Arab World

( Tabsir.net ) – The early major civilizations in the Middle East and Asia with their head start several millennia ago had one thing in common: an agricultural base that fed not only people but led to development of states and their services. Major river systems like the Nile and Tigris/ Euphrates, the Ganges of […]

Iran

Did the U.S. Permanently Destabilize Iraq? Will There be an Intra-Shia Civil War?

Middle East Monitor

By Raed Ahmed | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – There is usually a lot of competition between near-equal armed groups in Iraq. Resisting the 2003 US-led invasion provided a good opportunity for emerging groups from Sunni and Shia communities across the country to do just that. Such groups became the main protagonists in […]

Displaced and Refugees

A Syrian Academic at the Fringe: why I put on a Show to reclaim the Stories of Refugees like Me

The Conversation

By Lina Fadel, Heriot-Watt University | – This summer I performed my own one-woman show at the 75th Edinburgh Fringe – a sentence I never thought I would write in my 17 years of living in the UK. But there I was, a Syrian academic on stage in Edinburgh in front of a microphone, high […]

Saudi Arabia

Djinns and Glass Palaces: Is New Saudi Desert City Utopia or Horror Story?

Middle East Monitor

By Omar Ahmed | – ( Middle East Monitor) – Saudi Arabia’s The Line has been lauded as the world’s most futuristic city plan, and for good reason. The vertical, walled smart city will run entirely on renewable energy and aims to revolutionise urban planning, putting humans first. Catering for some nine million residents, the […]

Tunisia

President Saied Derides the Economic and Social Rights of Tunisian Women

Human Rights Watch

By Kenza Ben Azouz, Middle East and North Africa Division | – Published in: Nawaat ( Human Rights Watch) – President Kais Said marked National Women’s Day in Tunisia on August 13 by sending his wife to make a celebratory speech in which she sang her husband’s praises. That didn’t sit well with many Tunisians […]

Arab World

Does Mideast Panopticon — Urban Surveillance and Digital Identities — foretell our Dystopian Future?

Middle East Monitor

By Muhammad Hussein | – ( Middle East Monitor) – It has forever been the dream of almost every state, intelligence agency, empire and totalitarian regime to oversee the doings of all of their subjects, to detect any hint of dissent, to control their movements, to influence their thinking and even to peer into their […]

Bashar al-Assad

Is US fight against Shiite Militias in Syria becoming entangled in Russia-US Ukraine Tensions?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – AP reports that early today, Wednesday, the US military launched air strikes against Iran-backed Shiite militias in Deir al-Zor Province, eastern Syria. The bombings came in response to drone attacks on the US base at Tanf, Syria, allegedly by these militias, on August 15. Those drone actions did not result […]

Arab Spring

Digital Media and Sudan’s Revolution

Middle East Monitor

By Shafie Khader Saeed | – Industrial revolutions are defined as new scientific and technological breakthroughs and innovative ways of seeing and dealing with the world around us. They lead to a profound change in the economic and social dimensions in favour of improving human life, in addition to developing philosophical concepts and generalisations. It […]