Blog archive all
17th November 2010
The inhabitants of Arab countries – unlike Her Majesty's subjects here in Britain – are not generally expected to take an interest in the family lives of their rulers. In fact, it's a subject that ordinary Arabs, even if they do happen to be curious, are rarely permitted to know much about.
I was… Read more
16th November 2010
The case of Ahmed Shaaban, the Egyptian teenager who died after being arrested by police in Alexandria, is now beginning to attract attention. The BBC and al-Jazeera have both reported the story. So far, the Egyptian media are generally being more circumspect, though Youm7 website (in Arabic)… Read more
15th November 2010
Yemeni warplanes attacked what are described as al-Qaeda hideouts in the Bani Dhabyan territory east of Sanaa yesterday, according to local reports (Yemen Post in English and Mareb Pressin Arabic).
Significantly, perhaps, the reported use of Yemeni air power comes in the midst of a debate about the… Read more
15th November 2010
Six months after 28-year-old Khaled Said died while being arrested in Alexandria, there are claims of another death at the hands of officers from the same police station.
The family of 19-year-old Ahmed Shaaban say he was arrested along with several friends for not showing their ID cards to… Read more
15th November 2010
More information has emerged about Kareem Amer, the Egyptian blogger who remains in detention despite completing a four-year jail sentence last Friday.
The Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) says he was transferred from Burj al-Arab prison on Saturday to the State… Read more
14th November 2010
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph today, the new head of Britain's armed forces, General Sir David Richards, says there will be no "clear-cut victory" against Islamist militancy, though it can be contained.
"In conventional war," he tells the paper, "defeat and victory is very clear cut and… Read more
13th November 2010
Writing in the Waq al-Wag blog, Gregory Johnsen refers to the case of eight men who were apparently arrested by mistake during a raid against al-Qaeda in Yemen. After almost two months in detention they have now been released, thanks to the efforts of a tribal sheikh.
Incidents like this are not at… Read more
12th November 2010
On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia was elected to the executive board of UN Women, a new body which merges the activities of four previously separate UN agencies – with a vastly increased budget of at least $500m a year.
Saudi Arabia's inclusion in the 41-member board of an organisation that will promote… Read more
12th November 2010
The extraordinary tale of Walid Husayin, a quiet barber from the West Bank who dutifully went with his family to the mosque every Friday – while secretly posting atheist rants on Facebook – is reported by various news websites this morning, including al-Arabiya.
Among other things, he is said to… Read more
11th November 2010
I have written an article for Comment Is Free which pulls together various strands from the Saudi story of the fatwa against female cashiers in supermarkets (which I reported here earlier). My Cif article adds some analysis and discusses the wider implications of the affair for Saudi Arabia.
As… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
