Chapter 2: Identities, Values and Civic Participation

Five key cross-cutting findings emerge from the analysis of attitudes and values among youth in Arab countries on the individual, the family, the polity and society. Youth experience less satisfaction and are able to exercise less control over their future than otherwise similar youth elsewhere in the world. This difference exists despite the Arab region’s shift towards more socially open values in recent years, including growing support for gender equality and greater civic involvement. However, the region’s youth remain conservative in many dimensions compared with youth in countries at similar levels of development, especially on gender equality, the separation of religion and the state, social and religious tolerance, and obedience. Opinions have changed markedly in two directions since the uprisings of 2011: one liberating and one conservative. There are large variations, but the region shows many commonalities, as demonstrated most dramatically by the rapid spread of fresh political ideas emanating from the uprisings.