Sarah El-Ashmawy left Egypt one week before the popular uprising of 2011. Her realization that she had become disconnected from her country led her to return and conduct conversations about responses to the revolution and its outcomes.

Sarah El-Ashmawy is a young Egyptian woman with a BA in Political Sciences and International Law from the American University in Cairo. She graduated in 2012 with High Honors. In 2009, Sarah volunteered for the Cairo based NGO "Association for Health and Environmental Development." In 2010, she became part of the newly created Anti-Trafficking Unit at the Ministry of Family and Population. In April 2012, she joined a team of researchers working on a chapter about the democratic transition in Egypt for a book by the United Nations Development Program's (UNDP) Regional Office in Cairo. In September 2012, she became Minority Rights Group International's (MRG) Program Officer, launching the implementation of an anti-religious discrimination program. Since then, Sarah has worked with religious minorities in Egypt to build a strong network advocating greater religious freedom. She has also worked as a research assistant for the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) on the upgrading of their Social Assessment Manual and as a research assistant for the UNDP working on a synopsis of their Governance Week Conference held in Cairo in November 2012. She is currently a Masters' Student at the School of Oriental and African Studies, pursuing a degree in Violence, Conflict and Development, while she continues to be part of the Egypt programme team at MRG.

At TEDxExeter 2014, our speakers and performers connected us with other worlds. Our talks exposed corruption in big business, shared effective approaches to tackling social inequality and gave a voice to those whose human rights are under threat. We explored the impact of fast changing technologies on all our lives. We journeyed through fire and forest to frozen landscapes. We were challenged to consider worlds of extremes, cutting edge controversies and risky opportunities.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx