IBB Update: Substack, Social Media, and Societal Improvements.
IBB Update: Substack, Social Media, and Societal Improvements.
We're launching our Substack, a social media platform, and Afghan Girls (into a better future)!
If you’re new to these updates, then welcome! If not, welcome back!
Up until yesterday the only way you could access this newsletter was to sign up for our emails at our website. However, we will be posting these updates here on the Substack as well from now on the day after the emails go out.
This week marks the official launch of the Ideas Beyond Borders Substack!
Keep scrolling to learn everything you need to know about our newest publication program. We also have an Innovation Hub update on a new social media platform we are helping to launch, testimonies from Afghan mothers on the challenges of providing an education for their daughters, an overview of our wildly successful House of Wisdom program's progress this past six months, and a new article from our founder Faisal on overcoming American cynicism.
All of this progress is possible due to the generosity of our donors and subscribers. All content on this substack will always be free. However, all the money we gather from paid subscriptions will go directly to our programs. We would be incredibly grateful to have you alongside us in our mission: getting good ideas into the places they are needed most. If you would like to help with this journey, then please…
Substacks: Ideas Beyond Borders &
The International Correspondent
IBB's official Substack launched yesterday with a new profile on one of our Afghan translators.
This Substack will be a place to keep in touch with everything going on at Ideas Beyond Borders. We will be publishing frequent updates on our many programs, profiles on the Humans of IBB: the people we are working with behind the scenes to help make inaccessible ideas accessible, in-depth interviews with the authors of the books we are translating, essays from contributors working on the front lines of the battle for good ideas, and much more! Make sure to sign up for emails so you can keep up to date with all the exciting news we've got coming up.
All IBB Substack content will always be free for everyone. However, all of the money from any paid Substack subscriptions will go directly towards supporting our mission: getting good ideas where they are needed most. All of our programs, from the underground girls’ schools in Afghanistan to the microgrants we issue to the Middle Eastern leaders of tomorrow, are made possible by the generosity of friends like you.
Also, the latest release of The International Correspondent, Faisal's personal publication, details his journey in overcoming American cynicism. Make sure to give it a read and subscribe to his Substack as well. Where IBB's Substack will focus on the organization and the mission, the "what" in what we are doing, Faisal will use his platform to focus on the people we are working to help, the "why" in why we get out of bed every morning. Both publications are intended to work in concert with each other, and if you're only getting one you're only hearing half the story we have to tell.
Innovation Hub: UCONVO
One of our latest Innovation Hub grants is going to Khaldoon Alghanimi to support his project of creating a social media platform for the Middle East that will focus on free speech and honest, open conversation. He hopes that the platform, entirely staffed by volunteers who share a commitment to free expression, will attract those willing to learn from and converse with others.
When we shut down conversation and ban speech we don't change the underlying ideas. Left to fester, those thoughts that start out as innocuous curiosity can become intolerant and cruel. Alghanimi knows this all too well. He has two fatwas placed against him and, when visiting Iraq in 2013, he barely escaped an assassination attempt when he was shot at in the street. This only fulled his desire to speak openly though, so in 2014 he founded Free Mind TV, a station dedicated to exploring controversial topics and encouraging people in the MENA region to come together.
UCONVO is a platform built in the same image. Its taken years to build and finance but backed with our Innovation Hub grant Alghanimi will be ready to launch in September 2022.
“The world needs more dialogue and ideas and less censorship whether it’s coming from the state or imposed by the self... This will be a platform where you don’t have to be someone else; you don’t have to pretend. You are entitled to have your opinion, no matter what opinion you have” - Faisal Saeed Al Mutar
To learn more about our partnership with UCONVO, click here.
House of Wisdom 2.0 Update
Our House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Ḥikmah) 2.0 program has been an incredible success for the first six months of 2022. We have translated over 600,000 words for a total of eight books.Our team now contains eight members so that's an entire book per person, or roughly 75,000 words each!
But thats not all.
With our social media content, we have reached nearly 30 million people so far in 2022.
We've increased our follower count by 137 thousand people, have over 120 thousand views on Youtube, and have over 2.4 million Instagram impressions!
We have also created over 2600 Wikipedia articles in Arabic with over 53 million total reads! We've also added 1,740 Pashto articles with 169 thousand reads and 757 Dari articles with 93 thousand reads.
And this is just the first 6 months!
All these numbers represent a massive success, both for our House of Wisdom team and for the ideas they have been disseminating across the MENA region. With every new day and each outstanding success, our translation program continues to grow, changing the minds and unlocking the futures of countless people across the Middle East.
With the House of Wisdom, we can empower every single person looking to learn in the Middle East.
To learn more about the House of Wisdom, click here.
Want to learn more? Read on! Drop us a line and let us know your thoughts at communications@ideasbeyondborders.org
Afghan Mothers Fighting For Their Daughters.
Up until last August, these girls had a real chance at a real future. Now, a year later, students are still struggling to come to terms with Taliban rule. Their mothers are terrified of the consequences should their daughters get caught trying to attend school, but they're even more afraid for their futures without an education.
Read our interviews with them here.
Most people moved on from the Fall of Kabul quite quickly, caught up in the next news cycle. We all remember the videos of men clinging to planes, trying to fly away from the encroaching tsunami of theocratic terror. But those who couldn't leave, especially the young girls who had their futures washed away, still need our help.
"I was 17 when the Taliban came to power. I had been studying biology and chemistry because I wanted to be a doctor and do medical science at university, but all those dreams were dashed. My family emigrated to Iran for a better life, but I couldn’t study there either because Afghan refugees didn’t have the right to attend Iranian schools or universities." - Maryam
"The achievements of my daughters and many other women like them will be lost and destroyed. I am concerned for their safety when they go off to school but I want them to follow their dreams of education, I don’t want them to be uneducated like their mother. I want them to be useful people in their country, and to bring peace and equality to Afghanistan through their education." - Nikbakht
"I want my daughter to be independent and achieve her goals. Ideally, I’d prefer her to stay in Afghanistan and use her education here as this is our country – even if we leave and ignore our roots, our future will be this homeland." - Somaya
To learn more about how you can help, click here.
Its been a year.
Many moved on, but these girls are still there.
We wont be going anywhere
