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Something particularly wonderful about Jordanians is their willingness to express their opinions on any matter, at any occasion, and even when they do not know their interlocutor. I was recently at a conference where I was introduced to a group of Jordanian university graduates who had participated in European exchange programs. After I mentioned that I completed my Masters degree in Islamic law and human rights, one of them engaged me in a very passionate conversation about religion, rights and democracy. It struck me how often people downplay or aspire to democracy, depending on their background. Coming from Italy, a European country whose democracy has not properly functioned in decades, I am disenchanted with its merits and effectiveness. I listed with ease all the potential faults that a democratic system may have. My newly found conversation partner - a young man, from a young nation, surrounded by warring neighbours and cursed with resource scarcity - argued against me, complete in his belief that democracy was the key to the region’s future, the linchpin of economic growth, a tool for countering extremism and the modality for bringing his generation’s priorities into public policy.
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