Blog archive all
The "reforms" promised by Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, got under way on Wednesday with two measures obviously designed to placate religious elements.
One was the rescinding of a rule introduced only last July which had banned female teachers from wearing the niqab, or… Read more
President Salih has accepted an offer from the Gulf Cooperation Council to hold talks between himself and the Yemeni opposition in Saudi Arabia.
Opposition parties seem less enthusiastic about the idea – not surprisingly since three of the six GCC members (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman)… Read more
Reporters in Jordan have been receiving phone calls and emails threatening physical harm unless they stop covering the reform movement in the kingdom, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
"The situation is no longer about censorship or repressive legislation – the… Read more
The first freedom-of-expression trial since the fall of President Mubarak is expected to resume at a military court in Egypt on Wednesday.
Maikel Nabil Sanad (pictured above), a 25-year-old pacifist isaccused of insulting the military, spreading false information, and… Read more
The authorities in Bahrain have ousted the editor of the kingdom's only independent newspaper, along with two of his senior colleagues.
Al-Wasat newspaper was not allowed to publish on Sunday and access to its website has been blocked inside the country. The paper has also been suffering production… Read more
The United States has quietly shifted its position regarding the embattled Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Salih, and has concluded that he must be eased out out office, according to a report in the New York Times which is attributed to unnamed American and Yemeni officials.
The paper says… Read more
There is a widespread assumption that Islamist opposition parties in the Middle East are seeking to govern at the earliest opportunity. But that idea is challenged by Shadi Hamid of Brookings in an interesting – and, I think, important – article headed "Arab Islamist parties: losing on purpose?"… Read more
With the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt gone, and continuing turmoil in Libya, the two North African regimes still largely undamaged by protests are those of Morocco and Algeria.
Early in January, at the height of the Tunisian uprising, it looked as if Algeria might be heading in the same… Read more
Oman continues to be largely off the international radar. Protests there are still on a small scale compared with some of the other Arab countries. Nevertheless, as Simeon Kerr notes in the Financial Times, Sultan Qaboos is facing "the most sustained period of unrest since he took power… Read more
Zahi Hawass
Indiana Jones
Here is Egypt's own Indiana Jones – antiquities chief Zahi Hawass – describing his role in the revolution:
We entered the Egyptian Museum – along with a group of commandos – through the museum's back door; the door through which the… 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
