by Sarah Anderson
February 16, 2008

In Dubai, nine women from the same Middle Eastern country sit in a room talking about how to change their government’s policies. They have just finished a week of advocacy training, courtesy of Anne Mervenne, a longtime political activist and government relations professional.

“What other questions do you have?” Mervenne asks the women. There is only one reply, a general consensus question: “Tell us what you have done that has been really hard, but where you have succeeded in making change. We need to know there is hope for our country.”

Mervenne, co-director of Michigan State University’s unique Michigan Political Leadership Program, is used to fielding tough questions from the future political officials and activists she helps train in Michigan. But none has ever asked a question so fundamental and poignant.

Mervenne traveled to Dubai, one of seven states that make up the United Arab Emirates, last December as a trainer for the International Republican Institute. The institute is a division of President Ronald Reagan’s National Endowment for Democracy, a private nonprofit created in 1983. According to its mission statement, NED is “guided by the belief that freedom is a universal human aspiration that can be realized through the development of democratic institutions, procedures, and values…”

She became involved with the Institute through Colleen House, the well-known Michigan Republican who served in the state House with her former husband, John Engler, ran for governor before he did and worked on countless campaigns in Michigan. As the Institute’s director of international political liaison, House recruits volunteers such as Mervenne to travel the world and serve as trainers and election observers. House previously recruited Mervenne for sessions in Morocco and Cambodia.

Dubai, Mervenne says, is “like Switzerland with a nefarious underbelly.” It is considered neutral territory, allowing all countries and political persuasions to operate without question, including Iran and al-Qaida. Despite Dubai’s neutrality, Mervenne says, she won’t name the nine Arabic women for fear of political fallout in their home country.

Mervenne held a larger training session last year for women
in Morocco.

Each of the women had a unique background and practiced a different religion but shared a common goal with the others: to better their country. “They asked me, ‘Can you tell which of us is a Christian? A Muslim?’ I could not,” said Mervenne. “They didn’t want to be boxed in by sectarianism, that was very clear. They were well educated and all spoke English fluently.”

The women were recruited for the training by a Middle Eastern political operative and were there to learn how to better lobby their government. Each woman ran a Non-Governmental Organization, or NGO. The nine had never met, never spoken, never encountered one another previously. “The women did not know each other before they came to the training, which surprised me. It was a telling fact that spoke volumes about the openness in our society that we take for granted.”

Mervenne was struck by the fact that her students were putting a lot on the line by attending the training. They could have suffered serious retribution for meeting with an American, she said.

Each NGO must be licensed by the government in order to operate. However, many of the women were operating without a license, having angered their government — which believes they are too liberal, too zealous or too ardent to be allowed to operate their nonprofits. Indeed, the change they seek represents a threat to the status quo supported by the political leaders of their state. But the women persist — they hope to achieve change for the people of their country by advocating for women’s rights, humanitarian aid and children’s issues.

“They worked really, really hard,” Mervenne said, “always working through lunch and beyond the schedule. There was a curriculum, but a lot was problem solving…They wanted to learn as much as they could.”

Part of the curriculum, Mervenne said, was based on Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point. Since lobbying, for these women, had to be more covert than what Americans are used to, Mervenne told the women to make a list of contacts, of connectors, mavens and salesman, as Gladwell calls them. Because these women cannot walk into their capitol and ask outright for change they must be creative, making connections with influencers who are not policy makers, but who have a way into the policy process. Mervenne taught them that “lobbying is basically the sharing of information through relationships,” and that they needed to use the relationships they have as a means to communicate with the government.

As a longtime government relations professional, Mervenne was a logical recruit for the international program. She is president of her own Royal Oak-based firm, Mervenne and Company, which serves clients such as Focus: HOPE and the Children’s Hospital of Michigan. Mervenne started her consulting firm after 12 years working with Gov. Engler. She worked in several capacities, including special advisor, director of the governor’s Southeast Michigan office, executive director of the Michigan Women’s Commission and director of appointments.

Mervenne said she was surprised at the general good feelings the women held toward Americans. “They seemed to view Americans as generous and kind,” she said. “There was goodwill towards Americans as individuals, but not to our government.” While the women wanted change, they did not believe that the American version of democracy would work in the Middle East, and that the U.S. government couldn’t seem to understand “the Middle East and how it works — we try to impose our own will on them.” Instead, Mervenne said, she spent the week trying to arm the women with the tools of a democratic government, teaching them new ways to advocate for issues with their highly centralized government and how to best approach their government by targeting the power centers within.

Mervenne is not the only Michigander making strides in Dubai. In May 2007, Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to develop undergraduate and graduate programs and research activities in Dubai. According to the Office of the Provost, “programs offered in Dubai will be the same MSU programs offered in East Lansing and with the same MSU faculty, and the same oversight groups as on campus. All of our efforts in Dubai will fit with MSU academic priorities, standards, and expectations.” The university plans on offering undergraduate and graduate programs starting in the 2008-2009 academic years.

The University of Michigan already is offering some course work in Dubai. The Business School offers several programs through Leading Concepts, a Dubai-based organization for corporate education programs.

A woman makes her way through a
Dubai street.

Despite current turmoil in the Middle East and conflict between Islamic nations and the U.S., Mervenne says there are some positives coming out of the developing relationship. The nine women who attended the training course left armed with new advocacy skills learned from an American woman. And they acquired more than that: they left with eight new friends, eight women they could trust to help them achieve the goal of improving their homeland.

“These women took serious risks,” Mervenne said. “They learned some new skills from me, but I was so amazed at the courage of these women. We take so much for granted in so many ways. Our freedom, our liberty, our wealth; we take so much for granted.”

Sarah Anderson is a freelance writer and former House staffer and director of research and communications for the Michigan Republican Party.