Hello: I am Khairi Abaza, your political environment teacher for the Online Activism Institute for Women in the Middle East. You have an opportunity to take my class, “Assessing your Political Environment”, online for 6 weeks in a written format, complete with homework and exercises to strengthen your skills when developing your personal activism plan. Let me tell you about myself and the class I hope you will choose to take.
I am a political analyst focusing on Arab politics. The class will focus on how to best analyze and assess the political environment in your country. I’ll help you determine the best strategies to achieve your personal goals or adjust your activism plan to the political realities. A realistic knowledge of your political environment is a key factor in the success of any activism project. The type of government and the laws will be examined in this course. First, you’ll study the branches of government and their functionalities. Some of the questions that will be discussed will include the following.

• Is your government democratically elected?
• Can people advocate to amend or make new laws?
• Is your judiciary independent? Do people get fair trials?
• Does your government use emergency laws?
• What are the implications of ruling with emergency laws?
• Do you have a free press? Do you have freedom of expression?

Further, you will go deeper in studying your political environment to see how the existing laws are implemented. For this, we will discuss some of the following questions:   What is the law concerning NGOs? Does your government encourage or discourage certain types of NGOs and activism work? Are you allowed to organize a network and a campaign? Can you network with foreign organizations? Does the activism work in your country independent from government interference or the activist has to work with certain government bodies and agencies in order to succeed? Finally, you’ll determine if your project is viable in your current political environment. If the project is not realistic or viable, it will need to be adjusted accordingly as to suit the political realities. This course is about the limitations of any political environment and the best ways to adjust to them or to attempt to correct them.

Let me tell you a little bit more about myself. I am a political analyst focusing on politics in the Arab world. I studied political science and Middle Eastern politics in Cairo and London. I lived in North Africa, the Middle East and Europe before moving to the United States. Political reform is my favorite topic when it comes to Arab politics. I write articles, participate on TV shows, panels, conferences and speak at universities on this topic.

I am pleased to be part of this program and I look forward to working with you.
Thank you for watching and I hope that you will take my class.