As an active member, he has also signed up hundreds of others, including cousins in other parts of the world and he’s helped to organize events and conferences with the WYA Lebanon National Committee. “For us, 90% of the people in our region agree that there’s nothing controversial about WYA. Our laws prohibit abortion, assisted suicide, and euthanasia, and there are no loud voices calling to undo this. But even if we believed in these principles, we didn’t have the language to express them.”
Radwan studied the Certified Training Program (CTP) and then the Advocacy Academy, completing both while amid Law School. “To me, when you’re interested in something, you always have time. Law is what I studied, but I needed something to nourish me.”
He had a special connection to the CTP chapter on Freedom. Now, re-reading the CTP texts for weekly discussions with fellow interns led by staff in the Brussels office, he’s “really loving the chapter on the History of Ideas at the moment. You read it again, and you think, oh, why did I pass over this before? It really opens your mind to wider perspectives, and depending on what’s happening in the world, every time you read it, you see new connections.”
“We use the word education, but it’s more than education, it’s enlightenment; learning to think and to open yourself up to the world and to each other.” As we’re talking about enlightenment, the light on Radwan’s phone suddenly goes out so that only a glowing orb – the light fixture on the ceiling above – is visible. “I don’t think this is a coincidence!” he laughs.
It seems like I could make a joke about how many lawyers it takes to screw in a lightbulb. Still, this one continues in the dark, unperturbed: “…with law, there’s no space to give your opinion or analyze… local and international laws… academic modules, accreditations…you don’t have time to go into the philosophy behind the law or the reason for it. The law says: you’re not allowed to cross the street. WYA says: what is a street? Why does the street exist? Are there any other streets?”
After Law School, Radwan landed a paid internship with a Kuwait law firm based in Beirut. “The crisis in Lebanon – political, economic, banking… everything. It all started before the pandemic, with riots and strikes and protests. Then came COVID-19. No president, no government, from then to now… You wake up one morning and discover that 100,000 Lebanese lira makes one dollar-hyper, hyper, inflation. Now, the war could happen anytime… But I want to remain positive. Every day there’s a fight with life. So, I thought: I have to go. I used the money I made from the Kuwait law firm internship to attend the WYA International Solidarity Forum conference [in Spain] in-person.”