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This is a selection of my articles about the Middle East, mostly written for the The Guardian newspaper and its website. The articles are grouped according to subject.
Gender and sexuality
Gay Girl in Damascus was an arrogant fantasy
Comment Is Free, 13 Jun 2011
Tom MacMaster's hoax blog…
This is a selection of my articles about the Middle East, mostly written for the The Guardian newspaper and its website. The articles are grouped according to subject.
Democracy and reform
Turkey strides down the Arab street
Comment Is Free, 13 Sep 2011
Turkey is on a roll in the region, as many…
Arab Charter on Human Rights
League of Arab States, May 22, 2004, reprinted in 12 Int'l Hum. Rts. Rep. 893 (2005), entered into force March 15, 2008.
Preamble
Based on the faith of the Arab nation in the dignity of the human person whom God has exalted ever since the beginning of creation and in…
Speech by President George Bush to mark the 20th anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy, in Washington on 6 November 2003.
Also available at whitehouse.gov
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm welcome, and thanks for inviting me to join you in…
An uprising in Yemen against the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh began in January 2011 and continued for months. On November 23, after much prevarication, Saleh agreed to leave office under the terms of a "transition agreement" brokered by Gulf Cooperation Council.
The Arabic text of this…
The document below was issued on 15 February 2012 as a result of four months' work by a committee established by President Assad.
Significantly, it omitted the existing constitution's reference to the Baath party as the "leader of the nation and society".
It was approved in a referendum on 26…
This is a short extract from "Democracy in the Middle East", an essay written by the Egyptian president while studying as a Brigadier General at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania in 2006.
Because the government exercises control over the media, the media serves no accountability role for…
Naguib Surour
Poet, playwright, actor, critic … during his short lifetime Naguib Surour [or Surur] courted adulation and notoriety in equal measure. His work was meant to shock - and it did, though many thought all the more highly of him because of it.
Born in June 1932, he graduated from the…
Abdelrahman Munif
In the opinion of many, Abdelrahman Munif (1933-2004) was the most important author in the Arab world during the late 20th century. His magnificent trilogy, Cities of Salt, has been described by Edward Said as "The only serious work of fiction that tries to show the effect of oil…
Photo of Amin Maalouf by Tasnim Aslam
Amin Maalouf
Amin Maalouf was born in Beirut on 25 February 1949 to a Christian family. Educated and a French Jesuit school and later at the French University of Beirut, he writes in French. In 1975, on the outbreak of civil war in Lebanon, he moved to Paris,…
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
