No Arab Spring Without the Flower of Womens Rights

Posted by Omezzine Khelifa
No Arab Spring Without the Flower of Womens Rights
Nearly two years after the start of uprisings across the Arab world, Arab women are confronting the reality that toppling dictators was only the beginning of their fight for freedom and equality.  In Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen, women are battling deep-seated conservative cultural norms and efforts by newly empowered Islamic parties to deprive them of the rights granted to them by prior autocratic regimes. Women in countries not yet subjected to revolts are also

International Obama Foundation Scholars Come to Sag Harbor

Posted by Omezzine Khelifa
International Obama Foundation Scholars Come to Sag Harbor
When he was campaigning in 2008 to become president of the United States, Barack Obama said that change “will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” Ten years later, former President Obama’s inaugural group of “Obama Foundation Scholars” — a group of 25 young leaders from around the world — is

Eradicating violent extremism from Tunisia? Dry up the sources

Posted by Omezzine Khelifa
Eradicating violent extremism from Tunisia? Dry up the sources
It will be important to empower young people, to train them to exercise critical thought, and to make them conscious of the importance of their participation in society. A call to civil society.  Omezzine Khelifa Salafist youth clash with police in Sousse, March, 2013.Demotix/Reporter #31359. All rights reserved.Over the last few months, international news has resounded with horror stories, each more terrible than the last: the killing of tourists at the Bardo National Museum, the

Interview with EdLab, The online magazine of the Teachers College, Columbia University

Posted by Omezzine Khelifa
Interview with EdLab, The online magazine of the Teachers College,  Columbia University
Omezzine Khélifa is a telecommunications engineer, activist, former politician, and founder and CEO of Mobdiun – Creative Youth, a social impact and civic innovation organization that mobilizes for social, economic, and political inclusion of youth living in working class neighborhoods, particularly areas targeted by violent extremist groups. Khélifa previously worked as a consultant for the World Bank in Tunisia. She also helped establish Thae’ra, the Arab Women’s Network for Parity and Solidarity, and the Women’s

UK FCO Meeting Discusses IPF With WASL Partners

Posted by Omezzine Khelifa
UK FCO Meeting Discusses IPF With WASL Partners
On February 19-20th, ICAN and the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) hosted a Global Solutions Exchange roundtable titled “Appetite for Risk of Investing in Trust? Lessons and Best Practices from ICAN’s Innovative Peace Fund (IPF) in Supporting Local Women-led Organizations’ Peace, Security and P/CVE Work” in London, UK. The key objectives of the meeting included: 1) To identify entry points and opportunities for shifting current practices of grantmaking to women-led organizations in the peace and security

Peace by Piece: How African Women Leaders are Building New Peace Movements Across Africa

Posted by Omezzine Khelifa
Peace by Piece: How African Women Leaders are Building New Peace Movements Across Africa
This panel will be an intergenerational conversation among expert leaders who are spearheading critical movements for peace and security in countries across Africa. The panel will feature Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee and showcase the strategic contributions of women peacebuilders addressing current challenges and mobilization strategies happening in the face of a range of inequalities. The panelists will disrupt and expand the very idea of “peace” and explore what kinds of cross movement work still