By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued a decree on Tuesday permitting women to drive as of June of next year. Saudi Arabia was the only country in the world to forbid its female citizens from driving automobiles. This unusually misogynistic position derived from two sources. One is […]
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Arab World
Saudi Arabia: Official Hate Speech Targets Minorities
Human Rights Watch | – – Incitement Leads to Discrimination Against Shia, Other Groups (Beirut) – Some Saudi state clerics and institutions incite hatred and discrimination against religious minorities, including the country’s Shia Muslim minority, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 62-page report, “‘They Are Not Our Brothers’: Hate Speech by […]
Iraq: Kurdish Independence Vote Spurs Mideast Tension
TeleSur | – – The referendum has provoked large-scale military movements along the Iraqi Kurdish region’s borders. Some 8.4 million Iraqi Kurds have voted in a referendum on whether to secede from the Republic of Iraq, amid hostility from the central government, as well as Iraq’s neighbors Turkey and Iran. Queues formed early at various […]
How Arab Nationalism & Fundamentalism pushed away the Kurds
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Kurdistan referendum held today is probably not as likely to produce immediate turmoil in the Middle East as some pundits would have it. The “Domino Theory” that if the Kurds secede from Iraq then they will secede from Turkey, Iran and Syria as well, may […]
Yemen’s Children Are Being Shelled While the World Sits Back
By Kristine Beckerle | ( Human Rights Watch) | – – Deadly Attack in Taizz Shows Need for International Inquiry Yemenis were again mourning their children this weekend – this time in Taizz, Yemen’s third largest city. Houthi-Saleh forces indiscriminately shelled a residential neighborhood killing three children – two of whom were playing football – […]
Trump blasts Iran for backing Syria, ignores Russia, Praises Saudis
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump more or less threatened to wipe out the 25 million people of North Korea in his speech at the UN. Then he turned to the Middle East, where he again pledged to undermine the Iranian nuclear deal. In other words, he put forward a plan […]
Iraq Supreme Court strikes down Kurdistan referendum, Clashes in Kirkuk
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Iraqi Supreme Court has ordered that the referendum on independence planned for September 25 be halted. The problem is that the Iraqi supreme Court’s decision will not be recognized or honored by the elites in the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Kurdish super-province. The Kurds say […]
Tunisia: A Gender Equality Manifesto
Manifesto of the Under-Signed | Tunisia | – – During the 61st anniversary commemorating the enactment of the Personal Status Code, the Tunisian Head of State Beji Caïd Essebsi made two announcements of historic proportions. If implemented, they would constitute a major step forward in the field of women’s rights. The first proposal concerns equal […]
Given Fundamentalist impact on Syria, Women’s Freedoms in Doubt
By Manal Ismael | ( Global Voices Online ) | – – In early September 2017, a piece of paper with a potent message targeted against women, held by a group of Hezbollah fighters in Juroud Arsal, Eastern Lebanon, went viral. The message, which celebrates “every woman who is not using her own photo as […]








