Blog archive all
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
25th October 2014
A report on migrant domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates, issued by Human Rights Watch earlier this week, tells a story which is all too familiar throughout the Gulf:
"Domestic workers told Human Rights Watch about not being paid, not having rest periods or time off, being confined in the… Read more
22nd October 2014
In your book you say the two-state solution for Israel/Palestine is dead and you talk instead about a "non-state solution". You are not really saying there should be no state at all but that discussion about states and boundaries has led nowhere, so a more productive route would be… Read more
22nd October 2014
The other day I got into a discussion with a friend who works in the United Arab Emirates. The UAE, he told me, is making a useful contribution to the international battle against ISIS – and not just militarily: its government promotes a "moderate" version of Islam and controls religious activity… Read more
17th October 2014
One of the less-discussed effects of political turmoil in Yemen over the last few years has been the proliferation of media. Despite widespread illiteracy, Yemen now has around 90 newspapers published weekly or more often and the state's monopoly on broadcasting has been broken; there are several… Read more
15th October 2014
In an article posted on the BBC website this morning, Tony Blair calls for a "war of ideas" against religious extremism. There is no doubt that force is needed to confront a group like ISIS, Blair says, but we also have to "uproot the thinking of the extremists, not simply disrupt their actions… Read more
14th October 2014
Sir Richard Ottaway: Israel "has made me look a fool". Photo: Dean Calma, IAEA, via Wikimedia Commons
Last night British members of parliament voted overwhelmingly for recognition of "the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel, as a contribution to securing a negotiated two-state… Read more
13th October 2014
The Baghdad papers: some were paid by the former PM to just write good things about him
Media organisations that fostered close links Iraq’s former Prime Minister and, some say, published or broadcast propaganda for him, are finding that their funding has dried up. Analysts and other… Read more
13th October 2014
Around 250 people gathered in London at the weekend for a conference on "the religious right, secularism and civil rights". It was a diverse event with speakers from more than 20 countries, ranging from an old-style Iranian Marxist to a representative of Femen (who appeared on the platform fully… Read more
10th October 2014
Later today the World Bank will be hosting an online discussion on a topic of great importance in the Middle East which rarely attracts enough attention: crony capitalism.
The problem began in the 1970s and 1980s when Arab states started to liberalise their economies and open them up to 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
