A NEW MEDITERRANEAN IS POSSIBLE
The city of Tunis, the protagonist arena of this World Social Forum, has been another platform (the second one, after the Messina’s SabirFest) where to discuss again about the concept of Mediterranean Citizenship, in the framework of what we have named the Sabir Maydan II.
After the attack at the Bardo Museum, a wound inflicted on the democratic fabric of the Country, it is more than necessary to reflect on the importance of sharing values and solidarity between both shores of Mediterranean. Sabir Maydan II means three days full of discussions between various civil society representatives of the countries bordering our own sea: from Algeria to Morocco, from Turkey to Greece; from Syria to Palestine, including Jordan and Egypt.
Never, like in this moment, it is essential to open a transversal debate addressed to the widest parts of the civil society. We need to overcome the barriers, to claim a social and plural justice, to defend minorities in view of a wider vision of coexistence, in order to conceive cultural identity in the region as an ensemble of different pieces, but representing a single big framework.
Fatima Adbelrahim Saeed Idris, representative of the Tadamon Egyptian Multicultural Council association, tells the audience about her first-hand experiences on gender discrimination, an issue which, unfortunately, continues to afflict women from different countries, with no difference in latitude. Personal suffering was the lever to start working on the Egyptian social fabric, to fight and defend the personal integrity of women, in order not to be abused, or to become the object of claims of any kind.
The establishment of a citizenship based on equity has to deal, not only with the gender difference, but also with another big question: that one of cultural and religious differences within the same country. Mustafa Uktu Güngör, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly’s representative, speaks about that point, and tells the audience how Turkey is still a battleground between various minorities trying to affirm their own identity and existence. “Social movements, he explains, must have a fundamental role to reconnect the various differences, without falling into the trap of patriotic slogans that would inevitably lead to the isolation of a section of the population” he concludes.
The need to reconnect the identities that are fragmented under several slogans is the focus of the intervention of Rashaa Shaaban, young Egyptian, a member of WoMidan Project. The Arab Spring, which led to the claim for a space of political and democratic discussion in different Mediterranean Countries, has shown that it is possible to bypass cultural differences when claiming for democracy and social justice. However, it has eventually led to mark the importance of another element: religious beliefs. In the case of the Charlie Hebdo attack, the focusing was reported on the religious matrix of the event, which has evolved into a de-legitimization campaign addressed to the whole Muslim community by many international medias. This was a biggest mistake: to ride a tragic event in order to divide, once again, the world into two factions, the brutes and the good ones, the south and the north, the killers and the victims. Rashaa is convinced that, in order to deal with all of this, and in order to unite different identities under the idea of a single citizenship, we need dialogue, independent medias, and education: we need giving and receiving without ideological claims or acts of force.
According to Simone Perotti, writer and sailor, when dealing with this wrong perception about differences and conflicts on religious issues in the Mediterranean Basin, we need to call into question the archaic ideas of what we know about Mediterranean. We need to restart from a newly shared view, we need to define a new model by engaging the civil society, often banned by totalitarian regimes or trapped in the snare of religious fanaticism. “The Mediterranean as the sixth continent”, says Simone, is where everything can be refounded on new bases.
A series of several experiences and opinions about the concept of Mediterranean Citizenship were exposed in the session. The second meeting of the afternoon was, on the other hand, a round table to discuss strategies and means by which this concept may have an impact on civil society, and how it could create a “rupture” with the past. Gianluca Solera, director of COSPE’s Department “Italy-Europe-Mediterranean”, analyses the points at stake since the inception of the first edition of Sabir Maydan in Messina, last year. The first thing to do, as COSPE and its partners are trying now, is to enlarge the alliance and establish a “core group” sharing the same values and being committed to promote Mediterranean Citizenship. Moreover, we need to draft a “statement”, a Manifesto that can represent the ideological platform for acquiring political credibility and cultural legitimacy, and developing a critical social mass around the project for Mediterranean Citizenship. The following step is, obviously, to translate this vision into tools and infrastructures being able to reach to the widest civil society, such as: social trans-Mediterranean campaigns, a cultural festival for Mediterranean activism, or an online grassroots radio – TV which could keep in touch the two shores of Mediterranean.
Costis Triandaphyllou proposes an Internet platform, which displays mobilization experiences and best practices (some of them having been witnessed during the Sabir Maydan meetings), and helps in the organisation of common actions, as well as in spreading information at a transnational level. On the other hand, Pier Virgilio Dastoli, a representative of Movimento Europeo, concentrates his intervention on education: the idea of an Erasmus, which involves the entire Mediterranean area, and not just Europe, in order to promote the idea of exchange and mobility among young people.
In conclusion, it has been a day full of ideas, on which we must reflect in the coming months, to make concrete what the Social Forum has permitted us to sketch. Another idea of the Mediterranean is possible: a new plural “continent”, with many voices struggling to pursue the same goals of freedom and social justice.
