Blog archive all
9th November 2010
More signs of political in-fighting in Libya. Twenty journalists working for al-Ghad publishing company – run by Colonel Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam – have been arrested by the Internal Security Agency during the last few days, though according to AFP, the Libyan leader has now ordered their… Read more
9th November 2010
I really didn't mean to keep going on about Saudi Arabia but sometimes it's difficult to stop.
The Jeddah-based Arab News has been talking to a Saudi woman who was married at 13 to a man she had never seen (though, helpfully, her mother and sisters were allowed to describe him to her). The woman,… Read more
8th November 2010
In 2007, a 22-year-old Egyptian blogger known as Kareem Amerwas given a four-year prison sentence for "spreading information disruptive of public order and damaging to the country’s reputation", "incitement to hate Islam" and "defaming the president of the republic". He was the first Egyptian to be… Read more
8th November 2010
Considering the general preoccupation with religion in Saudi Arabia, you might think the kingdom has more than enough people willing and able to teach the Qur'an. Not so, according to Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Hanafy, chairman of the Charitable Society for Holy Qur'an Memorisation in the Mecca… Read more
7th November 2010
It looks as though Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti and other top religious scholars in the kingdom have done themselves more harm than good by rushing out a fatwa last week which forbade women from working "in a place where they intermingle with men" (i.e. at the tills in supermarkets).
As I mentioned… Read more
7th November 2010
Freedom of association – the right of people to get together and organise for a common purpose – is one of the essential building blocks for a free and open society. In most of the Middle East, though, governments seek to restrict civil society activity, as I discussed here and in my book, What's… Read more
6th November 2010
Various news reports today mention that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is claiming responsibility for the crash of a UPS cargo plane at Dubai on September 3, as well as the more recent incidents involving parcel bombs.
The Boeing 747 aircraft had taken off from Dubai 45 minutes before it crashed… Read more
6th November 2010
Colonel Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam, has become the latest victim of censorship in Libya. Printing of his weekly newspaper, Oea, has been suspended after it called for a "final assault" on government corruption.
The suspension order came from prime minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi, though the… Read more
5th November 2010
This is the time of year when various organisations publish their annual international league tables. During the last three weeks we've had the Global Gender Gap, the Press Freedom Index and the Corruption Perceptions Index – in which Arab countries generally performed badly.
Yesterday there was… Read more
3rd November 2010
Saudi Arabia's most senior religious scholars have set themselves at odds with government policy – perhaps deliberately – by issuingtheir fatwa about working women last Sunday.
The fatwa, signed by the Grand Mufti and six other top clerics, forbids women from working "in a place where they… 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
