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WEBCHAT: Labour and the World, with Hanan Abdalla |
 As the battle for Libya comes to a head, please join the Young Fabians for a webchat with Hanan Abdalla, a 23 year old Egyptian activist on Tuesday 30th August 2011 at 6pm to take part in a Labour and the World Policy Commission. This is a unique opportunity to discuss the Arab Spring and what it means for British-Arab relations, drawing on Hanan’s first hand experience.
We hope as many of you as possible will join us live, but for those who can't, please send any questions you have for Hanan on her experiences, the uprisings and what it should mean for UK foreign policy and Labour foreign policy in particular to the Labour and the World Policy Commission chair Debbie Moss at
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before the event.
"As a British-born Egyptian, the relationship between Britain and the Middle East has played huge part of shaping who I am. I come from a long line of Egyptian activists: my grandfather was one of the pioneers of the Socialist movement in Egypt and an influential political thinker; my father was a leader of the socialist student movement during the Sadat years in the early 1970s. He was imprisoned repeatedly and ended up having to leave the country, which is why I was born in the UK.
"At the beginning of the uprising in January I was in London helping to pressure the current British government to take an effective stand against the Mubarak regime. By the 6th February it became impossible to stay away from what was going on. I have been in Egypt since, participating in the protest movement, taking part in Tahrir Square sit-ins from February to July, alongside making documentaries and filming various testimonies for human rights organisations.
"My circle of friends in Cairo includes many of the most influential political activists, in social media and human rights organisations. While I have been there I have experienced first hand how social media has empowered the movement by decentralising it, and how this has sometimes also lead to staggering its success. Nevertheless, it must also be said that the international media has overstated the importance of the role social media has played during these uprisings.
"British foreign policy should start to realise that it is in its own interest to support the long term stability of these countries and what their interests are; as such it has to change it's perspective on the Middle East as a whole to be able to participate in any such change in the region." |
