In This Issue

Volume 32, No. 1 The Newsletter of the Carolinas Committee on U.S.-Arab Relations June 2018An Affiliate of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations

1 My “Gateway” to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by Laura Gill, Converse College

4 National Model Arab League 2018 6 Southeast Model Charts New Territory

7 Planting Trees and Building Orchards by Joe P. Dunn

8 TheBenefitsofDebate: A Call to Support Model Arab League Participation by Christopher Latham

10 Tunisia Symposium

11 NadiaMurad’sTheLastGirl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State

ReviewedbyDr.JoeP.Dunn

Carolinas Committee

on U.S.–Arab Relations

N E W S L I N E S

(continued on page 2)

My “Gateway” to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

by Laura Gill

Through my participation in Model Arab League at Converse College, I was nominated by the NationalCouncilonU.S.-ArabRe-lations to participate in a travel opportunity to Saudi Arabia for nine days this past February. Thetrip was a cultural introduction to four Saudi cities sponsored by Gateway KSA, an NGO that part-ners with the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies to

bring international students to the Kingdom.Thiswasthelastinase-ries of pilot programs before Gate-wayKSAlaunches its fullagenda.The ultimate purpose is to promote cultural understanding and tour-ism to Saudi Arabia as the country has just recently opened itself to touristvisas. Previously the pilot students had come primarily from a limited number of prestige universities.

Dr.JoeP.Dunn,Director

JennyDunn,AssociateDirectorandco-editorofNewslines

CarolinasCommitteeonU.S.–ArabRelations

Converse College580 East Main Street

Spartanburg, SC 29302

Group at Mada’in Saleh al Ula

NEWS AND ARTICLES

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were more experienced interna-tional relations students, although the social media people were largely from cultural studies and communications. WedidnottravelfromtheU.S.asagroup,somyveryfirstventureoutside the United States was as anindividualflyingonmyowntoRiyadh,SaudiArabia.Iwasalateaddition because a more expe-rienced Converse student origi-nally selected for the trip could

not go at the lastminute.Whenthe opportunity opened for me, I had to scramble togetmy firstPassport. To say that thiswasallsomewhat daunting would be an understatement.IarrivedonFeb-ruary 18th with two of the other National Council students. Wewere met by representatives from the King Faisal Center and imme-diately interviewed by the Saudi television station Rotana which would follow us during the entire trip.ThroughoutthetripIworeanabaya, a closed robe that covers a woman’s clothes and is gener-ally black. That was also a newexperience. The first daywe spent at theKing Faisal Center learning about the goals and history of the Cen-ter, and we toured the beautiful Al FaisaliyahCenter.WefinishedthedayattheAl-JenadriyahFestival,an annual two-week long Saudifair, held in a large complex just outside of Riyadh, which high-lightseachregionofthecountry.We started at the VIP building to learn a few of the customs. Welearned about Saudi Arabian cof-fee, which is flavored by carda-mom, and is completely different fromAmericancoffee.Itisservedin small cups with dates, and it was provided at each building at theevent.Wesawasworddanceand listened to a few songs, and we toured buildings for the towns ofQassimandforMecca.Thelat-terwasinformativebecausenon-Muslims cannot visit this restricted holycity. The second day we learned about the rise of the third Saudi state which is the current country of Saudi Arabia. We traveled toAlMasmakfortress,thefirstplaceconquered by King Abdul Aziz al-Saud, the founderof thepres-ent Kingdom, and to Diriyah the

Laura

As I write this, the Gateway KSA website is showing pictures from a delegation from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Pub-lic Affairs now on a similar trip to the one I experienced. On myadventure, I was one of six under-graduateU.S.studentsalongwithseven “social media influencers”selectedfromaroundtheworld.Iwas somewhat of an outlier as a sophomore interior design major when the other undergraduates

