Mideast Youth
Encyclopedia
Mideast Youth is a regional not-for-profit organization focused on amplifying voices of dissent throughout the Middle East and North Africa via digital media. It is a forum that allows non-governmental actors in the Middle East to engage in political warfare
activities against corrupt regimes. According to their website, “We are a grassroots
digital network that leverages the power of new media to facilitate our struggle against oppression in the The Middle East and North Africa region
.”
MEY website is available in Arabic, Farsi and English
and its objective is to unite Middle Eastern and North African (MENA
) youth together through uncensored means via the Internet
to change the Middle East into a progressive and peaceful region.
The network's activity is driven by the passion for civil engagement, freedom of speech, tolerance, supporting religious and ethnic minorities, raising awareness, and employing innovative solutions to these pervasive and persistent problems due to censored media, to tribalism and sectarianism, thus breaking the boundaries between the MENA nations and giving room for critical free thinking and exchange of information between people via the internet, connecting them to one another.
Mideast Youth provides a free, uncensored platform for dialogue amont MENA's young people. The network uses the freedom provided by the internet to create social change and to prove that the collaboration necessary for stability is possible. Mideast Youth, which relies on open source platforms
, like WordPress
and Ruby on Rails
, was launched in 2006, as part of the non-profit organization
, Mideast Youth, by Esra'a Al-Shafei
, a TED
and Echoing Green
fellow, as a simple group-blogging idea. However it has grown wildly since then, with more than 300 active authors from across the world, and thousands of visitors daily.
Mideast Youth Arabic and Mideast Youth Farsi were later launched in 2008, allowing the network to cover 3 major languages in the MENA region, which is the organization's targeted area, along with 12 different projects, campaigns, and initiatives covering different sensitive (taboo
) issues in the MENA region.
Mideast Youth is present on Twitter
, Facebook
, Myspace
, YouTube
, as well as other social networking sites, and has iPhone
and BlackBerry
apps.
Mideast Youth has had a pronounced effect on political activism in the region. However, the network struggles to launch successful web campaigns in the midst of repressive regimes threatened by their work. The governments of Iran
, Yemen
, UAE, and Bahrain
have used cyber-censorship
to block citizens' access to Mideast Youth's projects. They have had a growing amount of media coverage worldwide as the network raises issues not generated by the press in Middle Eastern and North African countries.
based on race, color, or religion, its objective is to initiate a momentum of social change and create the possibility of having stable inter-faith multi-cultural societies in the region. They intend to induce tangible change by advocating for freedom of speech, acceptance of differences, aiding the minorities and ending all forms of conflict, e.g. sectarian violence
, by eliminating censorship
and allowing for freedom for both the authors and visitors of the network.
Mideast Youth Network's content, in addition to its projects and applications, is free open source
content to ensure right to access information
for everyone.
The network's content is entirely user-generated with full accessibility to all of the site's visitors, with any visitor with ties to the Middle East and North African region being entitled to join. Once registered, authors can write under any category or tag, without further editing, moderation, or censorship by admins.
Mideast Youth uses a broad spectrum of social media tools, ranging from written blog
s, podcast
s, vlog
s, comics, video animation and pictures to live broadcasting through radio in addition to huge networking pages on different social networking websites.
MEY does not declare any affiliations with political groups in the region.
Rights, The Muslim Network for Bahá'í
Rights, Assyrian
Rights, The March 18 Movement, Postcards for Iran and Israelis for Palestine
In the past, the network has run projects like The Free Kareem Campaign
, Global Village TV (MEY TV), Sexual Terrorism, Afghan Press, No Honor, Middle East Interfaith Blogger Network, and Darfur
Awareness.
Mideast Tunes is a platform profiling and connecting underground musicians using music as a tool for social change. Meanwhile, CrowdVoice is a user-powered service that tracks voices of protest from around the world. And both had wide media coverage.
In addition, Mideast Youth has several applications and labs like Mideast Tweets, Blackberry
applications, iPhone
and iPad
applications, Facebook
applications, and Baha'I Tweets Map. They also host comics, video animations, illustrations and infographics that document and expose human rights violations against ethnic, religious, sexual and intellectual minorities in the region on their site.
Mideast Youth has partially supported Alkasir
and "Can You Solve This?" Campaign. The latter was a very successful Right of Education in Iran campaign, using QR code
.
