Arab society and culture

Minority rights? No thanks!
Comment Is Free, Sep 19 2008

When so many people face discrimination and oppression in the Middle East, is there any point in focusing on the rights of minorities?

Incuriosity killed the qat
Comment Is Free, Jun 16 2008

It's dangerous, addictive and should be banned, according to Sayeeda Warsi. But has she bothered to do her research?

The long drip of change
Comment Is Free, January 14, 2008

Human Rights Watch published practical recommendations for dealing with 'honour' killings in 2004. What has happened since?

Rights in practice  
Comment Is Free, January 7, 2008

Considering how to deal with 'honour' killings may provide a model for human rights activism in other situations

Rights and wrongs  
Comment Is Free, January 5, 2008

The view that support for human rights around the world is tantamount to imperialism is based on a series of misconceptions

A king's kindness?  
Comment Is Free, December 17, 2007 

A rape victim sentenced to 200 lashes has been pardoned, but the case highlights the need for wholesale reform of the Saudi justice system

War on witches 
Comment Is Free, November 5, 2007

How a candle, a Qur'an and some 'foul-smelling herbs' led to Mustapha Ibrahim losing his head.

What a balls-up  
Comment Is Free, August 28, 2007 

The American effort to win hearts and minds in Afghanistan has scored another own goal, after the Saudi flag was included on a batch of free footballs. 

Distorting desire  
August 15, 2007

Review of Joseph Massad's book, 'Desiring Arabs' (University of Chicago Press).

Land of the 72 Virgins?  
Comment Is Free, March 8, 2007 

A certain chain of music stores is planning to expand across the Middle East. Is this a sign that restrictions are gradually breaking down in the region?

The race taboo 
Comment Is Free, September 8, 2006

The existence of racist attitudes within some Arab countries is often denied, resulting in scandalous displays of prejudice against certain ethnic groups.

Tears for Lebanon 
Comment Is Free, August 8, 2006 

Arab men are not supposed to cry. That is why Fouad Siniora's tears made such a refreshing change.

A glimpse behind the screen 
Comment Is Free, July 8, 2006

A novel about a gay newspaper editor was a hit in Egypt - but its movie release has caused a stir.

Call to censor 'immoral' Egyptian film 
The Guardian, July 6, 2006

The Yacoubian Building has broken box office records but many oppose its portrayal of modern Egypt.

'People think it's a mental illness' 
Guardian, June 13, 2006

In the Middle East, coming out as a homosexual is often unthinkable. Brian Whitaker talks to young gay and lesbian Arabs about their secret private lives

What's wrong with being gay and Muslim? 
Comment Is Free, May 5, 2006

The Qur'anic verses usually cited as condemning homosexuality are by no means as clear or unequivocal as people imagine.

Arabs and identity (1)

The first in a series of interviews with young Arabs in the diaspora, talking about their sense of identity, their thoughts on life in the west and feelings towards their homeland. Originally published in Sharq magazine, May/April 2006.

Arabs and identity (2)

Second in a series of interviews with young Arabs in the diaspora, talking about their sense of identity, their thoughts on life in the west and feelings towards their homeland. Originally published in Sharq magazine.

Arabs and identity (3)

Third in a series of interviews with young Arabs in the diaspora, talking about their sense of identity, their thoughts on life in the west and feelings towards their homeland. Originally published in Sharq magazine.

Beauty is only spin deep  
Comment Is Free, April 20, 2006

Miss Iraq 2006 sounds like a psyops effort to persuade Americans that life in Iraq is carrying on as normal.

Sex and shopping in Israel and Saudi Arabia  
Comment Is Free, April 19, 2006 

Some interesting light has been cast on the similarities between Wahhabi Muslims and Haredi Jews.

An avoidable disaster?  
Comment Is Free, March 31, 2006

Accidents are a bigger killer in the Middle East than terrorism - and many of them are quite easily avoidable.

Those sexy Arabs 
Comment Is Free, March 23 2006

The current portrayals of an "Arab threat" are increasing the popularity of "desert sheikh" novels.

Riot by migrant workers halts construction of Dubai skyscraper 
Guardian, Thursday March 23 2006

Construction of what is expected to be the world's tallest building was halted yesterday after 2,500 workers in Dubai rioted over pay and conditions, causing damage estimated at £500,000.

Brokeback desert  
Comment Is Free, March 21 2006

It is a pity Brokeback Mountain isn't showing in the Arab world, because it resembles current reality there.

Dubai opens ski resort 
The Guardian, December 03 2005

Temperatures never rise above freezing and there is a fresh sprinkling of snow every day, but step outside and you will find a sunbaked desert.

'Gay party' guests face hormone treatment 
The Guardian, November 30 2005

More than two dozen men arrested at an allegedly gay party could face compulsory hormone treatment, officials in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, said yesterday.

Cartoons herald return of cinema to Saudi Arabia 
The Guardian, October 19 2005

After an absence of about 20 years, cinema will make a tentative return to Saudi Arabia next month with a screening of cartoons for an audience of women and children. A one-hour programme of foreign cartoons dubbed into Arabic will be shown at a hotel

How Homer became Omar 
The Guardian, October 17 2005

They're a famously dysfunctional family from small-town America but suddenly they have all learned Arabic and started talking like Egyptians.

