Rasha Shaaban

My name is Rasha Shaaban. I am a local from Alexandria and Gothenburg where I am currently based. My first contact with European Alternatives was in 2013 when I took part in their youth activism project “Stop Youth Precarity, Act Democratically”. At that time, my activism was very Egypt-centric. I was only concerned about what was going on with the Revolution in Egypt. I was lacking the international perspective that I gained from my participation in many European Alternatives activism projects.

I fell in love with their motto Democracy, Culture and Equality beyond the nation state. Being part of the European Alternatives’ family taught me a lot about the dark side of nationalism and how it causes big damage to your nation more than any external threat.

In 2016, European Alternatives gave me the opportunity as an Arab, Muslim migrant to become a board member of a transnational organization in Europe. A dream that came true thanks to European Alternatives’ support and openness to minorities. Throughout the years, European Alternatives has always been receptive to my proposals for collaboration. I started as a participant in one of their exchanges.

And, today we have implemented together WoMidan project, aiming at empowering cultural actors for women* rights, wrote together the WoMidan Declaration, carried out inclusion projects in Sweden and Europe, and recently hosted a regional forum on art activism for gender equality and queer rights in the Baltic Sea region, Ukraine and Georgia. And, the journey continues!