Wed 5/25: The Arab Awakening (Livestream)

The panel is live-streamed 

There is a revolution going on in the Arab world. But it remains to determine who's revolution. There is as much uncertainty as there is speculation.

But among all uncertainty, it seems safe to say that women will be more affected than men. The outcome will affect how women will dress, educate themselves, work, relate to men, as well as to other women, and to their own bodies. Women are participating in the Arab awakening with higher stakes. They have more to win and more to lose.
The everyday life of women is closely linked to the type of rule and government of countries in the region. A government can decide how women may dress, or how women and men should be treated differently. On the other hand, if governments are not able to make such decisions, or if they can not enforce them, the tables are turned. The choice of women will affect politics and government more than the other way around.

Many say innovation and social media have redesigned the Arab street, and that it now can have the power to bring down governments. Fewer are discussing how innovation can build a new prosperous society, there are too many other mainstream issues obscuring those questions, such as mainstream geopolitics.

It has until only occasionally discussed how disruptive innovation may address the role of women in societies around the world, and if and how traditional patriarchal structures may be rendered irrelevant in the same way as email pushed paper mail off the table, or how sharing of music online has affected the music industry.

In the IJ-8 panel on the Arab Awakening will discuss what next for Arab society and culture, following the Arab uprising, where new media brought disruptive innovation to regional politics.

The panel:

Beirut-based An Nahar Cultural Editor Joumana Haddad. She’s been the administrator of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (the "Arab Booker") and has won numerous international prizes. In 2009 she was chosen as one of the 39 most interesting Arab writers under 39. She was recently portraited in the New York Times Magazine.

Shahira Amin, the Egyptian Nile TV Deputy Head and Senior Correspondent who recently stole the headlines around the world when she resigned from her job at Egyptian state-owned TV to join the uprising. Shahira has previously covered Africa for CNN. She has produced feature stories on female genital mutilation, the plight of Sudanese refugees, discrimination against Copts in Egypt and many more burning topics.

Hodal Abdel Hamid -Al Jazeera roving correspondent, has reported for Al Jazeera from across the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. Hoda has also received a number of prestigious awards, including one at the Festival du film de Monaco and three Emmy Awards.

Josh Rushing - the former US Marine and Central Command press officer who joined Al Jazeera (he played himself in the movie “Control Room”). As a long-form correspondent for Al Jazeera English, Josh Rushing has shot specials and documentaries all over the world

Amra Tareen - founder and CEO of Allvoices, the largest global community offering local to global news and perspectives in one place. It is the fastest growing open media site with over 11.6M unique users per month and 440,000 citizen reporters from over 180 countries. Prior to Allvoices, Amra was a partner at Sevin Rosen Funds.

Margarita Quihuis, directs the Stanford Peace Innovation Lab where she conducts research in Innovation, mass collaboration, persuasive technology & the potential of social networks to change society for the better. She was most recently Director of RI Labs for Ricoh Innovations.


The panel is moderated by


Elizabeth Filippouli, a media and business consultant, and former television journalist born in Athens(Greece). She is Managing Director of Global Thinkers. she was been a member of the Al Jazeera English launch team based in Doha (Qatar) and presenter of AJE’s flagship programs “People & Power” and “Witness.” She also worked with CNN International for six years. She started her career a main news presenter for the Greek Public Television ERT.


Pulitzer winner Joel Brinkley joined the Department of Communication at Stanford in 2006 after a 23-year career with The New York Times, where he served as Washington correspondent, White House correspondent and chief of the Times Bureau in Jerusalem, Israel. He served as political writer in Baghdad during the fall of 2003. He also covered technology issues including the Microsoft anti-trust trial and was serving as foreign-policy correspondent when he left the Times in June 2006.


The panel is introduced by David Nordfors, Executive Director, Stanford Center for Innovation and Communication