Category: IGL Programs

By: Magali Ortiz

After a week of researching street art in Amman, my eyes are constantly on the lookout for graffiti and murals. So when our group embarks on a road trip to Wadi Rum and Petra, it’s impossible not to notice the stray graffiti here and there on the side of the road. Even as we get into remote stretches of desert, the occasional structure that pops up is almost always tagged, marked by someone’s spray can. Only once do I see graffiti at the base of a rocky mountain. I add a note to my mental list of the unwritten rules of graffitiing: don’t vandalize natural structures. This proves true in Petra, where street artists have repeatedly tagged the little shops and stands that dot the long hike through the wind-chiseled rocks, but not the rocks themselves, which are already streaked with color. Near the top, just a few minutes from the monastery, I have to laugh when I see a tag by an artist I recognize – SINER, one of the most prolific graffiti artists in Amman. Of course he would bring a spray can to Petra.

It’s a fun game to play – once you know a street artist’s signature, you start spotting it everywhere. As we drive back into the city Saturday afternoon, I point out a piece by MIG overlooking the highway. He’s someone the whole group has learned to spot, not only because of his style and signature robot, but because he’s literally everywhere in Amman. When I interviewed him earlier in the week, he showed me his Google Maps app, where he marks every potential spot for his art. The screen is so covered with blue markers that in some places it’s difficult to make out the map underneath. 

Saturday evening, when I discuss the city’s street art with Sardine, he uses MIG as an example of how dedicated some street artists can be. Sardine, AKA Mike Derderian, has been in the graffiti game for a long time. We’ve been trying to find a time to meet since I landed in Amman, but it wasn’t until his art show that our schedules managed to line up. The show is hosted at F.A.D.A.317, Sardine’s studio and the only one in the city dedicated to street artists. Although he still goes out to spray paint frequently – Sardine’s characters can be seen all over the city – he has started to focus more on other art forms, such as his short film Geisha L.O.V.E., which debuts that evening. Nevertheless, he still knows everyone involved in Amman’s small but constantly growing street art scene. His show features collaborations with a variety of local artists, and during our talk in his office, he constantly mentions muralists and graffiti artists, often pointing out their art on his walls. Afterwards, when we venture back out into the art show, he introduces me to other artists, some that I’ve met, others that I only recognize from their art that I’ve seen walking around the city. Naji AlAli is yet another of the truly dedicated – his lemonheads can be seen all over, including at the entrance to F.A.D.A.317.

Walking back to our hotel from the studio through Al-Weibdeh and Wasat Al-Balad, street art adorns most of the walls that I pass. Some of it is the casual, fast work of artists like SINER or MIG, some are small murals done by the likes of Sardine or Yaratun, or bigger street art crews. On one busy street, you can find a host of murals by renown artists like Suhaib Attar, done during different years of Baladk, an annual street art festival hosted by Amman’s Al-Balad theater. Somehow, it has become second nature to recognize styles, signatures, tags. It’s my last evening in the city, and I’ve only been here a short while, but I feel a deep sense of familiarity with its walls. After all my conversations with artists about the future of Amman’s street art, I wonder what the city will look like on my next visit, and how the medium will continue to take hold in other cities like Irbid and Petra, as well as all the long highways in between.

By: Miles Guerin

In Jordan, the majority of university students are women. Though despite educational attainment, Jordan has one of the lowest employment rates for women; not just in the region, but in the world. In my research, I hope to understand what systemic barriers exist for women in Jordan, and better understand the sorts of initiatives NGOs and the Jordanian government are undertaking to help reach gender parity in the labor force.

After interviewing academics and USAID representatives earlier in the week, today we were conducting our first interview with representatives from the Jordanian government. With the sun barely risen over the many hills of Amman, we made our way over to the central office of the Jordanian Cooperative Corporation— a governmental organization set up to oversee the formation, regulation, and development of all economic cooperatives in the country. There, we met with a representative who spoke to the country’s current strategies regarding the development of the sector, and existing barriers to female labor force participation. The representative mentioned that while Jordan’s agricultural sector receives aid from USAID and related programs, what is really needed for expansion of the sector is technology transfer from the US and other donor countries. Additionally, while Jordan has a relatively large public sector, limited growth in the private sector has put undue pressure on hiring in the public sector. As a result, fewer women are being selected to fill positions in the cooperative sector.

In the afternoon, we made our way to west Amman where we met with the head of UN Women in Jordan. In our conversation, he covered UN Women’s current initiatives for increasing Jordanian women’s economic empowerment, as well as initiatives for Syrian women living in Azraq and Zaatari. In speaking with UN Women, we found that the largest barriers to women attempting to engage in the labor force are the lack of reliable transportation, cultural norms, but also the lack of opportunities outside of the public sector. Given funding limitations, UN Women has sought to work with the Jordanian private sector to expand equity messaging to seek foreign investment from impact investors outside of Jordan.