Laura

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homevillageoftheAl-Saudfam-ily.Diriyahisbeingdevelopedasatouristattraction.Thatnightwehad dinner at the home of Prince Turki Al-Faisal, chairman of theKing Faisal Center board of direc-tors, where we asked questions about the dramatic changes happeninginSaudiArabia. The next day we flew to thedesert at Al Ula to see the old tombs at Mada’in Saleh, includ-ingthelargestone,QasralFaisal.We also saw an ancient library, a meeting place, and the city all carved into the enormous rocks inAlUla.Wealsoenjoyedades-ert safari where we rode over the dunes and studied some of the interesting rock formations, in-cluding walls of mud which had dried into pillars, and a hole in a rock big enough for our car to drive through. During some freetime, some of the other students and I climbed one of the rocks in the desert to watch the sunset.One night at the camp in Al Ula we met a band of young girls who perform, sing, and dance. Thiswas a wonderful encounter and

Banquet at Royal Military Officers Club

allofthegirlswereverysweet. NextwetraveledtoJeddahonthe west coast of the country, the most liberal city in the Kingdom.There we took a boat ride with women from a local women’s run-ninggroupandtheirfamilies.Thewater of the Red Sea is a beautiful blue like one would expect in the Caribbean.Becausewewerefarfrom shore and away from other people, we were allowed to wear swim suits. That evening wemetwith women from Effat University, a women’s university. I enjoyedbonding with them about the un-usual things that come from our mutual experience at a women’s college.Amongother things,wediscussed the struggle for women to participate in government and togaintherighttodrive. From Jeddah, we flew toDammam on the east coast ofSaudi Arabia. There we visitedKing Abdullah University of Sci-ence and Technology, a gradu-ate level institution which attracts researchers and scholars from acrosstheglobe.Thenextdaywemet Prince Saud bin Nayef, the

governor of the Eastern Province and talked about the expanding tourist policy as well as the need for increased opportunities for jobs for the young population of theKingdom.WetouredAramco,thefirstoilcompanyinSaudiAra-bia, including the King Abdul Aziz Center for World Culture, an art center developed by Saudi Ar-amco which includes a museum, cinema, library, and archive cen-ter.Wefinishedthedaywithsomelast minute souvenir shopping at a store that had many items from lo-cal craftsmen as well as a gallery whichIparticularlyenjoyed. The last day we debriefed withafinalinterviewwithRotanaand feedback to Gateway KSA on things we enjoyed in the pro-gram and things we wanted to seeexpanded.Itwassadtosaygood bye to everyone. Missingtwo weeks in the middle of the semester at school meant that sliding back into my academic courses had its own trauma, but it was all worth it as I will never for-get this trip and all of its priceless experiences.

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NEWS AND ARTICLES

The National Model Arab League conference was held at Georgetown University, April 6-8,2018. Converse provided boththe Secretary General (JessicaMorgan) and Assistant Secretary General(EmilyHolbert).Followingopening remarks by John DukeAnthony, the National Council on

National Model Arab League 2018

U.S.-ArabRelationspresidentandCEO, the conference set about its business for the next three days. Besides the eight councilsand the Arab Court of Justice,theJointCrisisCouncilheldaspir-ited exchange over the Saudi/UAE feud with and boycott of fellow GCC member Qatar. Dr.

Adherrahim Foukara, Washington bureau chief of Al Jazeera,waspopular as always as the closing speaker. The conference was another successful model for Converse.With awards of outstanding or dis-tinguished in nine of the ten ven-ues, Converse, representing Pales-tine, was the overall Outstanding delegation.NortheasternUniver-sity, representing Yemen, howev-er, was named the Best delega-tion and the American University of Cairo, representing Mauritania, finishedthirdastheDistinguisheddelegation.Thesethreedelega-tions were so dominant that no other school received an overall delegation citation, which was a quite unique experience at the Model. The other universities in-cluded Georgia State University, theU.S.MilitaryAcademyatWestPoint, Northwestern University, Brigham Young University, Univer-sity of Utah, University of Arkan-sas at Little Rock, Roger Williams University, JohnCarrollUniversity,Adrian College, Hollins University, Texas State at San Marcos, Miami University of Ohio, Shawnee State University, University of Houston Honors College, Kennesaw State University, Mercer University, American University, and Western KentuckyUniversity. Converse enjoyed the unique experience that the Ambassador of the Palestine Liberation Orga-nization to the United States, the Hon. Husam S. Zomlot, came tothe conference hotel to brief the Converse delegation. Ambassa-dorZomlot,whoalsoservesastheStrategic Advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was an engaging speaker who made a powerful impression on the del-egates. ThreeConverse students

