User:M.Tlg/sandbox

Mona Shahien

An Egyptian leader, she is the Founder and director of the Tahrir lounge @Goethe and the Arab eLearning hub, co-founder of TLG media Academy TEDx Speaker , social and cultural innovator , Ideanator , small to medium business consultant.

Mona is a renowned social and political young activist in Egypt. Currently, she is the founder and director of the Tahrir Lounge project at the Goethe Institute in Cairo. A project that is considered one of the strongest awareness building platforms and hubs for civil society and youth led initiatives, in which they receive capacity building through workshops, seminars, youth camps and other activities related to democratic transformation, freedom of expression and human rights. The project is one of the very successful initiatives in Egypt that emerged from the revolution inspiring change in youth. The project currently serves about 1 million citizens from all around Egypt who come to the Tahrir Lounge for the purposes of networking and capacity building. Before starting the Tahrir Lounge Mona has worked in media, communication and marketing, as a journalist and a researcher since her graduation from the faculty of Mass communication in 2006. In 2005, she made a comparative study about e-learning and its role in development for women in the Middle East region a comparative study between Yemen, United Arab of Emirates and Egypt. She then became an active figure in the civil society and political spheres. In 2010, she became the environment shadow minister for the youth government established by the Reform and Development Party in Egypt. She organized several media activities as a film director and producer before the revolution and she received an award for media coverage of child rights from National Council for childhood and Motherhood the highest governmental authority. Furthermore, Mona has been chosen as a judge in many competitions for innovation and creation also as on the representative for the UNESCO "Let us learn" campaign for improving female access to education in Egypt and fight illiteracy. Recently Mona was selected as an “ideanator” (idea's generator) at TEDx event as one of the most active young leaders in Egypt and as an inspiring model to encourage youth to be creative and positive whilst being active in the society.

Mona is a leading cultural manager in Egypt, she designed hundreds of projects since she started the Tahrir lounge also a founding member of the Networking Arab civic education network -Nace.