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Amid unprecedented public debate in Saudi Arabia about gender segregation, the head of Mecca's religious police has complained that he and his family are suffering threats and verbal abuse – including accusations of atheism – as a result of his controversial views.
Ahmed al-Ghamdi… Read more
Sufis are the latest religious group to fall foul of the Egyptian authorities' control freakery. Earlier this week, security forces in Cairo closed the Sayyeda Zainab and Sayyeda Nafisa mosques after night prayers and turned off their lights in order to prevent the holding of Sufi … Read more
Yesterday several Saudi newspapers, including Arab News and al-Watan, published a very unusual photograph showing King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan surrounded by a group of more than 30 women. (The complete picture is here.)
The women attended a National… Read more
Violence in northern Yemen seems to be increasing again, despite
the truce called by the government in February.
On Wednesday, the interior ministry said three tribesmen (described by Reuters as "pro-government") were killed by Houthi rebels.
Yesterday, officials said … Read more
A woman in Riyadh was stopped by police earlier this week and questioned about her legal status, Arab News reports:
They learned that she was a runaway maid who fled her sponsor five months ago.
According to police, the maid then fell prey to a group of men who had offered her a job with… Read more
A group called Lawyers Without Restrictions is trying to launch an obscenity case against cultural officials in Egypt for publishing the centuries-old collection of folk tales, A Thousand and One Nights.
Read my article about it at Comment is free.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 29 April 2010.
When the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) opened in Saudi Arabia last year, it was supposed to be a model of modernity, with no gender segregation. Arab News also
described it as “a bridge between world cultures”.
But not so fast. It may not have gender… Read more
Heron bin Salem, a 22-year-old member of Yemen's tiny Jewish community, was approached by a police officer and four "security members" in Sana'a on Sunday.
According to the Yemen Observer, the officer informed him: "I do not like your look", referring to the ringlets worn by Yemeni Jews… Read more
It's not just in Egypt that Mohamed ElBaradei's calls for constitutional reform are making the authorities twitchy.
Earlier this month, the Kuwaiti authorities arrested more than 30 of his supporters and summarily deported most of them.
A couple of weeks ago, the UAE was reported to… Read more
Yesterday's explosion in Yemen, which resulted in a British mannot being injured, is the subject of at least 124 news reportstoday.
Yes, I know the man in question was an ambassador and his attacker probably from al-Qaeda, but the scale of the coverage reminds me of that famous (and… 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