Claudia Coffin interviews with Al Jazeeri

Outstanding Delegation at National Model

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NEWS AND ARTICLEShad interviews with a Japanesetelevision crew that was filminga documentary on the PLO Am-bassador. Anotherstudent inter-viewedwithAlJeezeraabouttherole of Model Arab League and her earlier trip to Qatar as prepa-rationforhercareer. At the conclusion of the awards ceremony, the Secre-tariat for the 2019 Model was an-nounced.EmilyHolbertwillserveas Secretary and Converse re-ceivedfourchairappointments. Dr.JoeP.Dunn,theConversefaculty sponsor, remarked: “Itwas another very special year, my 32nd in the Model Arab League program, and I hope for and an-ticipate many more years in this life-changingevent.”

Converse Delegation meets with PLO Ambassador

Economic Council lat National Model

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NEWS AND ARTICLES

All successful activities must continuetoevolve.TheSoutheastModel Arab League, held at Con-verse now for 17 years, expanded in a new direction this year. Forthe last several years, we have in-cluded a remnant of high school delegations. In Spring 2018 thenumber jumped to six delegations with a single student represent-ing another local prep school as well. The Scholars Academy atUSC-Upstate,amagnetschoolfor

talented students in the county, entered two delegations (repre-senting Tunisia and the Syrian Na-tional Coalition). They joined twoprivate academies: Greenville’sSouthside Christian School (Lib-ya) and SpartanburgDay School(Morocco) and two local public schools, Broome High School (UAE) and Byrnes High School (Yemen).Oakbrook Academy had one delegate, who competed on the SouthsideChristiandelegation.

Spartanburg Methodist Col-legealsoparticipated for the firsttime alongside returning college delegations from Spartanburg Community College, Roanoke College, Kennesaw State Univer-sity,GeorgiaStateUniversity,GSU-Perimeter College, JacksonvilleState University, Citadel, Mercer University,andConverse. The Opening Ceremony in-cluded two student speakers who had just returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia and Professor Rashid Naim from Georgia State Univer-sity who spoke about the Rabat (Morocco) International MAL from whichhehadjustreturned. Kathleen Langbehn (Con-verse) served as Security General andtheNationalCouncilonU.S.-Arab Relations representative at themodelwasSidneyJones,whowas the head delegate of the Conversedelegationlastyear.AsProgram Assistant for the National Council, Sidney administers and assists in running college and high schoolmodelsacrossthecountry. At the model, the Converse Palestine delegation took top hon-ors as the Outstanding delegation and Converse’s second delega-tion (Bahrain) tied for second place asDistinguisheddelegation,eventhough last minute illnesses meant that they were not represented on two of the eight councils. Geor-gia State (Somalia) was the other Distinguished delegation. Mercer(Saudia Arabia) took the last col-lege award as Superior delega-tion. In the high school division,Broome High School (UAE) was named the Outstanding delega-tion and the two Scholars Acade-my delegations (Syria and Tunisia) werecitedasDistinguished.Jessi-caMorgan(Converse)andDanielCrum (Mercer) were named best chairsbythefaculty.

Southeast Model Charts New Territory

Palestinian Council at SERMAL

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NEWS AND ARTICLES

Planting Trees and Building Orchardsby Joe P. Dunn

Johnny Appleseed wentabout planting apple seed-lings that became orchards.In NCAA basketball circles some coaches have “trees” or families of assistant coach-es and former players who follow their mentors as head coaches and even plant new seedlings for another gen-eration in theprofession. I’vebeen involved in Model Arab League for 31 years and I’m proud to claim a number of “Joannie”Appleseeds, andmaybe even, if not too im-modest,acoachingtree. The lead in this tree would be Dr. Holly Jordan, four-yearConverse MAL delegate and 2006 Secretary General of In-ternational Model NATO. AsHolly proceeded through her academic career, she plant-ed MAL trees everywhere along the way. While a mas-ters student at the University of Georgia, she worked with the Kennesaw State University delegation and volunteered with the Atlanta High School and the Northeast High School Models. As a Ph.D. studentat Virginia Tech, she started a delegation and founded the AppalachianMAL.Asathree-year interim professor at Roa-noke College, she organized a delegation that has contin-ued after her departure. Noquestion that at her next stop a MAL delegation will be the firstorderofbusiness.Hollyisa

