Arab World

This interview was published on Loujain’s birthday, celebrating her achievements Written byخالد إبراهيم Khalid Ibrahim Translated byGulf Center for Human Rights Read this post in عربي This post was written by Khalid Ibrahim, executive director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR), an independent, non-profit organisation that promotes freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly in the […]

Apartheid

Biden wants Israel and Saudi Arabia to Normalize, but are Riyadh’s Demands for Nuclearization a Deal Breaker?

Middle East Monitor

Dr Adnan Abu Amer AdnanAbuAmer2 ( Middle East Monitor ) – Despite US efforts to get Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalise their relations, the process keeps faltering. Israeli officials speak of a long and important list of demands made by the Kingdom to the Americans. Although a normalisation agreement with Saudi Arabia and […]

Climate Crisis

Climate Change is the New Mideast Extremism — Iraq Hottest Place on Earth, as Iran goes into Lockdown

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The deadly effects of ideological extremism in the Middle East for the past few decades have caused governments and journalists to focus on it. The Arabic word is al-taṭarruf. I was interested, however, to see the word put to a different purpose in a Sky News Arabia article , where […]

censorship

The State of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia: Yemen, Freedom of Speech, Women, Executions

Human Rights Watch

Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 45th Session of the UN Universal Periodic Review Introduction ( Human Rights Watch ) – Although at its last UPR Saudi Arabia supported many recommendations, it continues to commit widespread violations of basic human rights within and beyond its borders. The Saudi government […]

Afghanistan

The Forever War’s Forever Legacy: Shutting down Gitmo is Hardly the Last Step

Karen J. Greenberg

( Tomdispatch.com ) – There can be little question that the grim prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which still shows no sign of closing anytime soon, is a key legacy — in the worst sense imaginable — of America’s post-9/11 forever wars. I’ve been covering the subject for decades now and that shameful legacy has […]

Africa

Egypt and Ethiopia are finally working on a Water Deal – what that means for other Nile River States

The Conversation

By John Mukum Mbaku, Weber State University | – Egypt and Ethiopia have waged a diplomatic war of words over Ethiopia’s massive new dam – the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – on the Blue Nile, which started filling up in July 2020. The political row has threatened to get out of hand on occasion but […]

Arab League

Syria faces daunting Obstacles in its Attempt to rejoin the International Fold

The Conversation

By Scott Lucas, University College Dublin | – (The Conversation) – In the carefully composed photograph released by their state news agencies at the beginning of May, Syria’s leader Bashar al-Assad has his arms outstretched to welcome the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi. The two men are beaming. Raisi’s visit was a sign of Tehran’s essential […]

Egypt

The Existential Crisis of the Muslim Brotherhood

Marc Martorell Junyent

Review of Abdelrahman Ayyash, Amr ElAfifi, and Noha Ezzat, Broken Bonds: The Existential Crisis of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, 2013-22 (Washington, DC: The Century Foundation, 2023). Munich (Special to Informed Comment) – July 3, 2023, marked the tenth anniversary of the military coup that removed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi from power, paving the way for the […]

Arab World

Middle East and North Africa: End Curbs on Women’s Mobility (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

Many Middle East and North Africa countries still prevent women from moving freely in their own country or traveling abroad without the permission of a male guardian. Women in the region are fighting rules that authorities often claim are for their protection, but that deprive women of their rights and enable men to control and […]