The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University

Since this is my first contribution to e-cmes, I would like to introduce the basic ‘philosophy’ of the Arab Education Forum (AEF) before I describe some concrete manifestations of its approach.

AEF brings in another window, another perspective, through which people can see the Arab world. It deals with perceptions, not only of the Middle East but also of self, of one’s relation to the world, of culture, learning, and knowledge. It starts with, and builds on, what is beautiful, inspiring, healthy, and abundant in people, communities and cultures. It uses these as a basis for "changing traditions in traditional ways", whenever the need arises, without tearing the social fabric in communities (as education and development usually do).

"To define or be defined" lies at the heart of one’s perception of self and of one’s relation to the world. In order to "define" oneself, it is crucial that the person values one’s experience, by making sense of it. Making sense of experience is the basis of perceiving every person as co-author of meanings, understandings, knowledges, and measures. A most inspiring and meaningful way of making sense of one’s experience (i.e. "defining" self) is telling one’s learning journey (which is totally different from one’s CV, where the person is defined by others). AEF perceives learning as making such sense, and it values the kind of knowledge that is embedded in the knower’s way of living – rather than a commodity to be packaged and sold.

One very important aspect in every person’s life is one’s worth. "To define or be defined" is intimately connected to how the "worth of a person" is perceived: does it come from symbols and from institutions and measures that claim to be objective and universal, or from one’s inner harmony and relations to people and to one’s community and culture? Within AEF, a person’s worth stems from the second. This is in harmony with a 1,400-year-old statement by Imam Ali: qeematu kullimri’en ma yuhsenoh, which forms the guiding principle in AEF’s thinking and practice. According to it, the worth of a person is what s/he yuhsen. Yuhsen, in Arabic, has several meanings, which together embody the spirit of AEF and constitute the worth of a person:

• The first meaning refers to how well the person does what s/he does, which requires knowledge, skills, and tremendous mental discipline (itqaan);
• The second refers to how beautiful and pleasing what one does to the senses – the aesthetic dimension, which requires a high degree of sensitivity;
• The third meaning refers to goodness, in the sense of refusing to harm self, others, or nature, which requires tremendous self-discipline and high ethical standards;
• The fourth refers to what one gives of oneself, and not what one delivers as ready made from others, which requires valuing one’s experience;
• The fifth meaning refers to how respectful (of people and ideas) the person is in discussions and interactions with others, which requires both humility and dignity.

It is worth mentioning that these meanings are not given by some "authority" but by people as they experience life and make sense of it in a particular place and time; i.e., by people as co-authors of those meanings. Worthiness is not a purely intellectual concept or concern but essentially an existential relational one; it stems from self-perception and from the interaction between the person and her/his surroundings.

Imam Ali’s statement has been around for fourteen centuries. All along, it could have – at least in the Arab world – formed a basis for a vision of learning/ education that is much more respectful of people and of pluralism than the dominant one today.

One main role of AEF is to point out to what exists and to provide opportunities/ spaces for learning, i.e. for mutual nurturance, enrichment, growth, understanding, and construction of knowledge. Wisdom is the fundamental value that underlies AEF’s perceptions, expressions, thinking, and actions. Like all other words used within AEF, the meaning of wisdom is constantly being enriched by ‘co-authors’ – people who bring in new dimensions to it, in light of their experiences and reflections. A most important aspect of any wisdom is respect for people and Nature, in the sense of not doing anything that could harm people, relations among them, or Nature; they are the beginning, the reference, and the measure. Wisdom and respect necessarily embody the values of humility, dignity, responsibility, and pluralism.

AEF does not have ready packaged answers/solutions to give to people. Its main role is to remind people of what they have and encourage them to build on that. A basic question within AEF is "what do you yuhsen?" in light of the five meanings embedded in the word yuhsen – and always reminding people that meanings are neither set in stone nor universal, and that each person is co-author of meaning.

For decades, we have been trying to build on what we don’t have and ignore what we have. It is unwise – to say the least – to continue along this path. The challenge, simply, is to make our societies better from within. This necessarily requires that we drop the illusion that there is a single universal undifferentiated path for progress; that we stop comparing people and countries along measures that claim to be objective and absolute; that we stop advocating one way of learning and one kind of knowledge, while blocking or disvaluing others; and that we recognize and build on the tremendous resources that people, communities, and cultures have, and the tremendous inspiration that the social majorities around the world (which we have ignored) can provide for us. Within this perspective, Western inventions (like inventions everywhere) are looked at as "servants" (not "masters") in deciding how and whether to use them – the underlying principle being to refrain from doing anything that could harm people or Nature.

In addition to Imam Ali’s statement, we work in harmony with another wisdom from the Arab region – with one of Rumi’s poems:

"Beyond right and wrong, there is a field;
Let’s meet there…"

Within AEF, we work beyond right and wrong, beyond success and failure, and beyond comparing people along measures that claim to be neutral, objective and universal. We don’t conduct contests and give prizes. In AEF we try to provide opportunities where people meet in spaces that embody the spirit of Rumi’s fields, where people meet for mutual nurturance, enrichment, and growth; where friendships develop and honest interactions and cooperation take place; where knowledges are constructed in ways that are in harmony with people’s experiences and their dialogues.

How is the above manifested in action? I will describe different examples to illustrate:

First: Ten artists/ illustrators from 7 Arab countries met in Cairo with artist Mohie ed-Deen al-Labbad for one month (January 2004), and worked together, learned from each other, and built friendships and common projects. Their interactions during and after the month have been put together in a special publication in Arabic. A copy is available at the CMES Outreach Center library.

