The Iraqi native Yale World Fellow Ahmed Al Basheer visited class of Advanced Arabic I to help them with their project in which they had to create a short video with a two-fold purpose; the first was to include information they have learned about the Arab world and the second to use this information in their video in a way that would break some stereotypes some people have about Arabs and Arab countries, specifically targeted towards prospective students and families of Arabic who may wish to consider studying Arabic in the region . Videos were to be used on the department official website.

Ahmed Albasheer is an Iraqi comedian, journalist, director, and host of The Albasheer Show, a weekly political satire program that humorizes Iraqi politics. Heavily influenced by comedians Jon Stewart and George Carlin, Ahmed began the show in 2014 as a tool to fight corruption, sectarianism, extremism, and terrorism in Iraq and the surrounding region. Having been banned from Iraqi television station, the show is recorded in Jordan and Turkey and broadcast weekly YouTube, Facebook, and Deutsche Welle’s Arabic channel. It reaches a weekly audience of over 7 million people, the majority of whom area under age 30. Ahmed was born and raised in Anbar, Iraq, fleeing the country in 2011 after suffering injuries by a suicide bomber. He trained as a traditional journalist before switching to political satire, believing the latter to be a more effective tool of communication and influence. Ahmed has been named one of the twenty most influential people in the Arab World by Swiss-based Global Influence Research Centre.

See FB post here.

Yale World Fellows 2019 at Closing Ceremony