Mideast Youth

Mideast Youth
by Nelly – 16/11/2011 – Young Feminist Wire

Esra’a Al Shafei is the founder and director of MideastYouth.com, a grassroots, indigenous digital network that uses new media to help those who are fighting oppression in the Middle East and North Africa. The Young Feminist Wire spoke to Esra’a to find out more about Mideast Youth and the various international campaigns it runs to fight for the rights of ethnic, religious and intellectual minorities. The various campaigns try to bridge barriers of faith and geography with youth who are committed to fostering a constructive discourse in the Middle East.

One of the many platforms Esra’a and her team developed is called CrowdVoice.org. (You can view a demo of how it works here.) It’s a platform that amplifies voices of protest from the Middle East and around the World. It offers a new way to view, share, moderate and organize information about human rights movements and demonstrations. In part 1 of our interview with Esra’a, she explains that CrowdVoices.org aims to “engage the global community in these specific issues, [whether] it’s through protest in Bahrain, protests in Egypt and in Tunisia. When we first started it, its way before the protests ever even happened, about 8 or 9 months before that. The project only became highlighted and became very much used after the protests started happening.”

CrowdVoice was recently selected as a finalist in the Ashoka Changemakers’ Citizen Media competition. To learn more and vote for CrowdVoice.org, visit this site. …more