Speaker discusses
experiences in Middle East
By Brian Mezerski
People
living in the Middle East are ready for change.
Foreign affairs analyst and
international journalist Robin Wright detailed Thursday night at Elon
University the social and political changes in the region as the greatest wave
of empowerment in decades.
And, Wright
noted, revolution in the Islamic world does not happen through traditional
practices.
“The
overwhelming attempt to bring about change in the world’s most volatile region
is through peaceful, civil disobedience,” Wright said.
Wright said
interpretations of jihad in Islamic cultures goes beyond old-form customs.
“Jihad is
not about waging war against the United States or the west,” Wright said, “but
really about struggling whether it’s the issue of your identity, your career or
your gender.”
Wright
cited personal examples of people who live in the Middle East to explain how
the culture there is changing. One
woman, Egyptian Dalia Ziada, perhaps best demonstrated a reaction to “arguably
the most sensitive [topic] for many in the west,” Wright said.
Ziada began
her activism for women at an early age, her passion spurred after she had to
endure female genital mutilation when she was 5 years old.
After her
experience, Ziada pleased with her family members to end the practice, thus
sparing her siblings from the same ordeal.
Wright said that it took Ziada many attempts, but she eventually
persuaded her family.
Ziada
continued her activism after her first success.
She later distributed a comic book translated into Arabic that listed
human right ideals in the back, which was sent to more than 2,000 bloggers from
Morocco to Yemen, according to Wright.
Wright said
Ziada, in her mid-20s, and her friends also organized a human rights film
festival. Through the festival, Ziada
generated much support and extended her cause for human rights to a larger
public.
“Dalia
generated not only a sense of what a human right is,” Wright said, “but also a
new culture.”
Wright said
Ziada’s efforts show how the people are developing a new mentality in the
Middle East. The practices and
motivation of the Arab world are evolving, she added.
Middle
Eastern people are beginning to embrace a new global set of values, which is
marking an important transition in that region and in the world, as a whole.
“These are
global influences now,” Wright said. “That’s
a function of globalization.”
Still,
Wright said there is some concern among citizens about what’s to come for the
region. Wright herself isn’t entirely
sure. But she did ask Ziada for her
thoughts about human rights violations.
“’I know I
now have power,’” Wright quoted Ziada as saying. “’I know if this happens again, where to go
to challenge it.’”
