Episode Transcript
Hello, my name is Aziz and I'm the son of a divorced mother. She is really my superhero.
That's why it's important for me to support women to share their uniqueness, their personalities,
their perspectives and emotions about this world. In these difficult times in human history,
we need to bring the people of the world together. And when we hear the voices of women, when
we listen to real lives of women from other countries, we connect our cultures without
differences or stereotypes and we get inspired by their stories to live a better life. That's
what this podcast is all about. My guest today is Shahid Kreed. Shahid is a 17 years old
Tunisian girl who is a member of the Tunisian Child Parliament, the representative of Tunisia
in the Arab Child Parliament, the Tunisian childhood ambassador for peace and solidarity,
a radio host and a young researcher at UNICEF. Shahid loves reading, volunteering, association
work and discovering new cultures. She speaks Arabic, French, English and Italian. Shahid
participated in the Arab Girls Summit and she is very interested in defending women's
rights. Shahid, how are you today? Hello, Mr. Aziz. I'm doing great. What about you?
I'm feeling happy. I'm feeling lucky and honored to have you here and very curious about you.
So let's begin with a nice small question, which is if your friends could describe your
personality, what would they say about you? To my mind, I have a nice personality. I'm
cool, active, ambitious. I dreamt a lot to fulfill all my dreams and to become a strong
and dependent woman. I want to make a change in my society so that I'm an optimistic person.
I love that attitude. It's so positive. And let's begin with understanding how are Tunisian
teenage girls? If someone doesn't know any Tunisian people or has never visited Tunisia,
how would you describe the culture, the attitude and the mindset now of Tunisian teenage girls?
The culture of Tunisia, the attitude and the opinion of Tunisian girls, I think it is so
special because Tunisian girls are strong, generous. They made a lot of sacrifice to
develop their country. They are also a hardworking women. They have many hobbies and dreams.
They are a welcoming people. We are also an ambitious girls and we have a nice idol. Like
the first headmaster of our government is a girl in the Arab world so that it is so
inspiring to us to become and to fulfill all my dreams.
I encourage your inspiration and therefore you want to develop your country, you want
to develop the situation of Tunisian adolescent girls. What do you want to change? What specific
attitudes do you want to improve? What do you feel needs development?
Actually, Tunisia, my country is very developed in the files of human rights. Add to this,
Tunisian women enjoy all their rights under the law. But we still have challenges. I think
we need to protect women in general and especially girls from all forms of violence and gender-based
discrimination and also enabling her to take leadership roles with her full rights.
That's very good and I agree Tunisia has a lot of history in the Arab world to be a pioneer
in women's rights, et cetera. And to ask you as a person, how did your motivation begin?
I mean, you are very active. You do a lot of association work, a lot of volunteering.
Maybe some people don't know how you started. So how did you begin this involvement with
the development of children, of girls in Tunisia? What is your story?
Volunteering is a beating heart of me. I found it so exciting. It is a lifetime experience
and you should try it. I started volunteering work since I was 12 years old. I was a child,
but I feel the responsibility of representing my country in international forms. I'm proud
of myself and of all I have done. I was elected from that early age from the elite of children
of my country to represented in all over the world. It is a good experience for me because
I love helping people. I love children, especially. I'm 17 years old, but I think I'm still a
kid. I'm still a child. I love playing. I love helping. I am an active person and I
love it and encourage all girls who are listening to me to be inactive and to perseverant women.
And you should make a change in your country. You should be responsible. You should rely
on yourself. And it is a good opportunity for you to know yourself and to become more
responsible and more sociable. And that's it.
Thank you. I can feel your ambition. And I imagine in the future when you go to university,
there is a field that supports your work to develop your country that you're interested
in. So what do you want to study and why?
Actually, I want to become a lawyer, to advocate human rights and to become an active person
in my society. And also, I want to protect women and children in general from all forms
of violence and gender-based discrimination because I'm so interested in this field and
I want to become more professional in it.
I like that you're making your dream one of your ambitions and goals and actively work
towards it. And therefore, I'm really curious about this. You want to develop Tunisia. What
is unique about the Tunisian culture among all the other Arab countries? Can you describe
maybe the history, the tradition, the attitude of the people, why people should visit?
I think Tunisian culture and Tunisian in general is so special. There is so much to see in
each region of Tunisia. There are a wide variety of everything. We have a fantastic tradition
and customs and rich historical heritage. So this North African country has its own.
So it is time to plan your holiday and to see our fantastic heritage and our fantastic
museum, our fantastic culture. So that is it.
Thank you. And I know that you love reading. What kinds of books are you interested in?
Is there a character or some characters that inspire you, that make you want to become
even like them, strong, independent women or people? Can you tell me about this hobby
that you have?
Since I was a child, I like reading all types of books. There is no specific books because
I find them so exciting. They inspire me to do more things in my life. They give me positive
energy and especially it is an escape from the world. And it is a good opportunity for
me to think about my future plans and my hobbies and all I want.
Thank you. And when there are plans, of course, sometimes there are difficulties and obstacles.
What inspires you when times are difficult, when the plans have some problems that you
need to solve. It's often frustrating for some people who can get angry or give up.
But how do you keep yourself moving towards your goals?
