Blog archive all
15th July 2009
I'm not posting here today.Instead, I have written for Comment Is Free about the Palestinian ban on al-Jazeera and the wider pattern of government-media relations in Arab countries.
15th July 2009
The blogger known as “The Egypt Guy” reports that a ground-breaking new book has gone on sale in Cairo – apparently with the approval of “state security”.
Written by journalist Mostafa Fathi, Fi Balad el-Walaad (In the Country of the Boys) “tells the story of one young Egyptian gay man's everyday… Read more
15th July 2009
Shine, shine, you who shine on all of us
Shine, shine, you who shine wherever you go
No one can shine like you shine
You made people feel confused and lost
You made people feel happy and lost
Are you shocked by these lines of verse? Aghast at their temerity? Their author has just been given the… Read more
14th July 2009
A Yemeni politician has demanded the closure of al-Jazeera’s office in Sana’a, accusing the TV channel of damaging the country’s security and stability, the Yemen Post reports.
Ali Jusaed al-Lahbi, a member of parliament for the ruling General People Congress, said: “It runs stories which Yemen's… Read more
14th July 2009
It’s a bit like like those pre-nuptial agreements where celebrities sort out the divorce terms with their lawyers in advance of getting married – except that the people involved here are not celebrities but poor Egyptian factory workers.
Reporting on exploitation in the sweat-shops of the Qualified… Read more
13th July 2009
Yemeni forces yesterday dispersed a rally of 200 people in Aden who were demonstrating against the suspension of al-Ayyam newspaper, Reuters reports. About 15 of the paper’s employees were arrested during the rally.
Established in the 1950s, al-Ayyam is Yemen’s oldest independent daily newspaper.… Read more
13th July 2009
An article by Fred Dardick for Canada Free Press (reproduced here by the Campus Watch website, but presumably not for its academic merit) announces: “Obama is no friend of Israel”.
Among numerous other offences, the Obama administration is accused of suggesting – horror of horrors – that Israel… Read more
13th July 2009
Don’t pretend you’ve never wanted to know. The American Bedu blog has the answers to two vital questions: what Saudi men wear under their thobe and what women wear under the abaya.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 13 July 2009
12th July 2009
Action by the Saudi religious police is being blamed for a double “honour” killing in the kingdom. Two sisters, identified as Reem, 21, and Nouf, 19, were arrested by the mutawwa on July 2 after being caught “in suspicious circumstances with two unrelated men”.
They were detained in a “social… Read more
12th July 2009
Last April, Egypt became a worldwide laughing-stock when the Mubarak regime ordered a mass slaughter of pigs in the mistaken belief that this would keep swine flu at bay.
Swine flu duly arrived – one victim being a young man whoreturned from Saudi Arabia with the disease after performing the lesser… 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
