Esra'a Al Shafei Inspires Students to Pursue Their Passions

01/27/2010

On Thursday, October 1, Franklin alumna Esra'a Al Shafei '08 delivered an impassioned message to the Franklin community with a presentation straight from her heart. She spoke to a packed auditorium, filled with members of the Franklin community and guests from the greater Lugano area, about her heroic fight for human rights in the Middle East. Her work has brought her many accolades, including the Berkman Award from Harvard University, a TED Fellowship and an Echoing Green Fellowship, among others. While Esra’a is grateful for the awards, to her they are just one more way she and her colleagues are able to attain recognition for their ongoing fight for basic freedoms in the Middle East.

Those efforts began from Esra’a’s dorm while she was a student at Franklin, where she organized websites and global rallies to protest the lack of human rights in the Middle East. The uncensored Internet access at Franklin—which was unlike that in the Middle East where she had grown up—enabled her to exercise her freedom of speech and to communicate globally, allowing her to begin her first of what would soon become many campaigns. She cofounded a website, Middle East Youth, which is a highly recognized interfaith site where she and her fellow bloggers and activists speak for those who cannot always speak for themselves and where they hold an open forum on all issues facing the Middle East. 

Esra’a’s lecture featured a number of campaigns she has been a part of since becoming involved with Middle East human rights issues including one that resonated with those in the Franklin community, the Free Kareem campaign. While studying at Franklin she created a website, freekarem.org, and through it she organized rallies and letter campaigns in 26 countries to fight for the liberation of an Egyptian blogger friend, Kareem. According to Esra’a he had been unjustly imprisoned for criticizing Islam and the Egyptian government. She said that as soon as she heard of his imprisonment, she knew it was wrong and consequently felt compelled to fight for his rights. Through her aggressive campaigns she attracted the attention of mainstream media and foreign governments, reminding them as well as ordinary citizens that many nations still lack the freedom of speech and other basic human rights. Because of the vast media attention and many letters calling for his release, Kareem was no longer tortured and was moved to a safer cell. His release, however, is still pending.

Esra’a’s dedication to human rights extends well beyond the Free Kareem campaign. She showed the audience numerous videos and cartoons which she and her colleagues have made depicting the tragic fate of Baha’is and other religious minorities in the Middle East. While many of the videos and cartoons use humor to get attention, their basic message is a serious one, and they are meant to jolt people into action. Through her work Esra’a is challenging the status quo in the Muslim world and often places her own life in jeopardy, even to the point of receiving death threats. She tells her story of sacrifice and determination with the greatest of humor and wit, often catching her audience off guard. When asked how she has the courage to risk her life for her work, she responded that her passion for her cause is so great that she would never give it up. She inspired and motivated her listeners to explore and implement their own passions. After the lecture Laura Thompson, the Assistant Dean of Students, said that it was “absolutely the most inspiring lecture I have ever been to.” A Franklin College sophomore, Glenn Corregano, called it “empowering because someone from our generation and school is doing amazing things for the world and humanity.” While speaking, Esra’a reminded the Franklin community to appreciate the many gifts and privileges that they have, such as the freedom of speech and of association and the possibility to meet and know people from different cultures. She said that meeting people from different cultures at Franklin enabled her to empathize with people from backgrounds different from her own; that ability is an essential part of her work. Taking advantage of the freedom and opportunities which we have at Franklin was one of the fundamental messages of Esra’a’s presentation. She also left a rousing reminder for the students and other members of the audience to follow their dreams.   

For more information about Esra’a Al Shafei and her passion for helping others, please visit:

MideastYouth.com
The Berkman Center Awards
TED Fellows

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