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Last Friday the Doha News website did something rather shocking – at least, by Qatar's standards. It posted an article entitled: "What it's like to be gay and Qatari". Attached to the article was a note from the editors explaining their decision to publish it:
"Doha News is aware that any extra-… Read more
Saudi Arabia's second-largest construction firm is likely to declare itself bankrupt, the Saudi Gazette reported today. For several months now, Saudi Oger, the debt-ridden company headed by Lebanese politician Saad Hariri, has failed to pay tens of thousands of its workers – many of them expatriate… Read more
Thousands of Indian workers are trapped in Saudi Arabia, unable to leave the country and with no means to support themselves after their employer stopped paying them. At the weekend Indian embassy officials began organising emergency food aid following reports that several hundred workers had not… Read more
One of the funniest comedy sketches shown on British television featured the Ministry of Silly Walks – an imaginary government department whose task was to encourage silly ways of walking and provide funding for their development.
I was reminded of this yesterday when Bahrain's information… Read more
For several weeks now there has been growing evidence that Twitter is being used for a covert and highly organised propaganda operation which disparages Shia Muslims while supporting the Sunni Muslim governments of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
The tactic is to deluge Twitter with multiple copies of… Read more
Boris Johnson, the former Mayor of London who was unexpectedly appointed as Britain's Foreign Secretary two weeks ago, is famous for his gaffes. No newspaper story about Boris is complete, it seems, without some amusing reference to his blunders and mishaps. But such are the expectations of him, as… Read more
On March 26, 2015, civil war officially broke out in Yemen. On that day, Saudi Arabia marshalled a hastily convened coalition of the willing to forcibly intervene in Yemen’s internal affairs, launching an all out armed conflict between forces loyal to the ‘legitimate government’ of president ‘Abd… Read more
GNRD, the strange "human rights" organisation that was declared bankrupt earlier this month, had an unusually favourable view of human rights in the UAE. It was also on friendly terms with Egypt's Sisi regime and the Kurdish PYD. Another of its friendships, though – and one which it sought to keep… Read more
For several years GNRD, the now-bankrupt human rights organisation, boasted that the European Parliament was one of its international "collaborators" and proudly displayed the parliament's logo on its website. The effect of this was to give the UAE-funded organisation an aura of credibility that… Read more
During the 16 months that Saudi Arabia has been waging war in Yemen there has been little discussion of the kingdom's media strategy, though in some ways it is almost as important as the military strategy. In the article below, Sebastian Sons and Toby Matthiesen argue that the kingdom is… 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