Aside from building and designing their own websites and tools, MEY has provided in the past free hosting, development, and design to Middle East and North African Activists who share the network's vision and values and who have been up and running for at least three consecutive months. Mideast Youth is committed to helping non-profits and individual activists because they understand the financial limits that these people and groups face.
The network has also launched a profitable project called Naseemi that provides hosting space and customizable modules for website building, to help sustain the network's humanitarian causes.
In 2008, Mideast Youth won the Berkman Award from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society
at Harvard University in the Human Rights/Global Advocacy category. This $10,000 award was Mideast Youth’s first source of funding. This award is presented to “people or institutions that have made a significant contribution to the Internet and its impact on society over the past decade.” In 2009, the March 18 Movement, a project of Mideast Youth, received the Think Social Award, which demonstrates how social media can be used to solve the world’s problems. Esra'a Al-Shafei
was named a 2009 Echoing Green Fellow for Civil and Human Rights, a seed funding award for young entrepreneurs engaged in social change. Financially, the fellowship consists of a $60,000 stipend paid over two years, a professional development stipend, and a health insurance stipend. Most recently, MEY has received a grant from the Omidyar Network
to help fund the development of future projects. Additionally, Mideast Youth offers a selection of clients freelance development and community management consulting.
, a blogger from Bahrain in 2006. As the director of Mideast Youth, Esra'a
runs the management side of things, focusing on development and growth as well as the stability and designs of their sites. Then comes Ahmed Zidan of Egypt who serves as the editor-in-chief of Mideast Youth Arabic and English, the co-founder of Ahwaa, and also a podcaster. Other team members, mostly from the MENA region, include: Sarah Elgindy (Egypt) who runs Mideast Tunes, Suzan Boulad (Syria) who runs Kurdish Rights and Bahá'í rights, Rima Kalush who runs Migrant Rights, Hajer Ghareeb (Bahrain), Nuha S. (Kurdistan), R. Reyhani (Germany), and Ali B. (Iran) who serves as the editor of MEYFarsi. The network relies on a growing pool of authors and volunteers.
, CNN
, New York Times, BBC
, The Guardian
, NPR
, Time
, MTV
political blog "Act", VH1
, Daily Telegraph, Die Zeit
, Frankfurter Rundschau
FR-online, Toronto Star
, The Jerusalem Post
, Rolling Stone Middle East, Abu Dhabi TV, Gulf News, Al-Hasnaa' magazine, ReadWriteWeb
, Mashable
, TechCrunch
TV, Radio Sawt Beirut International, Radio Farda
among many others.
Political warfare
Political warfare is the use of political means to compel an opponent to do one's will, based on hostile intent. The term political describes the calculated interaction between one's government and a target audience to include another country's government, military, and/or general population...
activities against corrupt regimes. According to their website, “We are a grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
digital network that leverages the power of new media to facilitate our struggle against oppression in the The Middle East and North Africa region
MENA
The term MENA, for "Middle East and North Africa", is an acronym often used in academic, military planning and business writing.The term covers an extensive region, extending from Morocco to Iran, including the majority of both the Middle Eastern and Maghreb countries...
.”
MEY website is available in Arabic, Farsi and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and its objective is to unite Middle Eastern and North African (MENA
MENA
The term MENA, for "Middle East and North Africa", is an acronym often used in academic, military planning and business writing.The term covers an extensive region, extending from Morocco to Iran, including the majority of both the Middle Eastern and Maghreb countries...
) youth together through uncensored means via the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
to change the Middle East into a progressive and peaceful region.
The network's activity is driven by the passion for civil engagement, freedom of speech, tolerance, supporting religious and ethnic minorities, raising awareness, and employing innovative solutions to these pervasive and persistent problems due to censored media, to tribalism and sectarianism, thus breaking the boundaries between the MENA nations and giving room for critical free thinking and exchange of information between people via the internet, connecting them to one another.
Mideast Youth provides a free, uncensored platform for dialogue amont MENA's young people. The network uses the freedom provided by the internet to create social change and to prove that the collaboration necessary for stability is possible. Mideast Youth, which relies on open source platforms
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
, like WordPress
WordPress
WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and publishing platform powered by PHP and MySQL. It is often customized into a content management system . It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet's "top 1...
and Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails, often shortened to Rails or RoR, is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language.-History:...
