A Lost Generation: Children of the Arab Spring Essay Example

influences family lives. For instance, the manner in which children are raised affects the relationship of the children with other family members, the surrounding environment as well as education and expectation (Haris, 2016). Children are taught to respect and honor their elders while practicing loyalty to their family traditions. The family elders are responsible for instilling individuality and responsibility to the children as the children are expected to not only continue the family’s traditions but also take the responsibilities of the family. One of the most valuable traits in the Arabic culture is the reputation, which is why children can be disciplined in public.

Some of the roles that Arabic parents expect their children to play include being honesty, respectful, hardworking and modest and thus the main reason as to why they are often sent to Islamic schools so they can take control of the moral tone of the classroom. As Durán & Pipes (2002) reveals, Muslim students often hide the religious values of their families. This is evidenced in Ramadan being perceived as a diet of losing weight, girls leaving their homes in loose fitted clothes as required by the parents but change to tighter fitting in schools and daughters of the Palestinian attending Islamic schools and wear the hijab and long dresses while sitting separate from the boys and immediately removes the hijab when she leaves school.

In the Arabic culture, girls and boys are not treated and reared equally as boys receive more attention as opposed to girls. Boys are expected to assume the role if the father in case the father dies and thus the reason they are often encouraged being independent and

practicing good decision-making skills. Nevertheless, as Marsh, Craven & McInerney (2005) argue, children in the Arabic culture are not allowed to make decisions as they are feared to make wrong decisions which may harm the boy child and deviate him from the acceptable standards and norms.

Children and the role of Social Media in Arab countries

The role of media in the life of young people is widely acknowledged by both policy makers and scholars due to its ability to shape the dynamics of the young culture. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube played a key role in the planning, acceleration, as well as preparation of the Arab Spring in awakening the people of Arab with the aim of mobilizing them to protest against the repressive regimes to achieve independence. During the Arab Spring, the use of social media doubled in the Arabic counties and played a very important role in organizing times as well as meeting points for publishing crackdowns, demonstrations and spreading awareness globally by updating the information constantly (Centre for Educational Research and Innovation et al., 2013).

A report published by the United States Institute of Peace from extensive analysis of bit.li links from rebellions in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt revealed that social media was a casual means of the Arab Spring. Specifically, in Egypt, 84% of internet users used social media sites, a phenomenon that divulges the role of social media in mobilizing forces in the Arab Spring (Brown, Guskin & Mitchell, 2012). In Tunisia and Egypt, almost 90% of the young people reacted to Facebook polls in organizing and creating awareness through creation of Facebook pages where they embrace d the term “the Facebook generation”

The young people had been largely exposed to the social media network which opened their eyes and all they needed to do was spark. For instance, they worked with women to block highways in protesting the arrest of their fathers.

Arab’s Children’s understanding of the Arab Spring

While most revolutions are initiated by the underclass and the poor, the Arab Spring was instigated by the unemployed, educated and disenfranchised lower middle-class young people who embraced not only the streets but also Internet in the protests. These counties had already established economic stability between 2009 and 2010 including Tunisia that had 3 and 4%, Libya with 1.8 and 5.2%, Egypt with 4.7 and 5%, Syria, 4 and 5%, and Yemen, 3.9 and 7.8 GDP growth (Momani, Senior Fellow CIGI & Associate Professor, 2014). The Arab Spring was triggered by the facet of life across different age groups and for the Arabic young people; they expressed their frustrations beyond the traditional areas of government control and concern.
In Egypt, the street children gained a lot from the protests. Nevertheless, change has had a very low rate such that their cause has significantly been pushed off course as evidenced by the increasing level of poverty, continued political instability and growing shadow economy that challenges the life of the children, especially those living in the streets. Regardless of the rise and fall of the radical commitment as well as social changes, children in the Arabic nations remain victims of state negligence and ignorance of human rights. For instance, they were detained during the protests and incarcerated (Mikhail, 2013).

