Minds of the Movement

There is a paradox in climate justice today. It is that we must be highly focused on local, short-term campaigns to even have a chance of achieving our goals, which are usually at the global scale (curb global warming, put an end to rising sea levels, etc.). Having participated in an XR local chapter in Lille, France for five months, I wrote this post to explore three characteristics of XR more broadly, which I believe can help environmental movements navigate this great paradox. […]

I became visually impaired two years after my birth due to a genetic disorder resulting from consanguineous marriage. This compelled my family to move to Riyadh in hopes of finding a glimmer of hope for my treatment, which unfortunately did not happen. Nevertheless, my father’s work led us to settle in the Saudi capital. In 2011, multiple revolutions erupted in several Arab countries, including Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen and my homeland, Syria. […]

“This is a glimpse of a story of struggle blended with success and failure, filled with challenges, difficulties, and significant opportunities. I wanted to share these experiences with the esteemed readers of this blog to convey a message to all immigrants on how they can become great ambassadors for their countries, utilizing all spaces and opportunities to enhance themselves and advocate for human rights in their home AND destination countries. […]”

Today, I sit behind my computer screen on the balcony of my home in a city in southern France where I have now settled. I am writing about my experiences and the challenges I have faced since leaving Egypt nearly three years ago. As I write these lines and reflect on what has happened, I realize that it has not yet become a part of the past. My thoughts drift back to three years ago when I was on the balcony of my home in downtown Cairo, […]

On the afternoon of Saturday, April 3, 2021, I received that life-altering call. My mother had passed away in Egypt. The caller offered words of solace, urging me to remain steadfast and pray for her soul, while cautioning against any thoughts of returning to Egypt, knowing all too well the regime’s penchant for imprisoning dissenters upon arrival. At that moment, the reality of my exile hit me with full force. It was exile in its truest form—I was robbed of the opportunity to lay my mother to rest. They stripped away my right to exist in my homeland, denying me the chance to bid a final farewell at her graveside. […]

In the grips of the pandemic I felt like I lost my voice. I went from speaking at colorful climate justice rallies to watching the scudding clouds from my sickbed. In short, I went from being an organizer and cofounder of Extinction Rebellion UK to being disabled by Post Covid Syndrome. Over the last few years I have been dabbling in writing online as a way to find my voice again. It’s a vast world of clickbait, corporate media and quick news cycles that can easily drown out an authentic activist voice. […]