Lebanese Laique Pride – How big is the change?

Since the Civil War, all marches, demonstrations and rallys have supported one political party or the other, but Lebanese Laique Pride is different. For the first time in over 30 years, a global rally was organized by a small group of friends at grassroots and disseminated through a heavy usage of social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogging…). The rally demanded a secular Lebanese Government. It took place on the same day and at the same time – the 25th of April 2010 at 11:00 am – in many major cities around the world. Over 3000 marched in Beirut chanting secularism, and Lebanese abroad in Paris, London, Brazil, etc. did the same. I made sure to attend the London Rally despite road closures for the London Marathon 2010.

The rally called for the full implementation of article (c) of the Lebanese Constitution’s preamble:

“Respect for the freedom of opinion and belief,” “social justice,” and “equality of rights and duties between all citizens without discrimination or preference.”

The rally’s demands were as follows:

“- Non intervention of religious institutions in state affairs as much as the non intervention of the state in citizens’ freedom of worship;
- Independence of people’s representatives from any allegiance to religious leaders and the sectarian system;
- Laws respecting human rights and absolute equality between women and men;
- A Lebanese civil code for personal status;
- Reinforcement of public education to promote citizenship values among coming generations;
- Securing equal opportunities in employment in the public sector based on qualifications rather than religion, race or gender;
- An independent judiciary in charge of protecting citizens’ rights in an attempt to circumvent the unhealthy predominant social habit of resorting to the power of kin-groups for backing.”

Rallying for change is one of the many methods for creating a tipping point. But in this case, the change is a challenge. Secularism is not a very familiar term among many Lebanese, and ‘expressions corner’ so far has identified that many find it synonymous to atheism, or feel they will no longer be represented in a secular government. So yes, 3 thousand over 4 million citizens is not a majority, and one rally is not enough for making a change this big, but what it can do is populate the use of the word ‘secularism’, raise people’s curiosity towards it, and introduce an alternative that many may have never even considered or knew existed. The rally is not the change, but it is one step closer to change.

However, what I find more challenging than changing a policy at a governmental level, is changing people’s social integration behaviours. If most Lebanese are unwilling to integrate with others from another sect, region or political affiliation, a change in political structure will be no more than ink on paper, and the social structure and its segregation will remain the same through the behaviours of most of those who didn’t turn up to the rally today. I believe a nudge effect should be introduced through various small initiatives at grassroots among local communities, to prepare them and motivate them to change their behaviours towards social integration. When nudging has achieved its goal, a final push through policy change for a secular government will be the cherry on top!

‘expressions corner’ in Kazamaza

Kazamaza is a new online and print magazine launched in Lebanon beginning of 2010. It’s mission is collaborative and non-conformist, building its content from the creative wealth of young adults 18 and older. Kazamaza and my PhD share many commonalities, including the target audience we are reaching. Therefore, ‘expressions corner’ was hosted as part of a number of Kazamaza Studios held with young adults to to generate content for the online and offline magazine.

Below are two articles about ‘expressions corner’ published in Kazamaza Issue 0+ and 1 respectively. The first article summarises general findings from ‘expressions corner’ Tyr, and the second draws on findings from ‘expressions corner’ Tyr and Tripoi in relation to Issue 1′s theme: Power and Authority.

‘expressions corner’ Launches in Tyr!

‘expressions corner’ was launched today for the first time within a Kazamaza studio which took place in Tyr. 7 wonderful 18+ participants took part in ‘expressions corner’ and absolutely loved the experience and opportunity to voice their opinions on issues that they live through every day without giving them a second thought. In ‘expressions corner’ they had cards that represented things they love, things they hate, things they don’t know about, and things they’ve never even thought about; lying side by side with equal importance. When asked for feedback, participants expressed: “No one ever asks about what we think or the ideas that we have about all these things.” According to Tonnie Choueiri who did a great job managing and facilitating ‘expressions corner’, participants were fighting over who should go next! The last participant shared with us this lovely feedback:

“If there hadn’t been ‘expressions corner’, this would have been a normal day, but now it has been a special one. I was the last one to go into ‘expressions corner’, so I could have missed it, but God wanted me to have the experience, so I got the chance, even though the workshop had already ended.”

I am happy that such a new method introduced to such a new audience, yielded such a successful outcome! Let’s hope that in the future, this method will prove successful with different audiences in different Lebanese regions as well…

‘expressions corner’ Ready to Roll

‘expressions corner’ was designed and developed as a new method for insight gathering that is highly confidential. It draws on the structure of interviews, but re-designs them to focus on providing an exciting and unusual experience for participants, in contrast to only aiming to capture information from them. Furthermore, unlike interviews, it allows participants to say as much or as little as they like, and it empowers them to control the order of the issues they want to talk about. How this is done is covered in the ‘Red and black cards’ section below.

