Meet an innoFaither is our new series to introduce the inspiring optimists in the innoFaith world and what they’re working on and thinking about. We hope it helps you find and engage with each other across the network to advance faith-rooted social innovation and interfaith collaboration for social impact. Or just meet some cool people.
Meet Amira Abouhussein, Program Manager and Conflict Resolution Liaison at the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy. In between frequent trips around the world for her peacebuilding work, Amira contributed her beautiful energy and passion to helping us design and pilot the Interfaith Youth Innovators Summit last month.
What faith(s), if any, do you practice?
I'm Muslim, and often I get asked the question, "Are you Sunni or Shia?" I prefer to just say I'm Muslim because when Islam came from the Prophet Muhammad, there was no separation. These are divisions created because of political issues, for political power. I come from Egypt which is Sunni, so this is how I practice, but as for what I believe, I prefer to say only Islam.
Where do you live?
I live in Washington, DC, though I'm originally from Alexandria, Egypt. I've been living in the U.S. for five years, three years in Boston and the last two in DC.
What's your favorite pastime?
Meditation next to the sea or ocean.
What are you working on currently?
I'm working on empowering young women and youth in the peacebuilding and economic development field. As a young woman myself, I saw that women face double marginalization - as young people and as women. I had the support of some people around me, and I want to pay that back. I see the power and energies of young people. They are really authentic about the causes they're working on, really willing to volunteer and give their time and energy (Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg being two great examples).
In addition, my daily work at the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy is focused on making religion part of the solution in conflict transformation and peacebuilding efforts around the world.
What question are you thinking about these days?
I’m thinking about how to integrate more economic development into peacebuilding work because many countries that really need economic development are in conflict, post-conflict, or have conflict sensitivity; and vice versa, economic development contributes to sustained peace efforts. In some contexts, one of the ways to reduce violence is to improve economic prospects and provide more job opportunities.
For instance, I’m doing some work in Yemen on preventing violent extremism, and one of the biggest challenges is to prevent youth from getting involved with violent groups. So we have to offer them an alternative job because for many youth, fighting has become the only job available to them. Analysis shows that most young people join these groups not for ideological reasons but for economic or psychological reasons. They’re losing their sense of belonging and purpose, so it's important to provide them with opportunities that can fulfill their economic and psychological needs.
Therefore, I’m looking at new economy/third sector/social economy models and trying to find ways to integrate them into our peacebuilding work. When we try to contribute to economic development in divided communities post conflicts, we need economic models that enhance cooperation and bring people together to work for a big future vision for their community instead of working with models that depend on competition. Conflict sensitivity approaches in development should integrate more economic analysis beyond do no harm.
How can people find you?