Blog archive all
10th April 2017
The trouble with Ayaan Hirsi Ali is that so many people take her seriously. The late Christopher Hitchens described her as "probably the most important public intellectual ever to come out of Africa" and last week it was the turn of a writer in the Wall Street Journal, no less, to hail her as "… Read more
7th April 2017
One of the more effective examples of international cooperation has been the outlawing of chemical weapons. With just a few exceptions, the world has been remarkably successful in moving towards the completely eliminating them.
To date, only three countries – Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan –… Read more
27th March 2017
Repeated bombing over the last two years by the Saudi-led coalition has brought the conflict in Yemen no closer to a solution. In the article below, HELEN LACKNER considers the unfolding disaster.
Two years ago, on 26 March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition started aerial attacks on… Read more
20th March 2017
The Gulf's autocratic rulers have joined forces in denouncing Switzerland after it complained about human rights abuses in Bahrain.
The row began last Tuesday when Switzerland's representative at the UN Human Rights Council made a brief statement expressing concern about five particular countries:… Read more
7th March 2017
Click for video" src="/sites/default/files/trans-1.jpg" style="border-style:solid; border-width:1px; height:257px; width:500px" />
Saudi Arabia has confirmed the death of at least one transgender Pakistani among 35 who were arrested in Riyadh last week for "imitating the opposite sex".
According… Read more
6th March 2017
When Donald Trump won the US election last November, Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi boasted of being the first international leader to phone and congratulate him.
Immediately after his inauguration Trump returned the compliment. On his first working day in the Oval Office, Sisi was the… Read more
5th March 2017
In countries where gender discrimination is considered a social and religious necessity, the dividing line between male and female is not to be crossed. Men must behave and dress as men, and women as women – or face punishment.
In Saudi Arabia last week, police raided a gathering of Pakistanis who… Read more
27th February 2017
Several hundred Egyptian Christians have fled their homes in North Sinai over the last few days following a series of murders attributed to supporters of the so-called Islamic State.
Since the end of January at least seven people have been attacked and killed in the provincial capital, El Arish.… Read more
23rd February 2017
When it comes to reporting the conflict in Yemen, Fox News is exceptionally bad. Fox has been fooling its viewers for years but now, with Donald Trump installed in the White House, the problem is becoming a more serious. Trump is a devotee of Fox News: it tells him what he wants to hear – about… Read more
21st February 2017
A former director of GNRD, the strange "human rights" organisation that went bankrupt last year amid accusations of money-laundering, has been taken into custody on fraud charges in Austria.
Hassan Moussa is suspected of diverting funds from an Islamic education centre in Vienna and is now in pre-… 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
