It took Souhad Khriesat 14 and a half hours to fly from Jordan, a country in the Middle East, to Syracuse. The 25-year-old woman was already familiar with many symbols of American life – the music, fashion and the food.

But one aspect of American life she was not accustomed to was the liberal context she and her colleagues would be studying, working and living in.

‘I’m not used to sitting in a classroom in university and saying whatever comes to my mind about the president, the king, the policy, religion,’ Khriesat said. ‘We’re not used to that.’

Currently, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs is hosting 20 participants in the Leaders for Democracy Fellowship program from 12 different countries in the Middle East and northern Africa. The fellows – part of a program funded through the U.S. Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative – are spending a 12-week period in the United States learning about the foundations of democracy.

‘Democracy is a matter of much concern in the Middle East, and reform is becoming more and more a pressing issue,’ Khriesat said. ‘I have a personal interest in learning further about democracy given my academic background as a political theory specialist. I also had an interest in examining the way political institutions function in a democratic society, which related to my career as a diplomat.’

The group members, who range in age from 23 to 39 years old, arrived at the end of Spring Break for a six-week stay in Syracuse. After leaving SU, the group will head to Washington, D.C., for a six-week internship program. Once in D.C., the fellows are placed at professional organizations, non-governmental organizations, think tanks and other democracy-focused organizations, said Steve Lux, project manager of the fellowship program.

SU is the only university in the country taking part in this specific type of program with a professional component, Lux said.

‘It’s a combination of an academic component and a professional affiliation component,’ Lux said.

While at SU, the diverse group of fellows has a packed schedule – attending various lectures, forums and conversations. Some spoke at a symposium looking at the African caucus, and many are spending time at the library furthering their knowledge about democratic issues.

But it hasn’t been all work and no play.

The group went to an SU basketball game, which was a brand-new experience for fellow Ahmed Hezam Al-Yemeni. In his home country of Yemen, large sporting events aren’t the norm.

‘For me, I don’t see a reaction bigger at how sports can push all those people to come together maybe more than the election,’ Al-Yemeni, 34, said. ‘It’s very interesting to see all those people come from everywhere to this stadium, and it’s cold, snowing, raining. It’s a cultural thing.’

The group had some time to attend a Jewish holiday celebration in downtown Syracuse. Some of the participants had never encountered Jewish people, allowing for a new experience that produced in-depth conversation and interaction.

Among the challenges of living and working so far from their home countries is the language barrier. Though all were able to converse in Arabic, some also spoke French and had varying levels of English proficiency.

Matar Ebrahim Matar, a 31-year-old man from Bahrain, often uses an Arabic-to-English translator when encountering difficult words. Each key shows the Arabic and English letters, and words can be looked up in either language.

Even the laptops each of the participants were given upon arrival are equipped to handle both languages.

For Hafsa Kanoubi, a 26-year-old woman from Morocco, transitioning between cultures is not difficult due to her work with Americans in her home country and the prevalence of American and French tourism.

But this is not the same for others.

‘For me, it’s a big cultural shock,’ Al-Yemeni said. ‘Yemen is still closed tribal society. When you go to Yemen you see tribes are different, how women are dressing even. I work with more the American institute and travel a lot, but when I go there I have to adapt myself – my eyes, my things, everything – for two, three days.’

With such differences in cultures, transitioning into American life and life on the SU campus may be difficult at times. But various organizations through Maxwell have stepped up and interacted with the fellows – engaging everyone in a conversation about democracy.

‘I would say the most significant differences are in the public sphere as far as politics and governance are concerned,’ Khriesat said. ‘It is always interesting for an Arab who is concerned with reform in her own country to attend an academic course in a liberal and democratic context, where customary taboos are no longer so.’

The selection process for the fellows included a competition and screening process through the embassy in their respective countries. This year, participants come from Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, the Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Tunisia and Yemen. And many have never been to the States, Lux said.

The program, now in its second year, extended the length of time the fellows are on campus by two weeks to allow for a more relaxed and in-depth schedule.

Lux said the goal of the program is to engage the participants in a dialogue that will hopefully never end. And although they are not technically students of the university, Lux and the other members of the Executive Education Department consider them alumni when they leave.

‘What people would hope is that we could just sprinkle some democracy dust on them, and then suddenly, they’ll all be replicating what we do in the United States in their countries,’ Lux said.

But the real story is there is already democracy at some level in their home countries, he said.

‘It may not look like ours so we think it’s foreign,’ he said. ‘But more importantly, there are a lot of times needed for them to process everything they might pick up here, whether it be in a classroom or whether it’s from interactions with students or just observing everyday life in America.’

kmimamur@syr.edu

Published on April 2, 2008 at 12:00 pm