Actually, it is a good question. And it is a golden opportunity to me to thank my mom
for all her support in my life. I'm her little girl and I'm alone at home. I'm her unique
girl. She is my superhero. She pushed me up in every difficulty. She gives me the strength.
She encouraged me to fulfill my dreams and to continue in the path of success. She is
my idol, my powerful woman. I really adore her and I want to thank her for everything.
Since I was a child to this moment, thank you mommy for everything. And I'm strong for
you, for your dreams. And I hope you are listening to me now and you are proud of your little
girl.
I'm sure she is very proud of you and Tunisia, all of it is very proud of you. Keep going.
And I noticed that you speak multiple languages. It means you like to learn languages. You're
a polyglot. What is interesting to you about learning languages? Why is it something important?
How do you do it? Because sometimes it can be difficult, especially you're very busy.
Tell me about how you learn. Why do you choose Italian language, for example, or any other?
Tell me the details.
I really like learning languages because I like traveling and discovering other culture
and the world. I choose Italian specifically because I already studied at school and I
still study it now. I found it an interesting language and an easy one so that I adore the
Italian culture and I really want to visit Italy one day. Also, I know speaking French
because it is the second language in Tunisia. Thus, I learned it since primary school and
I found it an interesting language so that I want to learn more languages to become more
open of the world and discovering other culture.
I love that. And tell me about your interest in other cultures. Why is it exciting to discover
new cultures? How does it make you feel? Tell me about this.
Discovering other cultures makes me so interested and I want to know this, to become open from
the world. I want to communicate with other girls and other teenagers from other worlds.
I want to improve my skills in communication. In other words, I want to share with them
experience because they maybe inspired me to fulfill my dreams, to develop my country.
So it is a golden opportunity to me to become a more strong and dependent woman, to improve
my personality and so that to become a cool, a smart person, a funny one, so that to become
more sociable with them and it helped me in my professional career later.
Yes, you'll become a lawyer and I'm curious, are you going to study the law of your country,
of Tunisia, or become more of an international lawyer or an Arabic law international lawyer
or become a judge or become a politician and also go into different government positions
in your country or what is your big dream and ambition?
First of all, I want to study the law of Tunisia because it is so interesting. I want to know
more about this because I'm interested in that field. Since I was a child, I want to
be more professional and why not in the future, I want to be an international lawyer to advocate
human rights and especially children. I want to work in association work and the United
Nations also like UNICEF, like this filed, I want to dream bigger, to realize that dreams
and to become an activist in my society and why not help children from all over the world.
I agree with your attitude. I encourage your ambition and there are many factors like social
media, like the pandemic and social isolation and quarantine that too many children and
young girls, they stayed away from people. They feel now more shy, more reserved, less
confident, less able to take action and go after their dreams with more fears. So what
is your advice to Tunisian adolescent girls who maybe have their confidence lower, maybe
they are, because of the pandemic, a bit more shy in order to become strong independent
women and help develop their country? What is your advice?
My advice to all girls who are listening to me and the Tunisian girls also, you should
believe in yourself. No matter what, you have to give yourself a chance to try and to continue
your path to success. You should fix your goals, your perspective. You should be a unique
one. You should believe in yourself and no more, you should not compare yourself from
other girls. You should be your own idol. You should make your own experience and you
will not give up. You will be the nice and the super and the best one.
I really, really like that. And I'm curious, what inspires your ambition? I know you spoke
about your mom. Is it your mom that is someone with also a lot of dreams, a lot of ambitions?
Or is it when you are young, do you watch some ambitious cartoons or read some ambitious
novels and books that inspired you or are you born this way? Tell me about this. And
do you have a lot of friends who are similar to you or is this something you want to inspire
other people to be?
I think since I was a child, I was inspired by books, by cartoons, but I was born like
that. I believe that I am a great person and I want to develop my skills to become, to
become more sociable, more active in the society. And I want to inspire other girls, my friends
also to become like me. I want to become her idol. Why not? Leader of them to continue
on my path, to see them more successful, more active in the society. And why not? I will
help them and I'm here for them in any time.
Thank you. And thank you for this very, very kind message. And just for people who are
wondering, what are you currently working on? What are some projects or parliamentary
events or anything that you're working on currently and that you're helping to develop
in your country and for children and adolescents in Tunisia?
I'm already a member of the Arab Child Parliament representing my country, Tunisia. I'm always
working on developing my country and the children rights. I'm already a member of the Arab
Child Parliament representing my country so that the decision makers have an idea about
the problems in my country. And it is a good opportunity to them to know how to deal with
this problem. I also work with UNICEF about climate change and its impact of the children
rights. I also participate in the Arab Summit Girl in Jordan in November. And it was a golden
opportunity to me to advocate girls rights in Tunisia and all over the world.
Thank you so much, Chad. This was my privilege and my honor to include you in this podcast,
to hear your voice, to understand your ambitions and perspectives. I wish you success in your
future law study. I wish you success in your ambition to be a strong independent woman.
And I wish you success in helping all the Tunisian girls and the Arab girls and children
and adolescents. Thank you again for participating in this podcast.
Thank you, Mr. Aziz. I'm honored to be a part of this project. I'm lucky to have this nice
and funny conversation. Thank you for this opportunity. And don't miss the opportunity
to fulfill your project. I'm so proud of you. Thank you for giving me the chance and see
you.
Thank you, too.
