Demanding Dignity: Young Voices from the Arab Revolutions is a collection of essays written by today’s generation of Arab youth who have directly inspired and sparked a revolutionary spirit that toppled governments, unearthing the aftermath of decades of suppression in the Middle East and North Africa. Their voices are as varied as their individual stories, but their destinies are shared. They are the connected generation. Their personal stories, told by 20 contributors from 9 different countries, meet at a crossroads somewhere between journalistic first-hand reports with accessible, intimate journal entries. Inspired in part by universal human values and aspirations, each story captures the very changes revolutionizing the region: Social media's role in uniting like-minded citizens through civic engagement. A Nubian take on revolution and restitution in Egypt. A Saudi-woman who steps into the driver seat to change her daughter's future because her mother couldn't change her present. The repeated reminder of torture in daily life. The tumultuous journey as a young Egyptian navigates his travels through social and political upheavals from Egypt to Syria. Their journeys point to a vision of pan-Arab identity as seen in the manifestation of their shared spirit of connected struggles. Their voices together sound a culmination of calls for human dignity that reflect the voices of their fellow citizens and the struggles that come with challenging political, religious and conventional authorities.

Maytha Alhassen is a doctoral student candidate in American Studies & Ethnicity at University of Southern California. Alhassen’s writings have appeared on CNN, Huffington Post, Counterpunch and in academic journals, and she has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and The Nation. Ahmed Shihab-Eldin is a journalist, producer and co-host of Al Jazeera English's "The Stream." Ahmed worked as a multimedia producer at PBS’s award-winning documentary series Wide Angle, and The New York Times. He helped launch The Huffington Post’s World section.