After a morning full of interviews, a group of us made our way back to the neighborhood of Jabal Al-Weibdeh where we embarked on a tour of the city’s vibrant street art scene. In Amman, it’s hard to walk more than a couple feet without seeing a breathtaking mural, or a tag tucked away in one of Amman’s many alleys and sleepy side-streets. The street art scene not only envelopes Amman in a dazzling palette of color, but also serves as an expression of youth that envision a more progressive Amman. Of the 50 or so street artists that are most active in Amman, 35 are women. So, while many barriers still exist in the country, the youth are seeking to build an Amman, to build a Jordan, that is reflective of country’s true diversity.

By: Seif Zrelli

I started my day with an enriching interview with Dr. Jalal Al Husseini, a researcher and fellow at the French Institute for the Near East here in Amman. I learned a lot about the history of Jordanian-Israeli relations—why and how they came to be. From late King Hussein’s reasonings and strategies to the London negotiations, Jordan was unlike any other Arab country before the Abraham Accords. After Jamal Abdennasser had made a cold peace with the Jewish State, Jordan’s late king was aiming for a warm peace. Although Israel was and still is largely viewed as an occupying power, a colonial project that perpetuates the Western tradition in the region, late King Hussein was hosting huge waves of refugees from the Nakba while negotiating a pathway to peace with the Israelis. Palestinians in Jordan are today thought to be a majority by all scholars I have met with so far, although the census does not ask about origins anymore.

 On my way there, I was reminded by my first taxi driver of the stories that fall under the theme of my research topic. I am very grateful I speak Arabic because, throughout this trip, I got to spark conversations with taxi drivers who tell me about their families coming to Jordan from Palestine in 1948, 1967, or even from Kuwait in 91. Some share that they have decided to apply for a visa through the Israeli Embassy in Amman to be able to visit their families and homeland in Palestine, while others stick to a strict boycott of the Occupation. Some even opened up about their desire for peace in the whole region and for reconciliation among all peoples and countries, almost regardless of the generational trauma they deal with because of their displacement and occupation. I enjoy research and International Relations at large because I believe human connections and stories are at the core of it all. Beyond International Law and global governance, Jordan has been and still is home to millions of stories I am very happy I got to hear.

As a team of 8 Tufts students traveling together, we get to gain and learn a lot from each other. In fact, I connected Dr. Al Husseini with three of my friends researching Palestinian identity in Jordan, support for Palestinian refugees, and even economic opportunities for women. On my end, I also was able to connect with Dr. Oraib Al Rantawi, a lead scholar on Israeli policy, history, and foreign relations at the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Center for Political Studies, located here in Amman. I look forward to meeting with him tomorrow morning—Friday.

By Sofia Ladak

Today is our second full day in Jordan, which means that we are finally slipping into the rhythm of the city of Amman. We have all felt incredibly well received in this country, and are very much enjoying our time here.
Leo and I started off our day with the most incredible interview! We met with an NGO called Questscope which was founded out of the UK, and has a branch in Amman with an almost fully Jordanian team.

Leo started off the conversation focusing less on Questscope and more on trying to get a sense of the Palestinian identity in Jordan, as it just so happened to be that both women we spoke to were of Palestinian decent. It was extremely interesting, even for me whose research focus is quite different, to hear them speak about how much they feel they and their families have been able to integrate into Jordanian society, starkly contrasting some of the conversations Leo had had the day before.

Afterwards, we shifted over to speak about Questscope and their mission, which is to provide education, namely non-formal education, to more vulnerable populations around Jordan, including drop out and refugee children. One of the large takeaways I’ve been having from every interview is that there is very much a need to focus on the question of “what happens next?”. Jordan unfortunately has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world, and many organizations seem to feel that closing that gap has to be done through the private sector. Additionally, I’ve been finding it very interesting that most organizations work very closely with the Ministry of Education.

One aspect of the interview that really resonated with me was when I complemented them on the work that they’ve been doing. I was met with the response “but we are not happy” because they find it to be a sometimes frustrating and slow process. While they realize they are making a difference, it just takes more time than they would hope, which can often be the case with such NGO’s.

Moving forward in my day, I then went to my second interview at the Queen Rania Teacher Foundation. In all honesty, this was a less positive experience as they were not as welcoming or informative. It was interesting to see the contrast of different types of NGO’s, even considering their location as this took place about 30 minutes away from the city center in a large “Business Park” of many offices. Nonetheless, I was able to understanding how much they also work with the Ministry of Education; none of these organizations seem to operate independently. While I am aware that unless you align with the Ministry’s goals, there might be little you can do, I did not grasp from my research how much of a symbiosis relationship they really have.

As a result, my next goal is to be able to speak to the Ministry of Education, as they are much harder to reach than other organizations, especially for an in-person appointment. Inshallah it happens!