“Being very young in an environment like the Middle East, you may feel it’s difficult to find out how you can provide value to your fellow citizens. Then I discovered the Internet as a weapon to stop censorship and promote freedom of speech.”

With these powerful words, Esra’a Al Shafei directly drags the public in the Stadsschouwburg into her story showing how the Internet enables youth in the Middle East to cross religious and cultural barriers.

Esra’a Al Shafei is a Bahraini civil rights activist determined to exploit the possibilities of the Internet to engage young people in the Middle East in dialogue. She is the founder of MideastYouth.com, an organization that makes the progressive voices of the Middle East and North Africa heard. Oh, and by the way, she is also a TED fellow.

Because of the nature of her work, her talk is only recorded in audio. No videos of her face are made and no pictures are taken. Contrary to the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, the events since the beginning of the Arab spring have not resulted in the Bahraini king losing his powers. Rather than seeing this as a limitation to activism, Al Shafei decided to choose other means.

Crowdsourcing voices of protest

She recognised the potential of crowd-sourcing to get information out of the Middle East. Where traditional media cannot easily make the events in Syria or Algeria accessible, the information generated by Middle Eastern and Northern African youth with smartphones can help understand the situation on the ground. For this reason, she founded CrowdVoice.org.  At this website – which won the attention of the likes of CNN and TechCrunch – people can upload their videos and photos from protests all over the world.

But Al Shafei is not only a serious lady. Next to her passion to improve human rights in the Middle East, she also enjoys, in her own words, hardcore acoustic noise-terror music. You don’t really expect that when you see her modest and fun attitude.

Death metal from Jordan

She looks rather demure. But actually, even to music she gives her activist spin. As if the MidEastYouth and CrowdVoice were too modest of an achievement, she also launched MidEast Tunes, a website and corresponding app allowing you to discover and listen to political musicians from the Middle East and North Africa. Activism meets fun.

Design counts

In her quest for justice, she also pays a lot of attention to the way she does things. “We really believe in design and illustrations. New technology is not only about what is happening. We bring more awareness through images. When you use a good design, more people are compelled to hear your cause. It seems an impossible task, but we will bring justice to the Middle East. I am very hopeful. We just need time.”

Wow, Esra’a Al Shafei!

Further reading:

www.mideastyouth.com
www.crowdvoice.org
http://mideastunes.com/
http://www.ted.com/fellows/view/id/41
http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/12/crowdvoice-esraa-al-shafei-too-long-didnt-watch/
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/09/15/world/meast/mideast-future-leaders/index.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130490915

Interview at TEDxAmsterdam by Aldith Hunkar:

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