Overview

‘expressions corner’ is my second fieldwork method and it was informed by the findings that surfaced from my first fieldwork method ‘explorations’. Some of these findings were that participants defined their identities through the following criteria: Geographic region, politics, religion, language, culture and nationalism. So the aim of ‘expressions corner’ is to gather more in-depth answers about these criteria, without any stigma, judgment, offense or subjectivity towards participants, in addition to engaging the target audience in idea generation of potential initiatives that can overcome these dividing lines.

‘expressions corner’ is designed to run alongside existing social workshops, camps, or other activities around Lebanon, that bring together youth ranging from 18 to 30 years old. ‘expressions corner’ will be set up in a corner of the workshop space, in a nearby room, or outdoor, depending on venue and availability.

Structure

Introduction and consent forms:

The facilitator introduces ‘expressions corner’ to all the participants as a group, and distributes consent forms that clearly explain and guarantee the confidentiality procedures of this activity. Participants are assigned reference numbers, and are invited one by one, in numerical order, to visit ‘expressions corner’ for a 30-minute experience. This experience involves the participant sitting inside a tent containing: A cushion, a headset, and 2 sets of cards. The headset is connected to a laptop and WISE wireless internet device situated outside the tent. The participant is asked to wear the headset. Through a Skype call, I explain to the participant the cards task in front of him/her. All the conversations will be recorded, however the participants will never see me or I see them (as I am in a completely different geographical location altogether), so their identity remains unidentifiable. Similarly, the ‘expressions corner’ facilitator who sets up the space, invites participants and runs the activity, will never enter the tent and listen to the conversations.

Red and black cards:

The participant is faced with 2 sets of cards: A red set with a question mark on the box, and black set with an asterisk sign. The red set contains numbered cards (1 to 46) that question the participants about their identity and perceptions towards others’ identities, and the black set (47 to 52) questions them about their reflections, opinions, experiences, and invites them to come up with ideas that encourage social integration and coexistence. The participant is first asked to pick up the red box, take the cards out, and shuffle them with their eyes closed. They then pick up the first card on top of the deck, tell me the number and talk about it for up to 30 seconds… just the first things that comes to their mind. When through, they put it away and repeat the same with the following card. This is a very quick process, and a participant needs to respond to cards as quickly as possible. I can also stop them and ask them further questions about a specific card. A participant may also choose to postpone up to 3 cards if he/she does not wish to speak about them straight away. They can place them on the bottom of the deck, but once they reach them again they will have to talk about them.

When the red cards are exhausted, the participant is asked to pick up the black box and speak about the black cards but his time without shuffling them as the cards take them through a self-reflection journey warming them up for the last card which is idea-generation.

Discussion guide cards:

These cards are only for my use. They contain the same images and words as the red and black cards, and are laid out in front of me in numerical order, to offer a guide of questions on the back. These help me prompt participants with additional questions about the cards they’re picking up if they are not being responsive enough.

Cues and notes form:

When a participant tells me the number on their card, I quickly write the recording time on the Cues and Notes Form and write any important notes next to the number. This will help me find cues in the audio files later when analysing responses.

Facilitator’s briefing pack:

This pack provides all the information a facilitator needs to know, to run ‘expressions corner’, including the agenda, emergency backup plans (where the internet and/or computer is down), and useful contacts for technical or strategical support. So far, 2 excellent facilitators, Tonnie Choueiri and Maya Jizzini, with previous experience in social work, have been trained through this pack and more could be trained if the ‘expressions corner’ schedules do not suit their availabilities at any point.

Next steps

The ‘expressions corner’ team is now ready and willing to integrate expressions corner in scenarios that bring together a relatively large gathering of young people between the ages of 18 and 30, in different regions around Lebanon. Suggestions and invitations for where and when to run ‘expressions corner’ is most welcome from any interested NGOs or other organisations, youth centres, community groups, educational institutions… Please contact joanna@therefordesign.net.

Thank you to the team at .: there for design … for producing all the resources and equipment of ‘expressions corner’ in such a short turnaround, and supporting this initiative as a whole!

Student Swap

One of the biggest social integration barriers in Lebanon is the educational social institutions. Most of the private schools, colleges and universities in Lebanon are affilitated with religious groups. Therefore, they bring together student groups of the same religion, and result in raising children into adults who live over 20 years of their life without having the opportunity or choice to meet peers of another religious affiliation, who form more or less half the population of the country.

Therefore, the thought of introducing a student swap intervention within the educational system crossed my mind quite a few times, but I never imagined that it could overcome the logistical boundaries, and actually happen.

Well it has! Youth for Tolerance introduced the initiative starting with swapping 3 students from “Ras Beirut International School” in Dahieh, Beirut, and 3 student from “Antonine Sisters School” in Ghazir, Keserwan. This small trial can act as a great pilot for implementing this strategy as a full-scale periodical program across a wide network of schools, colleges and universities in Lebanon.

Annahar WebTV produced the short film below documenting the students’ experiences. I recommend subscribing to the Annahar Youtube Channel here, as they frequently produce similarly great documentaries.