Arab Spring Dreams

By Sohrab Ahmari

Subjects: Biography, Politics and government, Middle east, social conditions, Middle east, biography, Youth movements, Political Freedom & Security, Human Rights, HISTORY / Middle East / General, Political activity, Youth, Youth, middle east, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Freedom & Security / Human Rights, Iran History, Youth movement, Youth, political activity, Middle east, politics and government, Middle East History, Civil rights, middle east, POLITICAL SCIENCE, Social conditions, Arab Spring (2010- ), Civil rights, Revolutionary History

Description: "During the Arab Spring, the world saw a long-suppressed group in the Middle East--young people--assert itself and demand its rights. But youthful dissent did not appear overnight; for decades it has been simmering beneath the surface in countries from Saudi Arabia to Yemen, from Iran to Egypt. In Arab Spring Dreams, a number of young Middle Easterners describe their experiences with the region's laws and cultural mores, including the crime of holding hands before marriage, discrimination and harassment over religious beliefs, and young women fighting for the right to complete their educations. They also discuss how previous uprisings, particularly the American civil rights movement of the 1960s, might be channeled to effect change in their own countries. Beautifully written and profoundly moving, these stories present a decisive call for change at a crucial point in the evolution of the Middle East"--