Stories about Arabic from November, 2008
Tunisia: Yes, they can. No, we can't!
The week of the US election coincided with the 21st anniversary of 'change' in Tunisia. But while Americans went to the polls to elect their 44th president, in its 50 years of independence, Tunisia has had just two presidents. Tunisian bloggers mark Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's 21st year as president with a call for change.
Egypt Ranks High in Corruption
Egypt ranks 115 in Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index, which tracks 180 countries by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. The rankings are in ascending order, with the more corrupt countries scoring higher ranks.
Egypt: Internet Freedom in Egypt
Tunisian blogger, Sami Ben Gharbia, published a video explaining the role of the Egyptian blogsphere in exposing human rights abuses and the role of the social-networking website Facebook and the micro-blogging platform.
Egypt for Sale
Word is out that every Egyptian citizen who is over 21 years old will own a part of Egypt's public sector companies and factories. The announcement has been the core topic of talk shows and has made its way to the blogosphere.
Syria: No More Bab el Hara
Ayman Haykal [Ar] links to a report published on Haaretz that says the Israeli cellular provider, Cellcom, made a profit of approximately 400.000 shekels per month this year from the...
Egypt: Blogger Blocks Nawara's Blog
It seems that it is not only third world regimes who block people's blogs. Apparently, Google's Blogspot has decided to join the bandwagon, and has blocked Nawara Negm's Blog (Tahyees [Ar]), without specifying any reasons. Ahmed Shokeir writes here about the incident in Arabic.
Syria: No for Sunni/Shiaa Divisions, We're Muslims!
Feras [AR] comments on the so called “Shia-Sunni conflict” in the region. He says that this conflict is not only due to Zionists and Americans’ policies in the region, but...
Egypt: No Manhood for the Manhood Drink!
Egypt has launched a fierce campaign against sexual harassment in the aftermath of the recent events written about here on Global Voices. But people working in the media industry do not seem to get the idea as evidenced by a recent ad campaign.
Egypt: Lawsuit calling for the devalidation of 25,000 Muslim Hadiths
Marwa Rakha translates for us today a post about an unusual lawsuit against Al Azhar University in Egypt calling for devalidation of 25,000 Muslim Hadiths. "Does Al Azhar have the right to “delete” these hadiths? Did they invent them and now they decided to negate them? So what will they do now with those 25,000 Hadiths? Burn them? Burn the books they are in? Do they have that right?"
Syria: Using ScribeFire
In this post, Omar [AR] tells us that he used the FireFox add-on, Scribefire, to publish his post. He explains how it is easy to add the plug-in in your...
Syria: Bloggers Unite to Read
For the first time in the Syrian blogosphere, local Syrian bloggers have came up with a refreshing idea; forming an online book club in which they decide on reading a...
Egypt: Mother incriminated in a case of FGM
On May 23, in a post titled The Victimization of Egyptian Women and Children, I quoted Fantasia – a girl who dreams of a better future for Egyptian women –...
Syria: Unprofessional Websites
Salam [AR] lists in this post problems most Arabic internet users face as they're viewing Arabic websites. He argues that the reason behind such problems is mostly due to the...
Syria: New Dawn for Humanity
Blogger Anas, shows an excerpt from the top of the front page of Al Watan Daily Syrian Newspaper, with a text saying....
MENA: Blogs and a social revolution
Saudi blogger, Esam Mudeer, clipped from CNN Arabic, an article asking -in light of last week's major events in the Arab world- if Arab blogs might lead a social revolution in the region.
Jordan: Poor and Backward
Being poor and backward go hand in hand, according to Jordanian blogger Muoffaq Qabbani, who brings us this story about how poor people insist on having more and more children.
Arabs Read a Quarter of a Page a Year
Space and Time (Ar) links to UN statistics which show that Arabs read a quarter of a page a year on average, while Americans read 11 books.
World: Yahoo and striptease dance!
M.S. Hijiouji is a Moroccan blogger who is interested in new technology. In his last blog post, he discusses the last offers to sell Yahoo via Microsoft, Google or AOL, as translated from the original Arabic by Global Voices' Lasto Adri.
Saudi Arabia: Hunger Strike Draws Attention to Jailed Reformers Plight
Saudi Arabia's human rights activists started a two-day hunger strike to draw attention to the plight of 11 reformers and activists languishing in Saudi jails without trial - or access to a lawyer. Read on to find out how social networking site Facebook has been instrumental in informing the world about the struggle.
Al Ghad Party – Another fire in Egypt
Al Ghad, Ayman Nour's Party headquarters burnt down one day before their general assembly. According to blog reports, thugs burnt down the building and hampered firemen's efforts to put the fire out. In addition to losing their headquarters, the political party also lost 20 of its members - who were rounded up and arrested instead of the thugs.
Egypt: Ghad Party Headquarters Burnt Down
Despite the recent spate of fires encountered in Egypt, today brings a different story of yet another fire - one started in the political Al Ghad Party's headquarters, in Cairo. Lasto Adri brings us the reactions of shocked bloggers.
