The Struggle of Today’s Arab Youth
At a time when the western world and all the freedoms enjoyed in it are a tap or click away; the struggle for Arab youth is an entirely foreign one to previous generations. Arab youth are struggling with a crisis of their learned identity clashing severely with the world they see in mass culture, a free world they desperately want to live in and be a part of. Access to the Internet, technology and the resultant rapidly amplified globalization has made their restricted circumstance increasingly apparent and more and more intolerable. Resistance, in its various forms, has increased with their growing unhappiness with politics, society, and their lack of freedom.
In an article titled “A Different Struggle for …show more content…
That said, there are a number of places where the author takes liberties with her translation and interpretations. For example, Kastrinou over analyses a poor translation of a famous song written by poet Mahmoud Darwish and performed by Marcel Khalife called “Rita and the Rifle” (Kastrinou, 2012, p. 63). While the song does illustrate the struggle in wartime that many Arab peoples have experienced, there are certain nuances that come along with translating artistic works and analyzing them without sufficient cultural reference. Kastrinou also analyzes an age-old practice in Arab culture known as jama’iya; a tradition that is essentially a community-based piggy bank, so to speak, where members make regular contributions and the pot, as a whole, is given to one member each month, in rotation (Kastrinou, 2012, p. 66-67). While the connections and parallels drawn are somewhat logical given the current Syrian socioeconomic environment, they are, at times, far-fetched and over-analyzed (Kastrinou, 2012, p. …show more content…
This struggle is grossly amplified in the Arab world. Here, individuality and standing out is strongly discouraged and personal freedom and privacy are lacking. These youth are living under lock and chain in a society where people are expected to please and honor their parents and family above all else. There are few things one can do in Arab society that are worse than embarrassing or shaming their family. All of this, coupled with the innumerable social rules and stigmas makes for an incredibly crippling environment rather than one of growth. Kastrinou interviews a young Syrian woman named Anna who
At a time when the western world and all the freedoms enjoyed in it are a tap or click away; the struggle for Arab youth is an entirely foreign one to previous generations. Arab youth are struggling with a crisis of their learned identity clashing severely with the world they see in mass culture, a free world they desperately want to live in and be a part of. Access to the Internet, technology and the resultant rapidly amplified globalization has made their restricted circumstance increasingly apparent and more and more intolerable. Resistance, in its various forms, has increased with their growing unhappiness with politics, society, and their lack of freedom.
In an article titled “A Different Struggle for …show more content…
That said, there are a number of places where the author takes liberties with her translation and interpretations. For example, Kastrinou over analyses a poor translation of a famous song written by poet Mahmoud Darwish and performed by Marcel Khalife called “Rita and the Rifle” (Kastrinou, 2012, p. 63). While the song does illustrate the struggle in wartime that many Arab peoples have experienced, there are certain nuances that come along with translating artistic works and analyzing them without sufficient cultural reference. Kastrinou also analyzes an age-old practice in Arab culture known as jama’iya; a tradition that is essentially a community-based piggy bank, so to speak, where members make regular contributions and the pot, as a whole, is given to one member each month, in rotation (Kastrinou, 2012, p. 66-67). While the connections and parallels drawn are somewhat logical given the current Syrian socioeconomic environment, they are, at times, far-fetched and over-analyzed (Kastrinou, 2012, p. …show more content…
This struggle is grossly amplified in the Arab world. Here, individuality and standing out is strongly discouraged and personal freedom and privacy are lacking. These youth are living under lock and chain in a society where people are expected to please and honor their parents and family above all else. There are few things one can do in Arab society that are worse than embarrassing or shaming their family. All of this, coupled with the innumerable social rules and stigmas makes for an incredibly crippling environment rather than one of growth. Kastrinou interviews a young Syrian woman named Anna who