, was launched in 2006, as part of the non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
, Mideast Youth, by Esra'a Al-Shafei
Esra'a Al-Shafei
Esra'a Al-Shafei is a Bahraini civil rights activist, blogger, and the founder and executive director of Mideast Youth and its related projects. Al-Shafei is a senior TED Global Fellow, an Echoing Green fellow, and has been referred to by CNN reporter George Webster as "An outspoken defendant of...
, a TED
TED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
and Echoing Green
Echoing green
For the electronic band, see The Echoing Green , for the poem see The Echoing GreenEchoing Green is a twenty year-old global non-profit organization operating in the area of early-stage social sector investing...
fellow, as a simple group-blogging idea. However it has grown wildly since then, with more than 300 active authors from across the world, and thousands of visitors daily.
Mideast Youth Arabic and Mideast Youth Farsi were later launched in 2008, allowing the network to cover 3 major languages in the MENA region, which is the organization's targeted area, along with 12 different projects, campaigns, and initiatives covering different sensitive (taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
) issues in the MENA region.
Mideast Youth is present on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, Myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
, YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, as well as other social networking sites, and has iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
apps.
Mideast Youth has had a pronounced effect on political activism in the region. However, the network struggles to launch successful web campaigns in the midst of repressive regimes threatened by their work. The governments of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
, UAE, and Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
have used cyber-censorship
Internet censorship
Internet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the behest of government or on their own initiative...
to block citizens' access to Mideast Youth's projects. They have had a growing amount of media coverage worldwide as the network raises issues not generated by the press in Middle Eastern and North African countries.
Objectives and Means
Mideast Youth (MEY) is founded upon the basis of objective debating with mutual respect between youth from the whole spectrum of the MENA nations. Without any form of discriminationDiscrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
based on race, color, or religion, its objective is to initiate a momentum of social change and create the possibility of having stable inter-faith multi-cultural societies in the region. They intend to induce tangible change by advocating for freedom of speech, acceptance of differences, aiding the minorities and ending all forms of conflict, e.g. sectarian violence
Sectarian violence
Sectarian violence and/or sectarian strife is violence inspired by sectarianism, that is, between different sects of one particular mode of ideology or religion within a nation/community...
, by eliminating censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and allowing for freedom for both the authors and visitors of the network.
Mideast Youth Network's content, in addition to its projects and applications, is free open source
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
content to ensure right to access information
Freedom of information legislation
Freedom of information legislation comprises laws that guarantee access to data held by the state. They establish a "right-to-know" legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions...
for everyone.
The network's content is entirely user-generated with full accessibility to all of the site's visitors, with any visitor with ties to the Middle East and North African region being entitled to join. Once registered, authors can write under any category or tag, without further editing, moderation, or censorship by admins.
Mideast Youth uses a broad spectrum of social media tools, ranging from written blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s, podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
s, vlog
Vlog
Video blogging, sometimes shortened to vlogging or vidding or vidblogging is a form of blogging for which the medium is video, and is a form of Web television. Entries often combine embedded video or a video link with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one take...
s, comics, video animation and pictures to live broadcasting through radio in addition to huge networking pages on different social networking websites.
MEY does not declare any affiliations with political groups in the region.
Projects and Applications
Mideast Youth runs various active projects that include CrowdVoice, Mideast Tunes, Ahwaa, Migrant Rights, Alliance for KurdishKurdish people
The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
Rights, The Muslim Network for Bahá'í
Bahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
Rights, Assyrian
Assyrian
-In antiquity:*ancient Assyria**the Old Assyrian period **the Middle Assyrian period **the Neo-Assyrian period *Either of two provinces of the Persian Empire:**Achaemenid Assyria...
Rights, The March 18 Movement, Postcards for Iran and Israelis for Palestine
In the past, the network has run projects like The Free Kareem Campaign
FreeKareem
FreeKareem is a project of Mideast Youth, directed by Esra'a Al-Shafei. Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman Amer is an Egyptian blogger who was imprisoned for anti-Islamic and anti-governmental writings on his . He was the first Egyptian to be prosecuted for the content of his writings. Kareem’s sentence...
, Global Village TV (MEY TV), Sexual Terrorism, Afghan Press, No Honor, Middle East Interfaith Blogger Network, and Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
Awareness.
