With only one week left in Amman, the groups began the process of compiling their thoughts and notes into a form that is more conducive to creating clear and concise policy recommendations. In order to achieve this end, each group had lengthy and at times heated discussions that ran through the course of the day. Despite this fact, there is still research to be done, and each of the groups intends to meet with one or more contacts prior to the conclusion of our time in Amman.
For example, today the Political Reform group met with Asma Khader of the Hashemite Fund for Human Development. During this meeting, the group shed further light on several issues. Foremost among these was a better understanding of women's continuing participation in civil society and electoral politics. Mrs. Khader disscussed how the US faced problems and sensitivity when promoting certain women's issues. Along these lines, she acknowledged that it is important to "respect every human's right to believe, but not to be controlled by believers." While stressing the problem of religious extremism in the Middle East, Mrs. Khader also brought up the subject of religion in the West and challenged some of our ideas regarding religion and freedom in American society.
Our initial drafts of the policy memos are due tomorrow night and we look forward to a busy day of synthesizing information and putting it into a manageable form tomorrow.
While the first part of our project is coming to a close, we are only just beginning to get into the substance of the project and we are excited to see where the next phase in our studies will take us.
Alex B + Chas
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