User:Wassem01/sandbox

This is my new wiki account

Middle Eastern Influences
The influence of social media in parkour culture has allowed this action sport to have a broader impact in many diverse regions all throughout the world. Parkour is not defined by a set of rules or guidelines which has allowed youth to explore and engage in the sport. Thus, it can be easily accepted by all cultures as a means for art expression and for the purpose of sport recreation.

The increased globalization of parkour over the past decade has had a significant impact on Middle Eastern action sport culture. From a global perspective, parkour as an individualized free form sport has played a tremendous role on the cultures of large populations of youth all across the Arab World. The Middle Eastern involvement in free running practices has led to the development of newly adopted identities that promote individual creativity through movement and thought.

Young men in Gaza have developed a parkour group unique to their own social, cultural, economic, physical and psychological obstacles. The transnational parkour community has inspired youth to express their parkour endeavors through social media. Freerunning has been documented in Middle Eastern cultures more prevalently via the increased availability of photo and video technology as well as easy access and sharing through social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

In 2010, The New York Times revealed a short clip,, featuring three young men from the Gaza Strip that are active participants in the parkour community. Through visual media, this widely resourced news site has made global the efforts that these parkour activists in the Middle East have made in their communities. Marked by extreme poverty and political controversy, many Middle Easterners use parkour as a form of freedom expression.

Despite the surge in parkour sport in the Middle East, there is opposition to the movement. Many people in the region feel that the rise in parkour is a rebel movement of the youth generation. These opinions are mostly held by older generations. A video posted by BBC News further supports the struggles faced by parkour enthusiasts in their community.