The Munathara Initiative
| Formation | 2012 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Belabbes Benkredda |
| Type | Non-profit |
| Purpose | Debating |
| Headquarters | Amman, Washington D.C. |
|
Region
|
Pan-Arabian |
| Website | Official website |
The Munathara Initiative was established in 2012 by Belabbes Benkredda. It is a non-profit, pan-Arab debate initiative based in Amman, Tunis, and Washington, D.C. aimed at creating a debating forum in which anyone can take part.
Benkredda founded the Munathara Initiative's predecessor, Dubai Debates, in 2011 intending for it to be an independent platform for discussing important issues facing the Arab world. The project was funded by groups such as KAS (Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung) and Vital Voices. In the spring of 2012, he suspended the project and created a sister organization in Tunis, Tunisia.
Participants submit a 99-second video or less onto Munathara's online platform expressing their views on current issues, and the public is able to watch all of the contributions and vote on their favorite ones. The top 8 participants, who gather the most popular videos, travel to one of the countries Munathara operates in to participate in a three-day intense training and the chance to debate the issues face to face with Arab opinion leaders in televised debates.
The Munathara Initiative also organizes debate and communication skill training sessions for the youth, and is currently working in Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Jordan, Egypt and Yemen while also operating a debate program for Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. The initiative organizes workshops, online debate competitions and live TV debates so that young people are able to engage in debates about current issues in their communities and be part of the new Arab public sphere. EED (European Endowment for Democracy), AA (Federal Foreign Office of Germany), and National Endowment for Democracy (NED) are supporting outreach activities.
Alongside two Arab opinion leaders, Mona Eltahawy and Riyad Al-Chaibi, two youth participants, Esraa Al Shaikh from Jordan and Ichrak Mtar from Tunisia, debated a range of related questions that are rarely discussed publicly in the Arab world, including religion, blasphemy and nudity. The debate was broadcast in full by Tunisna TV.
...
Wikipedia