Aziza Sami discovers one clear outcome of the Iraq war -- the sudden political awakening of the younger generations Until the events of the recent war, my 16- year-old son, a high-school student in Montreal, had appeared to me to be a "typical teenager" -- wrapped up in his own daily affairs, oblivious of anything not directly under his own nose. I could see him in my mind's eye, so far away in Canada, sitting in his room for hours. He is lost in his world of rap music, downloading songs, swapping CDs and listening to his hero Tupac Shakur, who has reached heights no other rapper ever will. For eight months I had engaged him in a one- sided monologue comprised of more than 40 e-mails to which he had typically responded, after a lengthy silence, with two monosyllabic messages. Ironically, it was the issue of the war in Iraq that enabled me to get to know a part of him that I never knew existed. Why not probe him one more time, I told myself. I e-mailed him a couple of questions about Iraq and Palestine, not sure whether he ever thought about them. Less than 10 minutes later, the response popped up on the screen: "re: about Iraq", the questions neatly re-typed along with the answers: Q. What do you think about the war in Iraq? Are you for or against it and why? A. Of course I think about it and am against it because I think it is unjustified. If Bush really wants to free Iraq from Saddam's oppression, he shouldn't do it by killing innocent people. Two wrongs don't make a right. Q. What about the Palestinian question? A. I think about it and see history repeating itself. It's like when the Europeans "entered" North America and "settled" there. Isn't it enough that the Middle East gave civilisation, writing and learning to the world? Do they have to come and take its land too? Q. Do you think either of these problems can be resolved soon? A. Probably not, not as long as America is the world's superpower. Up until that time, he appeared completely indifferent to the idea of university, not knowing what exactly he would like to study. Now, in a rare moment of opening up, he wrote that he felt it was important "to speak to others living here in Canada about the Middle East and make them understand how things really are there. They know so little because of the way the media shows things. That is also why I want to study political science." After the euphoria which accompanied the Anglo-American "war" on Iraq had subsided, a conflict which was born perhaps of expectations that the "battle" would be more drawn out than it turned out to be, I mulled over what I had heard from friends whose children (hitherto utterly disinterested in, and perfectly oblivious to, politics) had participated in anti- war rallies in Cairo. I spoke to one of those young people, 19-year-old Salma, a law student at Cairo University who attended demonstrations against the war. Salma had been briefly arrested for a couple of hours, yet the experience did not seem to have constituted an ordeal for her. "It was known in advance that people could be arrested. Nothing really happened to me, anyway," she said (See p.26). But she also spoke of "a general feeling of disappointment, more than anything else, at the outcome of the war" amongst her friends at university. "We knew that things were bound to end badly, and that the Iraqis were not supporting their government, but we also expected the government to hold out longer. No one expected things to end this quickly." She had joined rallies protesting against the war on Iraq and, before that, those in support of the Palestinians because "it is the only way to say no. I would still join another demonstration if there were one, because I believe that this is effective to a certain extent. But it would be even more effective if everyone who felt the same way acted together." Laila, a 16-year-old studying at the German School in Cairo, told me how the "Iraq war" had instigated unprecedented and heated political discussions in her class: "I think that what happened will definitely pave the way for America to do what it wants in the region. I can already see what the effect can be on the Palestinians. Now, if the Israelis want to, they will be able to transfer them, expel them altogether out of their Palestinian land." She said that "when our teacher compared what is happening in Iraq to what happened to Germany and Japan after World War II, everybody protested. We felt that this was the wrong [comparison], because all this is taking place with America acting as the one superpower and intending to go on behaving in the same way towards other countries in the region." For Laila, "the only way for our generation to face what is happening is through education. This is how we can face things, because education is the one thing no one can take from you." At Cairo University, I was introduced to two freshmen in political science by professor Mustafa Kamel El-Sayed. Noha and Mona, aged 17 and 18 respectively. They seemed to agree that outside of their own faculty of economics and political science, despite some exceptions, the majority of university students were "not very interested in politics". But events in Iraq had left an impact, Noha said, even on students who were not particularly interested in politics. She spoke of "the sense of shock" which had resulted from the war on Iraq. "After what happened, many people, especially boys, who had "dreamt" of studying in or going to America have stopped even talking about it. It is no longer something they even consider." The two girls expressed insecurity about what the future might bring. "America had posted this list of 55 names of 'wanted' officials," said Noha, "and now it is threatening Syria." She said that she was not sure how the Arab countries would react. "What bothered me more than anything was Arab states that incited America to attack Iraq by saying that they were being 'threatened' by Saddam Hussein." Nor did she have confidence in the reactions of the international community. "Look at Germany and France, which opposed the war so strongly, and see them now. They're saying: 'let's see where our interest will be in the reconstruction of Iraq.'" The conversation inevitably moved to "democracy" and "change", slogans which have taken on a new sense of urgency within the Arab media and by the US. The students responded by speaking of their own busy lives, filled with studying and exams now scheduled earlier than usual. "This really leaves very little time for thinking, let alone acting, about such issues like democracy," Mona said. She said that she believed the ability of the wider "community" to bring about change remains limited. "When there were really big demonstrations against the war, see where they were allowed to take place -- in a sports stadium at Madinet Nasr," she said. Both students expressed criticism towards the "state media" and its handling of events, saying it was "imperative" that "civil society" be allowed to spread an awareness of what "democracy" is. "There must be an authentic movement from within, from inside Egypt -- not one that is imposed by America," Mona said. Noha spoke of what she described as a general atmosphere in which "everyone is afraid and re-arranging their cards in the face of what might happen. But I think we need to reform ourselves from within first and not give America the chance to do what it did in Iraq." Mona added in response, "They want the Middle East to be an American region -- by changing educational curricula and ways of thinking. But I don't think it will work." That reminded me of my own 14-year-old daughter, whose high school curriculum was established and accredited in the US, asking me: "How can they teach us that America is all about 'justice' and 'freedom' and 'equality'? Don't they see that what is happening around us says exactly the opposite?" I thought of "stereotypes" which had categorised other, older generations of Egyptians as "Westernised" or "anti-Western", fundamentalist, etc. Those young people, by contrast, appeared to defy such classifications. Noha was veiled, born and raised in the conservative province of Sohag in Upper Egypt. Her close friend Mona was not veiled but clad in typical "Western" style jeans and a T-shirt and hails from Cairo. Salma, Laila and my children were the products of what could be described as a "liberal" and "secular" upbringing. Yet a bond appeared to tie these young people together. None of them resorted to dogma or exaggeration in expressing their outlooks on events. Nor did any of them appear to have illusions about the political realities surrounding them. Instead, they displayed a cool logic, a detachment which might have bordered on cynicism had it not been for their age. Salma managed to sum it all up: "I don't think much good will come out of what happened. Things will get worse if anything. But people my age have also become more aware: we can see things more clearly now."
