Why do you want to participate?

As a Syrian-Dutch person, I grew up seeing the fight of my people, the Syrian people, for freedom and justice. It is an honour for me to be able to participate and represent the pain and resilience of the revolution in my country by conveying ideas relating to safety, equality, freedom and security.

What does freedom mean to you?

As a philosophy student, this question is hard to answer. Freedom is the ability to vote and speak out openly and choose who and what you want politically. Freedom is also the existence of alternative possibilities. Having options. It’s people having the ability to be whatever religion (or lack thereof) or any gender or sexuality they identify with. It’s right for humans to be individuals as well as a collective. Having our own individuality and our own existence as a community.

What are the biggest challenges?

There is many freedoms young people are facing challenges with; - freedom of bodily autonomy (right to abortion and birth control, right to gender affirming care, but also the issue of genital mutilation for example) - freedom in regard to choosing a partner or love (LGBTQ+ rights are being challenged, but also forced marriages among younger children) - right to education; many children around the world don’t have the right to choose whether they want to go to school or not, meaning that their right to education is not guaranteed. There is so much more in relation to social media, mental health etc that can be discussed too.

Do you have a message?

Its a privilege to be able to think of things like what freedom is and what can we do to protect it. There is enough people in the world who wish to get a chance to even think about these things, and instead are busy just securing their basic human rights like water and food and a roof. That’s exactly why it is our duty to assert the freedom of the people who can’t do so themselves.