Blog archive all
28th June 2010
The long-running drought in eastern Syrian – and the upheaval it is causing – has so far received scant attention. The UN's World Food Programme says it has received less than half the $22m needed to support 300,000 vulnerable people this year. Consequently, 110,000 will not be given help and the… Read more
27th June 2010
About two dozen people were arrested in Sudan on Thursday night as they emerged from a fashion show. Those arrested included male and female amateur models as well as make-up artists and others who had provided the clothes.
So far, there has been no official explanation from the Public Order Police… Read more
26th June 2010
Six Yemeni soldiers died in an attack on a military site in the southern province of Shabwa yesterday. Officials are blaming militants connected with al-Qaeda.
Meanwhile, fighting involving the Houthi rebels resumed in northern Yemen after a ceasefire agreed less than 24 hours earlier broke down.… Read more
26th June 2010
The Egyptian regime is under growing pressure to take action in the case of Khaled Said, the 28-year-old man who died while being arrested in Alexandria on June 6. Witnesses say he was severely beaten and horrific photographs of his body show extensive injuries to his head and face. The… Read more
26th June 2010
More news of the workshop on gay liberation in the Middle East which was due to be held in Detroit last Thursday. The hosting body – the US Social Forum (USSF) – cancelled it at the last minute following complaints about the workshop's organisers, a militant Zionist organisation called Stand With… Read more
25th June 2010
At last, someone is talking sense on the issue of Egypt's discriminatory new personal status law for non-Muslims. Yesterday, the security forces graciously allowed a group of Coptic lawyers ("of a secular disposition") to hold a 30-minute protest at the justice ministry.
The lawyers rightly pointed… Read more
24th June 2010
A second autopsy on Khaled Said, the 28-year-old Egyptian, who witnesses say was beaten to death by police, has concluded that choked on a "foreign body" (a packet of cannabis that he attempted to swallow). The report says his injuries (gruesomely pictured here) were "light" and had been sustained… Read more
24th June 2010
The Philippines consulate in Jeddah has taken up the case of three housemaids who say they have not been paid for five months and complain of abuse by the Syrian wife of their Palestinian sponsor.
One of the women says the wife beat her, and another than the wife threatened to scald her with hot… Read more
24th June 2010
The Gay Middle East website (GME) has published a reportsummarising the situation for gay people in Syria –a country which is rarely discussed in this connection.
Although "carnal relations against the order of nature" are still punishable by up to three years in jail, GME detects some improvement… Read more
23rd June 2010
Fourteen partygoers – 11 your men and four young women – have been sentenced to jail and flogging in Saudi Arabia for gender mixing, Arab News reports.
The paper quotes a source as saying: "All arrangements had been completed for the party and they had brought liquor. But the intervention of… 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
