On Thursday, October 15, 2020, medialine.org, a news organization featuring news in the Middle East, hosted “Rising Kurdistan.” The main topic of this one-day event was young people’s contribution to social and political change in Kurdistan. The keynote speaker was Mr. Karwan Jamal Tahir, Kurdistan Regional Government High Representative to the United Kingdom, London. Dr. Choman spoke about young people’s feelings of powerlessness resulting from living through crises and events that are outside their control, such as the IS invasion, the Yezidi genocide, the economic crisis, conflicts between Erbil and Baghdad, corruption and nepotism, and Turkish and Iranian military actions. She pointed out that it is easy for young people to fall into apathy and to focus on their own personal lives, and how important it is to reiterate that they have agency and power, and that they can accomplish improvements if they work together. She went on to talk about her experience with setting up and advising The Action Group (TAG), a student-led social justice group. Here, students demonstrated their creativity in their ideas for projects and for fundraising. Motivating them and harnessing their anger created energy for change. Dr. Choman argued that young people in the past would give their lives for what they believed in because they had hope. Today, young people are disillusioned and disappointed, and it is especially important to problematize issues that seem normal and fair in order to incite people to act. This must include young men as well as young women. To this end, CGDS developed the gender studies minor, in which both male and female students participate, and has carried out the Mr. Feminist campaign to demonstrate the importance of men in achieving gender justice.
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