Stories of Change

Since the end of 2010, the popular uprisings against established powers across North Africa and Middle East have been making news headlines. The Arab Spring is among the most thoroughly photographed events in recent history. People in the streets using their mobile phones to register incidents they were eyewitness to, local journalists as well as camera crews and freelance photographers dispatched by international media recording the deve lopments from day to day. Our perception of Arab Spring is marked by dramatic images of key moments during the uprisings. Demonstrators taking over Tahrir Square in Cairo and engaging in violent clashes with the security forces and supporters of Presiden t Mubarak; the storming of Colonel Gaddafis compound in Tripoli, Libya, by rebels and the capture of the leader himself weeks later. Major changes in the power relations have taken place since then: in Egypt and Tunisia, the resignation of the countrys p resident, and in Libya, the fall of the leader and the first free elections in 60 years. In other countries, protests have not lead to a revolution, but they are facing challenges from local issues and from the effects of the global economic crisis. H ow we ll do we know the region beyond the headlines though ? What has been impact of the events on peoples everyday life? Many of the issues that fueled the uprisings remain unresolved: a high level of youth unemployment, the rising cost of living , womens right s etc. What is really going on in the homes and in the streets of the cities in the region? What do people worry or dream about? Stories of Change challenges our perceptions of the region and brings to the foreground a local perspective in reporting. Through stories produced exclusively for this book , and shown here for the first time, we are offered an insider view into the lives of people in a reg ion that rarely has left news headlines, but that only few of us know beyond the one - dimensional headline news images flashed