Blog archive all
9th February 2016
While there is much debate about the rights of women in the Middle East and the rights of gay and lesbian people have also begun to attract some attention, consideration of transgender rights is long overdue.
In a region where gender segregation is widespread and dress… Read more
8th February 2016
While there is much debate about the rights of women in the Middle East and the rights of gay and lesbian people have also begun to attract some attention, consideration of transgender rights is long overdue.
In a region where gender segregation is widespread and dress… Read more
16th January 2016
Britons missing in Qatar
The Emirati connection
4 Sept 2014: Two British men have been reported missing after travelling to Qatar to investigate the treatment of Nepalese migrant workers there. The assumption is that the Qatari authorities did not like what they were doing, and… Read more
11th January 2016
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Faced with falling oil revenue and an alarming budget deficit, Saudi Arabia is pinning some of its economic hopes on nationalising the production and sale of miswak, according to local media… Read more
10th January 2016
A survey in Lebanon has shed new light on attitudes to sexual freedom but also uncovered some apparent contradictions.
Researchers from the Beirut-based Gender and Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC) found broad support among the Lebanese for sexual freedom in general.
Most of those interviewed (56… Read more
9th January 2016
Is Saudi Arabia's Prince Muhammad bin Salman a reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady who reshaped Britain's economy in the 1980s? Or is he, perhaps, a reincarnation of Charles I, the seventeenth-century English monarch who lost his head in a civil war?
In an interview for the latest… Read more
1st January 2016
Dubai greeted the New Year with cheers and fireworks last night as smoke and flames billowed from a burning skyscraper.
By daybreak, the fire at The Address, a 63-storey hotel and residential complex, had still not been completely extinguished. Fortunately, however, reports so far indicate that the… Read more
1st January 2016
Egyptian TV presenter Islam Beheiry left court in handcuffs on Monday to begin a one-year prison sentence for thought crime. He had been convicted of "defaming" religion by calling for reform in Islam – a call previously made by no lesser figure than President Sisi himself.
In comparison with Raif… Read more
30th December 2015
Bahrain has an outstanding human rights record based on modern and advanced constitutional and legal texts and principles, the Gulf kingdom's prime minister, Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, claimed on Sunday. It is a record which plays a crucial role in "defending the kingdom and countering… Read more
29th December 2015
Twenty government officials representing Egypt's Censorship Authority, the Tax Authority, the National Security Agency and the Ministry of Manpower raided an arts centre in downtown Cairo last night and shut it down. Mada Masr website reports:
"At around 7 pm Monday, a group of seven plainclothes… 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