Second: The second activity took place in Lebanon, August 6-12, 2005. It was the 4th annual summer camp (held in August of every year). It was conceived about 4 years ago through a common project that was conceived by Serene Huleileh, AEF regional director in Amman, Jordan and Mutaz Dajani, director of al-Jana in Beirut, Lebanon. The project mainly involves people who work with various expressions within Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. The summer camp this year included 150 people and, as usual, took place at Broummana High School (Quaker School). Fifteen artists and cultural ‘creativists’ from various countries (which included this year Italy, France, UK, Germany, US, Mexico, and India in addition to Arab countries) joined the camp and conducted workshops on expressions that included: forum theatre, storytelling, clowning & juggling, body & mask, art in difficult circumstances, educational toys, music & disability, Dabke, choreography & improvisation, noncompetitive games, and Scheherazade: the Untold Stories. Al-Jana group organized the event.

The workshops that AEF participated in organizing and conducting (along with Shilpa Jain from Shikshantar in Udaipur, India and Charlotte Saenz from Mexico who worked with women in Chiapas, with street youth in Chicago, with youth in Lebanon, and currently an ‘artist in residence’ at the University of Chicago) were "Arabian Nights: the Untold Stories". The legend of Scheherazade within Arab culture is a wonderful legend about transforming the brutal power of Shahrayar by telling him stories. All what Scheherazade had was this simple strength, rooted entirely within her. And with it, Scheherazade was able to challenge – through love, spirit, kindness, generosity, creativity – a perpetrator of violence and cruelty. Instead of accepting, submitting, or doing further violence, she softened power. She did not treat Shahrayar as a monster in spite of his terrible oppression, nor did she focus on the looming problem of her impending death at his hand. Rather, she started with what was beautiful, inspiring, and abundant in her, with what she yuhsen: storytelling and imagination.

We owe much to the many Persian, Arabian, and Indian co-creators of what is now known as Alf Layla wa Layla (one thousand and one nights), whose beauty lies in its nested structure evolved over several centuries. Similarly do we co-create the stories of our lives by reviving, preserving and reconstructing memories, joys, and sorrows – with each telling and re-telling etching deeper into our personal and collective memories. At the workshop, we used that spirit in encouraging participants to tell their stories as a means to bring out a person’s worth in light of Imam Ali’s insight. The question that we asked participants was: what do you yuhsen? This way of understanding one’s worth was woven with the idea of walkouts/ walk-ons (a thriving movement in India). Unlike "drop-outs" which embodies humiliation and degradation, "walkouts" embodies dignity and pluralism.

Last October, AEF in collaboration with UNESCO HQ in Paris, helped bring two people from India to Lebanon to work with people who work with walkouts. ‘Walking out and walking on’ involves changing one’s thoughts, speech, actions, relationships . . . in ways that are in greater alignment with their selves and deepest values. Through gatherings, publications, films, and the Internet, people have been sharing their stories of walking their own paths. In some sense, everyone in his or her life has, at some point, walked out and walked on. It is very exciting to reflect on one’s life and discover those instances. They remind us that whole other worlds of living and learning are possible.

With all of these intersections, the ‘Untold Stories’ workshop then had three main aspects that guided our work in the workshops:

1. Valuing selves: taking time to see the good things in each person, to recognize the strengths, talents, powers, that are rooted within us.
2. Challenging unjust, illegitimate power: questioning and resisting those places, institutions, structures, tools, attitudes, which are suppressing and destroying the good, beautiful, meaningful parts of ourselves and our societies and cultures.
3. Appreciative inquiry: noticing the strengths and beauty in other people, places, relationships, and using different ways of listening, questioning, interacting, to transform the challenges of our lives.

What emerged over the course of the workshops was a surprise to all of us. Somehow, a community was built, in which we were all sharing deeply of our minds, hearts, and spirits. We were engaging in multiple spaces and ways of learning. New understandings were emerging, often as re-appreciations of traditional wisdoms and knowledges. We also were taking time to ask hard questions, to notice what goes unnoticed, to appreciate our experiences and each other. In addition to knowledge that was constructed about selves, meanings of words such as wisdom, pluralism, dignity, humility, and values were formulated, with no attempt to come up with common universal meaning to any of them.

The process of coming to recognize our own beautiful value and creating our own paths can be slow and painful, but only by unlearning oppressive habits can we begin to change what is not healthy in and around us. Learning to listen deeply and to ask affirmative questions are both valuable skills to continue developing throughout our lives.

Third: the approach and work of AEF was presented and discussed in several gatherings and conferences in various places and occasions: at a conference on Models for Arab Universities held in Beirut, Lebanon (October 2003); at a meeting of Learning Societies in Mumbai, India, within the World Social Forum (January 2004); in a conference on Diversity in Learning in Jordan (April 2004); in a conference on Diversifying Learning in Karachi, Pakistan (March 2005); in a Salzburg Seminar session entitled Global Issues: Roles and Responsibilities of Adult Education and Lifelong Learning, in Austria (August 2004); a meeting on Education and the Well being of children in Paris (July 2005); in a conference on Youth in Contested Spaces in Northern Ireland (October 2005); and in Uppingham Seminar on Numeracy and Development in England (October 2005).

Fourth: work is also being done on three other projects: (1) the Other Arabia (in Arabic: Azka Dunia – "a most beautiful world") which is a web site that will include what is produced and published in the Arab world in arts, culture, etc; (2) the Youth Mobility Fund which was established by youth (that AEF worked with over the years) to support young people who want to participate in conferences in the Arab world or participate in a sort of apprenticeship concerning a skill that the person is interested in, etc; (3) help establish aljami3ah, which aims at regaining diversity in ways of learning; and (4) the "reading for life" project in co-ordination with the UNESCO regional office in Beirut.

Munir Fasheh is Director of the Arab Education Forum.