The disturbing treatment of children is a violation of not only local but also international

laws. While the Egyptian government states that deprived children should be provided with alternative care by the government, the government still violates their law as well as their pledge to international laws by failing to protect children and provide education, care and health facilities to the underprivileged children. International NGOs and civil society in Egypt has attempted to improve the lives of the children. Under the Muslim Brotherhood rule, however, the civil society is facing various obstacles while the NGOs are apprehensive of their capability in keeping up with the changing regulations and policies.

Protection of Children, Street Children, and the Child Bride in Egypt

The societal as well as political effects of the needy children in Egypt are severe and need effective measures to address them as the children are for instance being estranged from the society. On the other hand, the policies are restraining such that children are limited to attending schools and joining the workforce. Egypt has more than three million children living in the streets thereby rendering it a society that is uneducated and disillusioned and an increasing poverty rate which if not effectively addressed could see the nation in a long-term economic instability (Mikhail, 2013). The marriage practices of Egypt violate the international laws because they are deemed as slave practice. The new constitution in Egypt does not recognize the rights of women as it opened the doors for underage marriage by lowering the legal marriage to 13 from 18. Women in most Arabic nations are deemed as sex objects, and the Egyptian Brotherhood has largely embraced this idea. Child marriages have various effects on the children as well as the society

including maternal mortality, infant mortality, isolation, and illiteracy.

Arab Spring culture and the Economic legacy for children

The Arab spring is a concept of a revolutionary of demonstrations, protests and other forms of opposition to the authorities. These protests led to riots and civil war in within the Arab territories like Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. It was not only a political manifestation of cultural frustrations for many Arab young generations but also the primary cause of the Arab spring. The causes of the Arab Spring were broader and more culturally, politically, and economically incorporated in the lives of Arab youth than the other important factors they were meant to consider in life. The Arab spring communities have been encountered with violent crackdowns from the authorities, and in return, the people have met these clampdowns with violence and protests. The movement is believed to have been caused by how the rulers who handled the administrative affairs of the local government. The Arab Spring has been portrayed as a struggle between the masses seeking democratic reform and stubborn regimes looking to prolong authoritarianism.

Young people in the Arab world are usually trapped by the physical and structural realities of poor education, unemployment, and failure of the family to mention but a few. They also undergo economic and political woes, as the cultural issues of the societies are quick to judge even when they are still in transition. Most of them are struggling to create a unique sense of identity, but they face clear rejection. When living in their parent’s homes children should subject to their rules regarding dress, spending habits, and socializing with peers among other factors. That treatment can

lead to an animosity that only grows worse as the child ages but does not progress toward adulthood.

Many of the youth involved in the protests and demonstrations of the Arab Spring feel that their governments have not provided them with the opportunities they deserve as citizens of those countries (Mulderig, 2013). Their nationalism has led to many feeling betrayed because their loyalty has not been rewarded. Most lack the right ideas on how to approach these social and economic issues with the government, leaving them feeling excluded and ignored. For many youths in the Arab world, the Arab Spring was a call to governments to give them opportunities and allow the youth to become adults. To end this mistreatment by the government, many turn to rioting and protests to make their concerns heard. Others join the militancy and pose a threat to the security of the country.

Most of the Arab Spring states are Islamic and encourage its individuals to live the good Muslim citizen (Mulderig, 2013). These Arab young people, though they do not view themselves as Islamist or extremely religious, desire to live religious lives by Islamic values. These values give them the idea that for them becoming a good Islamic citizen even while living in secular states will afford one a good life. These youths are unable to support their families financially and are neither able to fulfill their religious obligation to be functioning adults in Islamic society. Young people who feel unable to meet their ethical obligations to their community because of delayed adulthood may express resentment toward their governments and corporations. There is more violence in the region, as well as

more economic instability, but these aspects have not been met with the significant weight they deserve.

Education in the Arab spring

Due to the political instability in the Arab spring, the school sector in the region was one of the factors that were most affected. The rates of illiteracy were high with many children dropping out of school to join in protests. The Arab Spring has been committed because of the great diversity of participants found in each country, but the worrying factor was that those who were active in the demonstrations were the young Arabs, aged 15–24 (Mulderig, 2013). The increasing numbers of illiterate youths were becoming a great concern for the government which led to the Arab states launching massive educational reforms which significantly changed the schooling system. Children from the rural, poor, as well as other affected populations, closed the gender gap in enrollment in schools and reduced the illiteracy rates.

Most of the Arab countries are setting a certain percentage for the education plans, and illiteracy rates are drastically dropping. Primary school is slowly becoming growing in the region, and those specifically in rural areas in have seen a significant increase in access to adolescent schooling and post-secondary education. However, the school systems have faced a significant challenge of high repetition and dropout rates. Again, the level of education among the spring Arabs in some countries is very low since accountability is not addressed. There is still more to do in the sector of education on these populations because the value of the education they are receiving has not reached the international standard.

School progress in the Arab Spring communities is seen as a fantasy

after the literate youths are tested for their skills and knowledge. The reason for that is because, after being tested on an international standardized exam the Arab scholars score the lowest compared to youths in other countries. To worsen the matter, children from the Arab Spring communities are experiencing skills mismatch that contributes to unemployment stresses. These populations are misinformed because they still focus on the memorization techniques of Quranic madrasa education where the requirements of an individual student are completely ignored because expression of personal opinions is rare in this system. According to Mulderig (2013), the Arab spring families have the mentality that the university students gain the best employment, so they push their children through them even if they do not qualify. The entry to their colleges is based on passing tests that are designed to measure the knowledge through rote memorization rather than individual thinking. The poor education in the Arab Spring states will not improve if the universities will not orient the enrollment requirements by encouraging the learning of critical thinking skills.

Social status

Issues related to lack of social justice mainly contributed the protests associated with the Arab Spring. Social justice means creating a just or equal society by ensuring all members receive equal treatment, their human rights are respected, and there is no discrimination based on the different social status classes. There was a great injustice in how the various categories were treated by the government as they favored the high elites while the poor and those in the middle class suffered the unfair treatment in the Arab Spring states. However, inequality was not the only cause of the Arab Spring

as the unfair treatment of people in various social classes was evident in the region basing on socialism and capitalism even before the movement.

The inequality in capitalism was present from the countries directly supporting the growth of wealthy families and failing to provide good jobs for those in the middle class who attained education skills (Sinha, et al., 2013). Due to this social status differences, a conflict between the two economic classes arises where the rich hold onto the incentive of governing in a brutal way. On the other hand, the middle class is thriving to take over within the Arabic Spring states. Class culture expands under tyranny and seeks to justify its presence by gathering lower classes around it. Its primary objective is to benefit from it, and that would, therefore, defend and praise it. The ruling class eventually creates a unique lifestyle like attending international schools and having a highly sophisticated behavior.

Ethical Expectations

The events of the Arab Spring represented a critical point in the relationship between society and the state. The protests brought out citizens of all political backgrounds young and old, men and women, as well as the educated and the illiterate, to the streets to voice their frustrations with these political systems. The ethical expectations of these movements were that social and economic equality would be achieved. Parents hoped that their children would receive fair treatment regardless of the status. Children hoped that there would be no transitional delays where they can be able to voice their opinions. Children from these two classes received different attention as those from the wealthy families could attain education to the highest level and again,

they could get access to the right jobs from connections from their rich parents. On the other hand, the ones from the middle class would struggle to achieve the education and then fail to get a good job. Parents had big expectations for their children that they will be able to access better jobs after the protests which were pushing for the amendments to the constitution, which will ensure every person, enjoys social justice and equality.