Mideast Tunes is a platform profiling and connecting underground musicians using music as a tool for social change. Meanwhile, CrowdVoice is a user-powered service that tracks voices of protest from around the world. And both had wide media coverage.
In addition, Mideast Youth has several applications and labs like Mideast Tweets, Blackberry
Blackberry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by any of several species in the Rubus genus of the Rosaceae family. The fruit is not a true berry; botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets. The plants typically have biennial canes and perennial roots. Blackberries and...
applications, iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
applications, Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
applications, and Baha'I Tweets Map. They also host comics, video animations, illustrations and infographics that document and expose human rights violations against ethnic, religious, sexual and intellectual minorities in the region on their site.
Mideast Youth has partially supported Alkasir
Alkasir
Alkasir is a program developed by Yemeni journalist, Walid al-Saqaf, that allows users to circumvent censorship in countries that censor internet content. The first version was released in May 2009, with the newest version containing an internal browser, added in May 2010, with updates often being...
and "Can You Solve This?" Campaign. The latter was a very successful Right of Education in Iran campaign, using QR code
QR code
A QR code is a type of matrix barcode first designed for the automotive industry. More recently, the system has become popular outside of the industry due to its fast readability and comparatively large storage capacity. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white...
.
Aside from building and designing their own websites and tools, MEY has provided in the past free hosting, development, and design to Middle East and North African Activists who share the network's vision and values and who have been up and running for at least three consecutive months. Mideast Youth is committed to helping non-profits and individual activists because they understand the financial limits that these people and groups face.
The network has also launched a profitable project called Naseemi that provides hosting space and customizable modules for website building, to help sustain the network's humanitarian causes.
Funding
Mideast Youth is funded through private donations and grants from non-governmental organizations. It does not accept funding from foreign governments. By maintaining independence from any government, Mideast Youth is able to pursue its interests rather than those of a foreign government.In 2008, Mideast Youth won the Berkman Award from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, the Center was elevated to an interfaculty initiative of...
at Harvard University in the Human Rights/Global Advocacy category. This $10,000 award was Mideast Youth’s first source of funding. This award is presented to “people or institutions that have made a significant contribution to the Internet and its impact on society over the past decade.” In 2009, the March 18 Movement, a project of Mideast Youth, received the Think Social Award, which demonstrates how social media can be used to solve the world’s problems. Esra'a Al-Shafei
Esra'a Al-Shafei
Esra'a Al-Shafei is a Bahraini civil rights activist, blogger, and the founder and executive director of Mideast Youth and its related projects. Al-Shafei is a senior TED Global Fellow, an Echoing Green fellow, and has been referred to by CNN reporter George Webster as "An outspoken defendant of...
was named a 2009 Echoing Green Fellow for Civil and Human Rights, a seed funding award for young entrepreneurs engaged in social change. Financially, the fellowship consists of a $60,000 stipend paid over two years, a professional development stipend, and a health insurance stipend. Most recently, MEY has received a grant from the Omidyar Network
Omidyar Network
Omidyar Network is a philanthrocapitalist investment firm established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. To date, Omidyar Network has committed more than $290 million to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual...
to help fund the development of future projects. Additionally, Mideast Youth offers a selection of clients freelance development and community management consulting.
Awards
- Ashoka Changemakers Citizen Media competition in 2011 for their CrowdVoice project.
- Monaco Media Prize 2011 for Mideast Youth founder and director Esra'a Al-ShafeiEsra'a Al-ShafeiEsra'a Al-Shafei is a Bahraini civil rights activist, blogger, and the founder and executive director of Mideast Youth and its related projects. Al-Shafei is a senior TED Global Fellow, an Echoing Green fellow, and has been referred to by CNN reporter George Webster as "An outspoken defendant of...
in 2011. - The BOBs (weblog award)The BobsThe Bobs were dubbed the first new wave a cappella group in history when they were founded in San Francisco, California in the early 1980s. Now based in Seattle, Washington, this genre-bending, eccentric vocal group has maintained a healthy cult following in the U.S...
Special Topic Human Rights award in 2011 for the Mideast Youth website Migrant Rights. - ThinkSocial Award in 2009, as powerful model for how social media can be used to address global problems.
