that we are our own leaders. We have a lot of energy.

What's the biggest challenge?

Since we are still not as professional as we'd like to be due to our lack of experience and young age, marketing remains to be a big challenge for us. It's also challenging to find the right participants and to maintain our many projects. However, anyone from the region is able to join. We hardly turn any applicant down. There are no official requirements other than being respectful and considerate at all times.

What's in store for the future?

Many more projects and us registering ourselves as an NGO. We would like to promote grassroots interfaith activism in our local communities and are already working on strategies involving that. We also hope to set up our own office sometime, but financially that remains out of the question for now! But nothing is impossible to us. That is why we succeed.

Best way to stay ahead

The thing that bothers us with a lot of NGOs is that they are very competitive, which is why they don't achieve much. We, on the other hand, hardly compete. We collaborate. If we see a similar network, we don't try to steal their thunder. We contact them with our interests and common goals and think of ways to reach our aims sooner. This makes us stronger as a team.

Another reason why so many NGOs fail and give up from the start is because they think in terms of money. This is not what we do. We work together in an assembly line, organization is very key to our work. We find a vision, define it, map it, and discuss it for weeks among ourselves before going forward. After that, we invest in it. We don't look for money because most things don't require it. We achieved a lot without spending much.

We proved the fact that young kids can do what many others thought would be very tough or impossible. When people visit our websites they think that we are linked and funded by much bigger organizations. But this is not the case! We pride ourselves on our independence.

What started out with two people is now on the verge of being something very huge. It's very easy to market ourselves now, because of what we achieved so far. We did what most NGOs in the region didn't.

Guiding principle in life

Hard work and accepting any risks and challenges. That will get you anywhere you want to go in life.

Yardstick of success

I become more driven and encouraged when others write me and thank me for the work I do. It really restores the hope and faith in my work.

Goal yet to be achieved

So far, we have achieved every goal we set for ourselves. Every single project we had in mind now exists and is being taken good care of. But we have a lot of dreams. The biggest one includes Mideast Youth running as an actual office.

Best practical advice

Do everything in your power to turn your hopes and dreams into reality. Giving up is never an option.

Supportive words from a family member or friend on your venture

My father always told me that you only earn what you work for. You'll struggle, you'll be challenged, discouraged, even ridiculed. You have to learn to live with that.

Mentors

People are always surprised when I talk about who I was influenced by. Usually, activists will say Gandhi or Edward Said. I was actually influenced by the young founders of Google. In fact, I do a lot of research on the strategies that they use and apply it to our network. It is very useful and it always works. When you lead this type of network, you need to go beyond philosophical and ideological thinking. You want tolerance and understanding, millions of others will say "so what? I do too." You need to think of this in terms of business. Hope and tolerance are your products. Your job is to market them and sell the idea throughout the region. And for this, Google is the best company to model our network after.

What motivated you to get started?

I love my region, my identity, and my religion. I'm tired of watching our part of the world burn with conflicts, human rights violations, misconceptions, et al. We have so much potential. It's very important to recognize and act upon our talents in order to apply them to productive and worthy causes. I took the first step forward, knowing that the rest will follow. I was right. That first step is never easy, but I'll take it every time, and I know that I will be supported and encouraged by my colleagues with each step I take. Everything I do always ends up being a group effort, which keeps me motivated and inspired to do more.

Like best about what you do?

I love what I do. I am already who I always wanted to be when I was a child. Meeting like-minded individuals from all over the region, educating myself about other people's cultures, and gaining valuable friends.

Like least about what you do?

The technical aspects of our projects and the floods of e-mails and responsibilities, as well as the challenging obstacles that I force myself to tackle.

At age 10, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a comedian. I used to be hilarious, I don't know what happened!

Biggest pastime outside of work

Writing satirical skits.

Person most interested in meeting?

Everyone on Mideast Youth, because they are like my family now.

Leader most interested in meeting?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. I want to ask him whether or not I should believe the rumors concerning the Iranian government's efforts in re-claiming Bahrain as their own.

Three interesting facts about yourself

1. I love French rock from the 80's.
2. I enjoy writing more than reading.
3. Driving alone in my car is a therapeutic experience for me.

Three characteristics that describe you

1. Active
2. Inspired
3. Energetic

Three greatest passions

1. Mideast Youth
2. Human rights in all its forms
3. Socio-political films and documentaries

Favorite book

"The Google Story" by David A. Vise

Favorite cause

Right now, I would say that our projects Sexual Terrorism and Migrant Rights are contributing to causes that I am very passionate about, mainly because they aren't mainstream causes yet they are serious enough to deserve the attention that they require.

Who would you like to be contacted by?

Committed individuals who would like to be a part of our network. There is no age limit for participation. We want to be contacted by people who feel just as passionate as we do about this worthy project.