believer in the power of the expe-rienceandsheisaplanter. Idell Khory, a former gradu-ate student of mine, with the help of several Converse head dele-gates, started a high school MAL at Greenville’s Southside Christian School. Theycompeteannuallyat the Southeast Model (SERMAL) and have won the outstanding delegation award at the Nation-al High School Model. JenniferWashburn started a MAL delega-tion as a masters level graduate project with me, and her Spartan-burg Community College team competesannuallyatSERMAL. The reigning “Appleseed” is DannyMorgan.Danny,aretiredlawenforcementofficer,enteredthe Converse masters program to prepare to be a teacher in private prep schools. Danny’steaching and organizational tal-entswereevidentearly.Afterre-ceiving his masters, he did some adjunct teaching for freshman-level courses at Converse. Hisadjunct career took off and soon he was doing adjunct teaching for a local community college’s dual enrollment courses at sev-eral localhighschools. Withtheassistance of his daughter Jes-sica,afour-yearmemberofCon-verse’s MAL delegation and the 2018 National University Model Secretary General, Danny start-ed a delegation at Broome High School.Afterhemovedonfromthat school, another Converse graduate picked up the responsi-bility, and Carson McCallum, the

2018 Converse head delegate (and Secretary-General at In-ternational Model NATO), who did her student teaching at Broome in the Spring, helped to train the team for SERMAL, where it won the outstanding high school delegation award in2018. Meanwhile Danny starteddelegations at Spartanburg Methodist College and at the Scholars Academy at the Uni-versity of South Carolina—Up-state, which both competed atSERMAL.Ashecontinuestoexpand his adjunct teaching assignments,Danny,wehope,will continue to plant seedlings and find individuals to main-taintheorchards. SERMAL has become a mini-reunion of former Con-verse MAL delegates. ThisSpring about a dozen former head delegates and oth-ers showed up at the event to assist in various ways and to witness that the traditions continue. I have several for-mer MAL veterans in graduate school, and I hope that when they land teaching positions at whatever levels, they will plant the seeds and the coaching “tree” will continue to grow.I don’t have that many more years left in this profession, but the greatest compliment will be that the legacy of what has been a key component of my academic life will continue to thrive.

History of the ProgramFounded in 1983, the National Council onU.S. –ArabRelations,(NCUSAR), started the Model Arab League program, (referred to as MAL herein), to improving the knowledge and understand-ingoftheArabworldandculture.1

The MAL program is similar in for-mat to the Model United Nations, butinmanywaysisbenefitedbyits small size. The Arab Leagueconsists of twenty-two memberstates compared to the 193 mem-ber statesof theUnitedNations.2 The MAL program also holds twenty-oneconferencesperyearand is fully backed by the Nation-alCouncilonU.S.–ArabRelationswhereas the Model United Na-tions holds over 400 conferences ayear.3 The small size of the MAL programholdsseveralbenefits:

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NEWS AND ARTICLES

Heads of State Council The Benefits of DebateA Call to Support Model Arab League Participation

Christopher Latham, high school junior at Scholars Academy | March 28, 2018

Students have a much great-er role to play as less member states mean that there are more opportunities to talk anddeveloppersuasionskills.

Students are required to have deep research into the cul-ture and policies of their na-tion as resolutions can be de-batedonfinedetailsthatarechallenging to bring up in the biggerModelUnitedNations.

Full backing by NCUSAR ensures that students are judged and get feedback by a national cohesive standard as well as by local coordina-tors

The small number of council sessions allows a good team to be nationally competitive

without major financial ortravelcontributions.