Fundamental union 
The Guardian, January 25 2005

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is a controversial Islamic scholar who approves of wife-beating and believes in traditional family values. The Mormon church, having abandoned polygamy more than a century ago, believes in traditional families too.

Legally brutalised 
The Guardian, November 30 2004

Brutal husbands can be a problem anywhere in the world, but in some countries domestic violence is so common that it's almost an institution.

Language barrier 
The Guardian, September 23 2004

If you've got something to say, say it in English. Other languages really don't count any more.

Centuries in the House of Wisdom 
The Guardian, September 23 2004

For most of the last 5,000 years, Iraq was a key centre of scientific knowledge. Mathematics, developed initially for keeping accounts, gradually spread into far more ambitious areas such as predictive astronomy, making use of data painstakingly collected

Reading between the lines 
The Guardian, September 13 2004

The most eye-catching exhibit at the Beirut book fair a few years ago was a mock gravestone adorned with a vase of shrivelled flowers and labelled: The Arab Reader. The practice of reading, writing and publishing books in Arab countries may not actually

Saudi textbooks 'demonise west' 
The Guardian, July 14 2004

Saudi schoolchildren are being taught to disparage Christianity and Judaism in a textbook issued by the education ministry, a report said yesterday.

Highway to hell
The Guardian, June 02 2003

There's no accounting for taste, but if you want to wear a black t-shirt and listen to heavy metal music, is it the government's business to stop you? If you get a piercing or a tattoo, or dance like Michael Jackson, is the fabric of society going to be ...

Government disorientation
The Guardian, April 29 2003

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is probably the most important document ever issued by the United Nations. It spells out in clear and uncompromising language "the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family".

Lost in translation
The Guardian, June 10 2002

Searching the BBC's vast website for articles about Colonel Gadafy recently, I found just three mentions of his name.

These foolish things
The Guardian, April 01 2002

1. Did you know that one of Colonel Gadafy's sons is studying nuclear engineering in Liverpool? ...

Virgin's videos too hot for Beirut
The Guardian, January 08 2002

Some Like it Hot - but not in Lebanon, thank you.

Homosexuality on trial in Egypt
The Guardian, November 19 2001

In 1800, a European traveller to Egypt wrote: "The inconceivable inclination which has dishonoured the Greeks and Persians of antiquity constitutes the delight, or, more properly speaking the infamy of the Egyptians ... the contagion has seized the poor as well as the rich."

An Arab aesthetic
The Guardian, November 13 2001

A photo in a Brazilian fashion magazine shows a Muslim woman's face veiled in black with only her eyes visible. It's an advertisement for lipstick, and the slogan says: "You who can show it, take advantage of it." Meanwhile, the chequered keffiyeh - an ordinary, everyday head covering for millions of Arab men - has become the hottest fashion accessory in Japan.

Green gold
The Guardian, June 11 2001

High in the Bekaa valley, relaxing under a fig tree's shade, farmer Ali pours glasses of tea. This year, God willing - and the Lebanese army permitting - his harvest will be good. The spring rains have been generous and now even the gravel at the roadside is flecked with green.

Where the qat is out of the bag
The Guardian, May 28 2001

Stroll along Edgware Road in London and you'll find a mystifying array of signs in the shop windows, written in Arabic.

Muslims' kinder way of eating meat
The Guardian, March 05 2001

Today in the Middle East, several million sheep will be slaughtered. No, this is not another outbreak of foot and mouth disease, it's 'Id al-Adha - the Feast of the Sacrifice.

Losing the Saudi cyberwar
The Guardian, February 26 2001

The authorities in Saudi Arabia, who recently boasted that they had found a way to censor the internet, are now licking their wounds in a cyberwar against an opposition group based in London.

Saudis open a can of words
The Guardian, February 14 2001

Many people in Dubai were shocked this week by news that the Gulf emirate's head of customs had been arrested on corruption charges, along with two of his most senior aides.

Infrastructure of corruption
The Guardian, January 26 2001

Our bus was full when it left Tangiers, but it's even fuller now. Along the way we've picked up a dozen extra passengers and they're standing, crammed in the aisle, for a six-hour journey.

Middle East to West End
The Guardian, January 05 2001

The oasis begins at Marble Arch. Here, and for half a mile around Hyde Park are the streets frequented by the elite of London's Arab community.

Making sure the young can marry
September 08 2000

Arab weddings are splendid occasions, often spread over several days. They are also horrendously expensive.

Saudis claim victory in war for control of web
May 11 2000

There are now many internet cafes - constructed to keep male and female surfers apart - and around 30 commercial internet service providers, but the apparent range of choice belies the fact that all traffic passes through the King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology in Riyadh, which is the country's only link to the web.

Martyrs, never victims
October 13 2000

The British have never had much of a taste for martyrdom. Perhaps it's because we have never had to fight off a foreign occupation, or perhaps because in our colonial past we were more in the business of making martyrs than becoming martyrs ourselves.

What's in a word?
August 25 2000

A surprising number of English words are derived from Arabic including algebra - a branch of mathematics developed by the Arabs whose contribution to our civilisation is often overlooked.