Zooming in on Digital Polarization in the MENA Region

Digital technologies have become an essential part of our everyday life. Although digitalization offers a lot of opportunities, it has also led to online discrimination and rising digital polarization. In the MENA region, polarization and online hate speech against gender, ethnic and faith groups have been on the rise thereby threatening the Freedom of Religion and Belief (FoRB) within the region. 

PAX is inviting you to attend the public event The online public space: Zooming in on Digital Polarization in the MENA region. In this event we aim to better understand the internet as a public sphere and the complexity of digital rights in the MENA region while also discussing ways to combat hate speech and polarization. 

This event is organized as part of the Musawat Project, a collaboration between PAX and local partners in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. The Musawat project aims to engage young women and men to address discrimination based on religion and belief occurring within social, legal, and political spheres as well as on social media.

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The panel 

• Munya Thaher – Media Coordinator of 7amleh: The Arab Center for the Advancement of social media, working on Palestine
• Bahr Jasim – Social media expert at Tech4Peace, an Iraqi NGO fighting for a free and safe digital space across the Middle East
• Mira El Mawla – Build-Up in Lebanon, an NGO working on digital conflicts and polarization in the MENA region

Details

• When: Friday March 31, 2023, from 4-6 pm
• Where: Social Impact Factory in Utrecht (Vredenburg 40). 
• Who: There will be a panel discussion with three practitioners working on FoRB and digital conflicts in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, followed by a Q&A with the public and refreshments. 

The event will be held in English, and is free of charge.  We do kindly ask you to register  for this event.

If you have any questions, please reach out to us. 

The Musawat project is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.