Scholar’s Academy and MAL

The performance by the Schol-ar’s Academy at the Southeast Regional MAL conference, from March 16-18, 2018, was noth-ing short of incredible. Scholar’sAcademy represented two differ-ent governments for this confer-ence, the Syrian National Coali-tion and the Republic of Tunisia.Each country had enough vol-unteers to send one delegate to each of eight specialized councils where they would debate to pass resolutions that would benefittheir country and the rest of the Arabstates.

Duringthethreedayevent,judg-es walked throughout councils to evaluate the speaking and per-suasiveabilitiesof thedelegates.Scholar’s Academy students, de-spite their unfamiliarity with the council processes, managed to impress judges and receive marks intheirfavor.

Major competition for the Schol-ar’s Academy came from the other high schools present at the MAL conference. All Scholar’sAcademy students competed at a high school level and tried to winoneofthreepossibleawards.In order of rank, students could win an Honorable Delegateaward, aDistinguishedDelegateaward,andanOutstandingDel-egateaward.

Scholar’s Academy

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NEWS AND ARTICLES

1 MALFrequentlyAskedQuestions.(n.d.).RetrievedMarch29,2018,fromhttps://ncusar.org/modelarableague/about-model-arab-league/faq/#alum 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 BenefitsofDebate.(n.d.).RetrievedMarch29,2018,fromhttp://www.ameri-candebateleague.org/benefits-of-debate.html 5 MALFrequentlyAskedQuestions.(n.d.).RetrievedMarch29,2018,fromhttps://ncusar.org/modelarableague/about-model-arab-league/faq/#alum 6 Mezuk,B.,Bondarenko,I.,Smith,S.,&Tucker,E.(2011,September5).Impact of participating in a policy debate program on academic achievement: Evi-dence from the Chicago Urban Debate League[PDF].EducationalResearchandReviews.

In total, Scholar’s Academy won four Outstanding Delegateawards and two DistinguishedDelegateawards,andwonaDis-tinguished Delegation award forthe representation of the Syrian National Coalition out of com-petitionagainstfiveother teams.This is in spite of the fact that Scholar’s Academy was the only high school team who had not participated in the MAL program for multiple years. The Scholar’sdebut was so impressive, that it was recommended by a rep-resentative of the national MAL competition that Scholar’s Acad-emymakeanappearance.

Scholars enjoyed the experience as well as seen by the quotes by someoftheparticipants:

“It gave me a lot of public speaking practice which is great for me because I have troublewithpublicspeaking.It also gave me the oppor-tunity to meet new people and interact with them on an academic and scholarly level.IamalsothankfulthatI won an award as it was my first time participating in adebate like MAL.” – AudreyNguyen, Council of Arab Economic Affairs Ministers, Republic of Tunisia

“Ihadfun. Itwas interestingto see how government ac-tuallyworks.Gettingtostandup and debate was amaz-ing.”-AnaitaThomas,Councilon Political Affairs, Republic of Tunisia

“The experience was amaz-ing. Being able to not onlycompete but learn through high levels of debate was something I won’t easily for-get”- HarrisonMaguire, JointDefense Council, Syrian Na-tional Coalition

Long Term Benefits

Thebenefitsofdebate,especiallyamong peers of equal academic level, have long been revealed, but for the sake of a reminder some benefits include: an in-creaseinconfidence,anincreasein comprehension of documents, and an increase in logical analysis skills.4

The MAL program goes a step fur-ther however in helping Scholar’s Academy students as it provides several opportunities that MAL al-ums can take advantage of. Astudent only needs to participate

in the program once to be con-sidered an alum, and some of the opportunities presented are once in a life time for some students, like expense paid study trips to Saudi ArabiaandMorocco.5

Finally, debate participation has been shown to help increase the GPA and graduation rate for at riskyouth. While thedesignationof “at risk youth” may not apply to many Scholars, the notice-able difference in GPA levels may also have an effect on Scholars grades(seeFigure1).6Note:Thegraph does not take into consid-eration attitudes towards school orthelevelofparent’seducation.

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NEWS AND ARTICLES

Dr.CathyJones,Converse

associate professor of French

and women’s studies, spon-

sored a symposium on the

Converse campus, April 23-

25, 2018, entitled “(Un) Veiling

theSelf:Women’sIdentitiesin

Post-Revolutionary Tunisia,” held

in thememory and honor of Dr.