Parental Relationships

Parental relationships between the children and the parents in the Arab Spring states come as an obligation. Children who live with their parents should abide by their rules as they make decisions for them. When the Arab Spring protest began, women and their children participated in ending the tyrannical rule since they are the victims of the revolutionary change and the social instability in the Arab Springs regions (Sinha, et al., 2013). The connections between parents and their children were mainly determined by the social factors surrounding them. Children had to relate well with their parents because they depended on them until they transited to adulthood.

Victims of human right violation

According to Hamd (2016), in Arab Spring countries, human rights that are given to a bigger percentage of the Arab citizens are offered at the will of the state by the laws and policies. Basing on that platform, citizens enjoy human rights only to the extent that these rights do not violate the government’s interests and through that they restrict people from many political and economic rights. In the Arab culture, many of the law violations were accompanied by demonstrations as reclamation of lost dignity in the eyes of the

community. From this basis, the Arab spring began a movement to reclaim their human rights, not through the power of the law but the power of the people. The protests were thus a struggle to express and defend human nature and common humanity but not associated with any terror acts. The reason why the Arab spring came turned to these protests was that the leaders were aware of this tension that they clung to their dictatorships and cracked down on the activists.

The Arab Spring protests were to attest to human’s natural tendency towards freedom and dignity as well as to protect democratic values called for during the revolution. These attributes required a certain level of socio-political organization to connect moral values and demands from the streets to make the right decisions. For instance, taking Egypt as a demonstration, it appeared that the scope of women rights would be contingent on the political will of the ruling party, which was at that time the Islamic Brotherhood (Hamd, 2016). It is agreed that human rights are a privilege to every individual at all times and in every place, by simple virtue of their humanity. Reflecting on that agreement, the human rights debate for the Arab Spring protests wanted the government to do some amendments to the constitution to allow such issues like religious freedom and women rights in the Arab world. Within the Arab Spring countries, the human rights were regarded as a separate factor that mainly focuses on promoting human rights at a cost, and reforming governmental structures. These movements by the Arab spring pushed for some amendments, but they were very limited.

Mental instability in children

With

the events that happened in the Arab Spring countries, many children faced highly challenging and dramatic life events. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was rising in children from these communities. Research shows that PSTD is the common mental health problem that is associated with social conflict and violence that was common in the Arab Spring states and mostly affects children causing fear, illusions, and recurring memories of violence (Devakumar, 2015). For instance, a study on Kuwait children in the Gulf War found out that approximately 70% of the children had PTSD symptoms which ranged from moderate to severe (Nader et al., 1993). Besides, study by Attari, Dashty & Mahmoodi (2006) that involved Iranian Children as witnesses of a open hanging in Isfahan revealed that 75% trend in moderate and severe PTSD symptoms. Many of the children from the Arab Spring communities have survived torture, witnessed murder, experienced political or religious oppression or discrimination, or have been displaced, abused, or exposed to traumatic violence. That situation raises the chances of many suffering from mental illness which could either be short term or long term. The trauma that resulted from the adverse effects of the Arab Spring movement is a heath crisis in the Arab states.

Despite the vast numbers of these traumatic cases in the spring Arabs, most of them will not be treated. The Arab culture remains to be a barrier for individuals who have suffered PTSD to get help. That is because the mental health disorders are ignored for fear of bringing shame and disgrace to the family and the individual as well. Trauma among Arabs has long-term consequences for both people and communities throughout the

region for generations. Unfortunately, due to the cultural attachments to the matter, the cases of PTSD will continue to linger and perhaps grow to add to the already bleak situation.

