Blog archive all
22nd June 2010
Predictably, the Egyptian authorities are getting in a twist over their discriminatory new personal status law for non-Muslims (or possibly just Christians).
Separate laws for members of different religions are an inherently bad idea but, since President Mubarak wants this one to be ready within… Read more
21st June 2010
Five people were killed, including three soldiers, and 11 people injured during clashes in Yemen's Amran province "between militants and military personnel", Shawa.Net reports.
Shooting is said to have broken out when the "militants" set up road blocks in protest at non-payment of "allowances for… Read more
20th June 2010
Faris Mana'a, Yemen's top arms trafficker, was released from jail last week, according to tribal sources. The Sahwa.Net websitedescribes his release as "astonishing" and says his return home was welcomed by "masses" of sheikhs and citizens in Saada province.
Mana'a served for some time as head of… Read more
20th June 2010
Police in Karbala last week raided a "safe house" used by gay, lesbian and transgender Iraqis, and took away the occupants.
The house (pictured above, after the raid) was one of several established by the UK-based Iraqi LGBT organisation to protect them against vigilante attacks. A press… Read more
19th June 2010
Tunisia's parliament has approved a law which will criminalise human rights activists and others who make contact with "foreign organisations" with the aim of harming the country's "vital interests and its economic security". Offenders face up to five years' jail in peacetime or 12 years in wartime… Read more
18th June 2010
Earlier this month I noted an important decision by Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court which, basically, over-ruled the Coptic church on the question of allowing divorced Christians to remarry.
The Coptic leader, Pope Shenouda III, rejected the court's decision – setting the scene for a… Read more
17th June 2010
The US Social Forum brings together organisations from across the United States with the aim of working for social justice. This year's forum, which opens next week in Detroit, includes a workshop on "LGBTQI Liberation in the Middle East". According to the blurb:
The purpose of this workshop is to… Read more
16th June 2010
Following my comment yesterday about the hazards of being a construction worker in Lebanon, I noticed a report in The National about Abu Dhabi's efforts to protect labourers during the hottest part of the day.
From now until September 15, anyone working "in the sun and open spaces" is supposed to… Read more
16th June 2010
More than a week after Khaled Said was beaten to death by police in Alexandria, there are signs that the Egyptian authorities are beginning to take the case more seriously.
The prosecutor general has ordered a fresh autopsy, to be carried out by the country's most senior coroners, the BBC and AFP … Read more
15th June 2010
This was the view from my hotel room in Beirut last week. Two men, with not so much as a hard hat or a ladder between them, were erecting a scaffolding at the Phoenicia Hotel on the opposite side of the road.
They only used planks on the level where they were currently working and at 6pm, when… 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
