'Identities Do Not Have Borders'

• by Christian Papesch (united nations)
• Wednesday, September 21, 2011
• Inter Press Service

Exactly 10 years after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, six young women and six young men from Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait and several other Arab countries started a two-week trip trough the United States and Europe. They are part of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations' (UNAOC) fellowship programme that was first launched last year.

'After Sep. 11, as a Saudi, I was affected as much as Americans were affected due to the actions of certain individuals and the reactions of most governments,' said Sofana Dahlan, founder of Tashkeil, a multidisciplinary centre for culture and design in Saudi Arabia, and one of the UNAOC fellowship holders.

'The bridges that were connecting our cultures in the past were demolished. It is time for us and the people from the United States to reconstruct these bridges and to re-establish new, fundamentals of exchanging cultures and excepting each others' ideas,' she told IPS.

This is also the goal of the UNAOC, founded 2005 as a platform for dialogue and cooperation and to prevent demonising and stereotyping on both sides.

'The alliance has been created in the aftermath of 9/11,' said Jean- Christophe Bas, senior advisor for strategic development and partnerships with the UNAOC.

'The objective was to create understanding and trust between the Western world and the Muslim world,' Bas continued. 'The reason why there is so much fear and tension and conflict between cultures in most cases is by pure ignorance. It's because people just don't know each other.'

Getting to know each other's culture, not through the media but through face-to-face dialogue with decision-makers, is also a key goal of the fellowship programme.

Twenty-four women and men ranging in age from 26 to 38, who are considered emerging leaders in their societies, participate - 12 from the United States and Europe, 12 from North Africa and the Middle East.

Some of the fellows who were visiting New York last week — and continued on to Washington D.C., Philadelphia, London, Paris and Brussels — have never been to the U.S. before.

Nevertheless, Anas Dharweesh from Syria already felt familiar with the country.

'It was too familiar, actually,' said the acting project manager of SHABAB, the executive arm of the Syria Trust for Development. 'American culture is spread all over the world. If you want to see America, it's two metres away from you. You got the TV, any movie, Hollywood (film) industry, sitcoms, songs.'

But some parts of New York City that the fellows saw during their stay are usually absent from the media.

'Yesterday, I went to the Bronx and it was revealing,' Lebanese lawyer Dala Ghandour, who has been to the United States before, told IPS.

'I did not know that the most powerful country in the world has this kind of poverty. I was just amazed by the gap between the very rich and the very poor. You could see this trend all over the world. Some people are getting richer and some people are getting poorer. And I think this is a big danger to the whole world — because this problem also causes terrorism.'

Another thing the 12 fellows could not get from the media was the personal contact and the opportunity to get to know local communities and decision-makers personally - to shake hands, to ask questions, to interact.

'Nothing can replace the opportunity to talk and to see by themselves the other world,' Bas said. 'They can meet and talk with whoever is relevant and would give them a sense of their view of the society, their values, their beliefs. That's the principle of this fellowship programme.'

For example, the trip included meetings with Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University's Earth Institute and a visit to the United Nations headquarters.

'You always tend to think that these people are really living in a tower and they're not really human beings and you just get them in emails,' said Sarah Zaaimi, a Moroccan journalist and author of the award-winning blog Words for Change.

'But I think the point of this fellowship is to make decision makers accessible to this young generation, because we don't have this accessibility every day. In our countries you couldn't believe how complicated it is to get to the decision makers,' she told IPS.

The fellowship programme is not only an opportunity to get to know the United States and Europe, but also to learn more about young leaders from the Middle East region.

'Even interacting with my fellow colleagues gave me a new perception about life and about their cultures,' said Sofana Dahlan. 'We are not all the same. We cannot be treated all the same just because we are Arab or Muslims. And therefore we have to focus on individuals rather than stereotyping the West or the East.'

In a time of political change, reforms and revolutions, especially in North Africa, the interaction between emerging leaders, global decision makers and each other could become a key to create new, stable societies.

Some of the fellows participated actively in the so-called Arab Spring, although they would not all call it that.

'To just say that we are Arab is very stereotypical,' Sarah Zaaimi explains. 'Because identities do not have borders. Identities are very complex spheres that you cannot divide. These are all constructions that politics do, not that humans do.'

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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