Government Support Programs To Support the Development of Children

Despite the fact that American often pours millions of dollars into anti-terrorism and international military programs, only a small core of the United States government funded organizations promoted the democracy in authoritarian Arabic States. The promotion of democracy in the Middle East has had a low profile under the administration of Obama with observers describing the approach as an attempt to reset the policy while distancing the President from his predecessor’s legacy. Particularly, the funding of democracy programming in Egypt was cut to $20 million in 2009 from $50 million in 2008. After the Arab Spring, however, the American government guaranteed more than $1 billion in borrowing with the main intention of assisting in the creation of job opportunities and financing of the infrastructure. The 2014 Obama administration budget proposal also included an attempt to create a support fund that aimed at advancing the democratic, economic as well as institutional reform by the Middle East and North Africa governments as well as their people (Goodenough, 2013).

Young people were also trained on how to use the social networking tools as well as mobile technologies in promoting democracy with the State Department, MTV and the Columbian Law School sponsoring the meeting. Through the meeting, the youth learned how to organize and fabricate coalitions. Nevertheless, most members of the activist groups argued that the American group was not only helping them but also that they were supporting the government which the

activists wanted to change. They affirmed that the security investigative service also received training from the government where they easily harassed and jailed them (Nixon, 2014).

The Differences of Children Born into Wealthy Families to Ones That Were Not

Early deaths often represent the loss of children development. Access to prenatal care is directly related to the wealth of a certain household with children born in poor households having a low probability of receiving prenatal care. In essence, children born into wealthy families have access to quality nutrition and health care and thus a high rate of survival as opposed to the underprivileged children. Children in poor families may not get access to basic health needs such as full immunization which highly reduces the mortality rate of children by preventing various diseases such as measles. MENA has over the recent years faced the challenge of malnutrition which impairs the growth of children. Stunting may for instance decrease the cognition ability of a child while triggering him or her to perform poorer in schools ultimately decreasing his or her output later in life.

Considerations for the Children of the Arab Spring

Children cannot advocate for themselves and thus the need for professionals to advance for their well-being irrespective of race, gender, local, state or national boundaries. Young people are often the most vulnerable and disadvantaged population and thus the need for special attention (Kliegman, Behrman & Nelson, 2016). Even five years after the Arab Spring, there is evidence of high unemployment rate and weak growth in the Arabic nations.

In conclusion, it is imperative to note that factors over which children do not have control over such as gender, race, and

wealth of their families should not at any time affect their chances to grow and thrive. Early child development is very important in presenting opportunities to children to succeed in life and thus the reason more ought to be done to ensure that MENA children have equal opportunities to thrive and grow. Future research is needed in furthering investigation on the role of the abandoned as well as the orphaned children during the Arab Spring. By acknowledging the near extinction of these children as a segment of human will present me with a better understanding of the awareness that guarantees that the Arabic children of this generation are not lost forever. This is because without them, the cycles of human atrocities as well as war will remain a continuous process for the generations.

References

• Attari, A., Dashty, S., & Mahmoodi, M. (2006). Post-traumatic stress disorder in children witnessing a public hanging in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 12, 72-80.
• Brown, H., Guskin, E., & Mitchell, A. (2012). The Role of Social Media in the Arab Uprisings. Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. Retrieved 21 October 2016, from http://www.journalism.org/2012/11/28/role-social-media-arab-uprisings/
• Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (Paris)., Centre pour la Recherche et l'Innovation dans l'Enseignement (Paris)., & Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (Paris). (2013). Trends shaping education 2013. Paris: OECD.
•  Demakumar, D. Birch, M. Rubenstein, S.L., Osrin, D., Sondorp E., , C.J.K.(2015). Conflict and Health.
• Child health in Syria: recognising the lasting effects of warfare on health. Biomed Central.
• Durán, K. & Pipes, D. (2002). Muslim Immigrants in the United States. Center for Immigration Studies. Retrieved 20 October 2016, from http://cis.org/USMuslimImmigrants
• Goodenough, P. (2013). ‘Arab Spring’
  

Promotion Fund Makes a Comeback in State Dep’t Budget Request. CNS News. Retrieved 21 October 2016, from http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/arab-spring-promotion-fund-makes-comeback-state-dep-t-budget-request