The Choices Facing Youth in the Middle East and North Africa Five Years After the Arab Spring: A Perspective from Yemen

Farea al-Muslimi, Cofounder and Chairman Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies

Monday, October 17

12.10pm-1.10pm

Jerome Greene Hall 101

Columbia Law School

The Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 gave young people in the Middle East and North Africa new optimism that democratic change and greater economic opportunity was within their reach. These hopes were soon tempered, however, as the remnants of the previous regimes worked to detail political transitions and thwart reforms, while various groups and vested interested help deepen social and sectarian divisions and spur violence. 

What are the options for youth in the MENA region five years after the Arab Spring? This talk will offer both insight on the Arab World generally, as well as a specific focus on Yemen - a country where hundreds of thousands demonstrated peacefully for democratic change, and where now, five years on, a brutal civil war rages alongside a catastrophic humanitarian crisis. This talk will also explore the crucial role youth within any society can play in achieving meaningful and lasting peace and security for their country and the world, specifically university students, to support freedom movements and peace globally. 

Farea al-Muslimi is a human rights advocate and researcher from Yemen. He is co-founder and chairman of Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies. He is also a non-resident fellow at Carnegie Middle East Center, Middle East Institute in Washington DC, and board adviser of the Arab Gulf and Yemen at Chatham House in London.

This event is hosted by Hosted by the Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute & the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies and co-sponsored by The Middle East Institute at Columbia University.

For more information on this event, please click here.