Nabiha Jerad, a deceased lin-

guist, humanitarian and political

activist. The three presentations

consisted of the screening and

discussion of the film “Silences

du Palais, and speeches by

Sihem Bouzgarou Ben Gh-

achem, an author, translator

andbloggerfortheHuffington

Post Maghreb, and by Monia

Jerad Chehata, a translator

fortheU.S.StateDepartment.

The titles of the two speeches

were the symposium title and

“TunisianWomen:ArabSpring/

Arab Winter?” In connection

with the symposium, on Satur-

day,April21,Dr.Joneshosted

a social event at her home in

Hendersonville,NC. The sym-

posium was sponsored by the

NabihaJeradFoundationand

a Converse College National

Endowment for the Humanities

Award.

Tunisia Symposium

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LEARNING RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

I teach a course entitled “Women’s Lives in Africa and Asia,” which treats women in various geographical areas and cultures in different historical pe-riods in the non-Western world.We read and discuss 14 books duringterm.Fromthehundreds,possibly thousands, of potential books, I select a diverse sam-pling and I change out many of thebookseachcourseoffering.I am constantly seeking possible new selections. On the NewBooks Shelf at the public library, I noticed Nadia Murad’s The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity,and My Fight Against the Islamic State (2017), the experience of a young Yazidi women; and I intro-duced the book into my course thissemester. The Yazidi were not an un-heard of people forme.WhenI visited Kurdistan in 2012, I met several Yazidi within the Kurd-ish communities. Subsequently,I published an article on the in-terplay of the mosaic of ethnici-ties and religious expressions in northern Iraq at the time of the founding of the new state in the 1920s. Butnoneofmystudentsknew anything about this tiny and exotic faith even though the group received brief interna-tional attention during the Islam-ic State’s genocidal assault on them in 2014 and the horrors of entrapmentonSinjarMountain. Murad begins by telling about the Yazidi faith, life her tiny, poor, insular Yazdi village in northern Iraq, and the com-

plex interrelations of her people among the Sunni Arabs and Sunni Kurds before the coming of the Islamic State. She was21when ISIS overran her village in theSinjar region. Theykilled themen and older women and took theboystobecomeISISfighters.Her mother and six of her broth-ersweremurdered. Nadiaandhundreds of Yazidi girls became sex slaves passed around among ISIS fighters and literally sold ontheInternet.Thebulkofthebookdetails the extremely depressing account of Nadia’s horrid cap-tivity, torture, and and rape until sheescapedafterthreemonths. Beyond another example of the course theme of the place and role of women in the myriad cultures, the book affords a win-dow to discuss the manifold evil of ISIS’s religious and ethnic zeal-otry. By this point in thecourse,the students were well inundat-edwithviolencetowardwomen.The previous week, for example, they watched The Stoning of Soraya M, as gruesome a depic-tion as anyone should experi-ence. But the demonic natureofISISstruckaparticularcord. However, the political scien-tist in me also wished to address the difficulty of forging nationalidentity and political develop-ment in fracturedenvironments.The issues and questions are not unique to this region. They areglobal as already established in the course. But the effortto make Iraq work as a nation state was present at its found-

ing,and itcontinues today.TheYazedi were only one group in this ethnic and religious tapestry that included Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabaks, Armenians, both Arab and Kurd Sunnis and Shias, and the several different rival Kurdish politicalentities. A literature on the Yazidi genocide is emerging. A smallsample include Farida Khalaf’s The Girl Who Escaped ISIS [who was from the same village of Nadia]; CathyOtten’sWith Ashon Their Faces: Yezidi WomenandtheIslamicState;GharbiM.Mustafa’s novel What Comes withtheDust;andaburgeoningscholarlyliteratureaswell. Personal stories are an ef-fective tool for addressing large political issues, and the passion generated by these accounts spurs many students to a more sustained and deeper study of largerquestions.TheplightoftheYazidis is well worthy serious aca-demicattention.

Nadia Murad’s The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against

the Islamic StateReviewed by Dr. Joe P. Dunn