Blog archive all
11th November 2014
If you think this is a Saudi cinema you are mistaken. It's a "projection auditorium".
Hot on the heels of a disputed report that women over the age of 30 may soon be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia between the hours of 7am and 8pm Saturday to Wednesday, and between noon and 8pm on Thursdays and… Read more
10th November 2014
The rich Gulf states have always been wary of granting citizenship to long-term residents of foreign origin. The result, in Kuwait, is more than 100,000 stateless people – many of them born in the country – who are known as bidoun.
"Bidoun" is Arabic for "without", and there are many rights and… Read more
9th November 2014
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Amid objections from the Houthi movement and supporters of ex-president Saleh, 30 out of 36 members of Yemen's new government were sworn in on Sunday.
Three… Read more
8th November 2014
Almost a month after being asked to form a new government, Yemen's prime minister designate, Khaled Bahah, yesterday announced his ministerial line-up. Coinciding with that, the UN security council imposed sanctions on ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh and two military commanders of the Houthi… Read more
7th November 2014
Saleh supporters gathering in Tahrir Square, Sanaa. Photo posted by @omeisy.
Supporters of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh are gathering in Sanaa this morning to protest against "foreign interference" in Yemen.
The "interference" in question is a move by the UN security council, at the behest of… Read more
5th November 2014
In a tweet yesterday I suggested that ex-Muslims (and other critics of Islamic doctrine and practices) need to find ways of doing so without fuelling Islamophobia. This prompted the following reply:
The idea that the term "Islamophobia" was invented by Islamists in the west has been widely… Read more
1st November 2014
A newly-published report takes a cool-headed and very comprehensive look at the evolution and structure of the Islamic State.
Written by Richard Barrett, who spent nine years with the UN's counterterrorism task force and previously did hush-hush stuff for the British government, it doesn't see a… Read more
30th October 2014
A controversial NGO headed by a man who once ran a fake university in Norway is playing a central role in efforts to solve Yemen's political crisis.
The Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD), together with Yemen's National Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development (NCHRDD),… Read more
29th October 2014
At the 2014 Oslo Freedom Forum, activist Iyad El-Baghdadi spoke about the failure of the Arab Spring to produce visible institutional change, how "our generation found its voice, how we lost that voice, how we can regain it and why despite all the catastrophes in the Arab world Arab world… Read more
29th October 2014
I have been puzzling over the latest Global Gender Gap report from the World Economic Forum (the organisation behind the annual Davos gathering). As might be expected, Arab states are all in the bottom third of the 142 countries surveyed, with Yemen at the very bottom:
113 Kuwait
115 United Arab… 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
