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What happens when a revolution unravels?

While motivations vary widely, revolutions are, at their core, a clash between old and new ideas. The Tahrir Square uprisings were no different. Nearly two-thirds of Egypt’s 70 million citizens were under thirty years old and newly online, and it became harder for the regime to isolate the public from radical ideas. That influx of ideas—and the political sentiments that followed—created a new wave of turmoil for many young people torn between the ever-shifting balance of tradition and change in their own lives.

In her new book, , journalist Rachel Aspden offers a window into the Arab Spring through the millennials who experienced it firsthand. Following the stories of four young Egyptians—an atheist software engineer, a village girl in defiance of her community, a one-time religious extremist, and a would-be teenage martyr—the book reveals a growing generation in Egypt vastly different from preceding ones, struggling to find a place for various voices during the chaos of government upheaval.

As misinformation about religious extremism and the refugee crisis accelerates, ¹ú²úÊÓƵ NYC presented a discussion on where the next generation will take the Middle East and how Americans can better understand the doubts, resentments, and hopes they carry into the future.

PARTICIPANTS

Rachel Aspden 
´¡³Ü³Ù³ó´Ç°ù,ÌýGeneration Revolution: On the Front Line Between Tradition and Change in the Middle East

Sana Amanat 
Director, Content & Character Development, Marvel Entertainment

Moustafa Bayoumi 
Professor of English, Brooklyn College, City University of New York
´¡³Ü³Ù³ó´Ç°ù,ÌýHow Does It Feel To Be A Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America

Angie Gad 
Egyptian-American writer

Katherine Zoepf 
Fellow, Better Life Lab, ¹ú²úÊÓƵ
´¡³Ü³Ù³ó´Ç°ù,ÌýExcellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World