- Echoing GreenEchoing greenFor the electronic band, see The Echoing Green , for the poem see The Echoing GreenEchoing Green is a twenty year-old global non-profit organization operating in the area of early-stage social sector investing...
2009 Fellowship. - TEDGlobal 2009 Fellowship.
- Berkman Award for Internet Innovation from Berkman Center for Internet & SocietyBerkman Center for Internet & SocietyThe Berkman Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, the Center was elevated to an interfaculty initiative of...
at Harvard Law SchoolHarvard Law SchoolHarvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
in 2008 for the outstanding contributions to the internet and its impact on society.
Leadership
Mideast Youth was founded by Esra'a Al-ShafeiEsra'a Al-Shafei
Esra'a Al-Shafei is a Bahraini civil rights activist, blogger, and the founder and executive director of Mideast Youth and its related projects. Al-Shafei is a senior TED Global Fellow, an Echoing Green fellow, and has been referred to by CNN reporter George Webster as "An outspoken defendant of...
, a blogger from Bahrain in 2006. As the director of Mideast Youth, Esra'a
Esra'a Al-Shafei
Esra'a Al-Shafei is a Bahraini civil rights activist, blogger, and the founder and executive director of Mideast Youth and its related projects. Al-Shafei is a senior TED Global Fellow, an Echoing Green fellow, and has been referred to by CNN reporter George Webster as "An outspoken defendant of...
runs the management side of things, focusing on development and growth as well as the stability and designs of their sites. Then comes Ahmed Zidan of Egypt who serves as the editor-in-chief of Mideast Youth Arabic and English, the co-founder of Ahwaa, and also a podcaster. Other team members, mostly from the MENA region, include: Sarah Elgindy (Egypt) who runs Mideast Tunes, Suzan Boulad (Syria) who runs Kurdish Rights and Bahá'í rights, Rima Kalush who runs Migrant Rights, Hajer Ghareeb (Bahrain), Nuha S. (Kurdistan), R. Reyhani (Germany), and Ali B. (Iran) who serves as the editor of MEYFarsi. The network relies on a growing pool of authors and volunteers.
2011 Middle East and North Africa Protests
Blogs and social networking played a large role in the protests throughout the Middle East and North Africa during 2010-2011, also known as the Arab Spring. In a region characterized by political oppression, the internet is being used as a way to organize political movements and avoid political oppression.Egypt
Mideast Youth members, including Ahmed Zidan, covered the protests as they unfolded in Egypt in January and February 2011. Twitter and other social networking sites provided forums for dissent with Mubarak’s regime and allowed for updates on the protests to reach the entire world. When the Egpytian government shut down the internet, Zidan believes, it gave the young people of the nation nothing to do but to go out into the streets. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign on February 11, 2011 as a result of the protests against his oppressive regime.Media Coverage
Mideast Youth has enjoyed an enormous media coverage from news agencies, TV satellite channels, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, in addition to various social media websites, blogs, and organizations. For instance, Sky NewsSky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...
, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, New York Times, BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
political blog "Act", VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
, Daily Telegraph, Die Zeit
Die Zeit
Die Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...
, Frankfurter Rundschau
Frankfurter Rundschau
The Frankfurter Rundschau is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition as well as an e-paper...
FR-online, Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
, The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
, Rolling Stone Middle East, Abu Dhabi TV, Gulf News, Al-Hasnaa' magazine, ReadWriteWeb
ReadWriteWeb
ReadWriteWeb is a Web technology blog launched in 2003. RWW covers Web 2.0 and Web technology in general, and provides industry news, reviews, and analysis. Founded by Richard MacManus, Technorati ranked ReadWriteWeb at number 12 in its list of top 100 blogs worldwide, as of October 9, 2010. RWW...
, Mashable
Mashable
Mashable is an American news website and Internet news blog founded by Pete Cashmore. The website's primary focus is social media news, but also covers news and developments in mobile, entertainment, online video, business, web development, technology, memes and gadgets...
, TechCrunch
TechCrunch
TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....
TV, Radio Sawt Beirut International, Radio Farda
Radio Farda
Radio Farda is the Iranian Branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's broadcast services. It broadcasts 24 hours a day in the Persian language from its headquarters Prague, Czech Republic. Radio Farda first aired December 2002. Radio Farda broadcasts political, cultural, social, and art news...
among many others.