With the revolutionary Arab Spring of 2011, social media proved to have changed the whole landscape of activism and social awareness. In Cleveland High School, social media has been used by students to increase awareness of human rights issues.
Cleveland juniors Eliana Alban and Erin Vaystub have, along with their media teacher Evelyn Seubert, created a Facebook group page, called “Afghan Girls Connect,” with the goal to unite girls from all around the world, in multicultural discussions regarding personal experiences as women living in various countries.
As its name suggests, the group includes eight girls from Afghanistan. Seubert has been working with Afghanistan women for years and always had a vision to create a Facebook page to unite girls from different countries. With the help of a State Department grant, Seubert was able to accomplish her vision.
“The goal [of the Facebook group page] is to connect Afghan girls and women to other girls and women around the world; to share what the most important issues are, facing women in their countries; talk about who their female role models are; share their dreams and plans for the future; and discuss ways women around the world can support each other,” said Seubert.
Each week, leading up to International Women’s Day on March 8, the two juniors and their teacher will be posting a question for the members of the group to answer. The first question was: “What are the three most important issues facing women in your country today?”
Responses flooded in. Issues from media misrepresentation to domestic violence to underrepresentation in government to sexual abuse were covered. Members began to see the similarity of issues that women faced, internationally. Conversations started. Questions were asked and then answered. The group had become a global forum.
The second question (“What women in your country have made a difference, and what have they done?”) garnered a similar response. It specifically allowed members to learn about accomplished women from different countries.
Alban, excited about the success of the group so far, said, “Social media has truly advanced the lives of people all around the world. It has allowed the human race to advance and reach its higher potential. The world still needs lots of improving but it would be possible without social media.”
Cleveland Junior Aanchal Chugh is a member of the group page and also is the co-president of Cleveland’s Womyn In Today’s Society (WITS), a club on campus dedicated to women’s rights and issues.
“Womyn’s rights issues are often covered up and not shown in the media, especially in other countries so it’s great to be able to actually be educated and aware of what womyn face in other parts of the world,” said Chugh. “It’s interesting to see how even though we may be geographically far, many of us face common struggles.”
Not everyone can join. Due to sensitivity with the Afghanistan culture, only girls are allowed in the Facebook group. It is not a closed group, but requests to join are approved by only the administrators: Alban, Vaystub, and Seubert. There are currently 96 members, from countries like Japan, Ukraine, Iran, the UK, Serbia, Turkey, and more.
Vaystub has plans to continue the Facebook page running after International Women’s Day. “An international forum can be an extremely useful and enlightening thing to many people, and I hope to maintain this page, as well as possibly start pages on Facebook to bring awareness to many other issues.”
Facebook is becoming more than just a “friends to friends” network. It’s becoming a global forum connecting world citizen to world citizen.
