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Can driving a car be considered an act of terrorism? Apparently it can if you are a woman in Saudi Arabia. Saudi women who assert their right to drive have previously been charged with "disturbing public order" – an offence that is due to be classified as terrorism under a new law which… Read more
An online activist in Saudi Arabia whose views angered religious conservatives is threatened with apostasy charges that could result in his execution, CNN reports.
Raif Badawi, former editor of the "Saudi Arabian Liberals" website, is already serving a seven-year jail sentence but a judge has… Read more
The latest issue of the Middle East Policy Council's journal contains a lengthy essay on US policy towards Bahrain, basically arguing that reforms in the tiny Gulf kingdom should stop short of full democracy.
Its author, Ronald Neumann, is a former US ambassador to Bahrain and… Read more
If Syrian government forces did not launch the chemical attacks near Damascus on August 21, we have to assume that rebel fighters did. Short of denying that the attacks took place at all, there is really no other possibility.
Although many people continue to dispute that the Assad regime was… Read more
Following their investigation of the Sarin attacks that killed hundreds near Damascus on August 21, the UN inspectors have continued to look into other alleged cases of chemical weapons being used in the Syrian conflict. Their latest report, issued this week, confirms that people in Syria have… Read more
My blog post yesterday about re-ignited debate over the chemical attacks in Syria last August has brought a surprising response from some regular critics of the mainstream media.
On one side of the chemical weapons debate is Seymour Hersh, the veteran investigative journalist, who suggested in an… Read more
In the blue corner, Seymour Hersh, one of America's most famous and highly paid investigative reporters. In the red corner, Eliot Higgins, who sits at home in an English provincial town trawling the internet and tweets and blogs about his findings under the screen name Brown Moses.
On… Read more
Sharmine Narwani, a defender of the Assad regime who trolls on Twitter, seems to have found another dictatorship to support. Last week she was busy promoting a forged letter which seeks to implicate Amnesty International in a plot against the Afewerki regime in Eritrea.
It began with this tweet:
#… Read more
For several months now, Saudi Arabia's religious police have been considering a plan to recruit women into the force. There's no decision so far and some doubt a decision will ever be made, since the plan raises issues which are probably insoluble under the kingdom's gender segregation… Read more
Tomorrow marks the start of a two-day conference in Cairo fronted by an obscure NGO called the Egyptian Council for Democracy Support (EGCODS) – and backed by the military-led government.
The conference, to be held in a five-star hotel which is owned and run by the Egyptian military,… 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
