Stories from and

Emerging Threats in Cybersecurity Legislation in Africa

  15 February 2015

Access, an international human rights organization is troubles by emerging threats in cybersecurity and data protection in Africa. Ephraim Kenyanitto explains: The Convention was originally scheduled to pass in January 2014, but was delayed for modifications after protests by the private sector, civil society organizations, and privacy experts—all of whom...

10 New Documentaries at the Luxor African Film Festival

  19 February 2014

Tom Devriendt lists 10 documentaries to look out for at the Luxor African Film Festival: The third edition of the Egyptian Luxor African Film Festival again has a wide-ranging programme scheduled for next month. Selected films will be showing in different competitions: Long Narrative, Short Narratives, Short Documentaries and Long...

Lebanese Blogger Spoofs Study on Middle Eastern Women's Clothing

  18 January 2014

The question “How Should Middle Eastern Women Dress in Public” posed by the University of Michigan is attracting hilarious spoofs online. The content is so rich that an additional post to our first one was necessary. When Washington Post Max Fisher shared the original image on Twitter, he wasn't expecting...

Amina Leaves Femen Because of “Islamophobia”

  21 August 2013

Amina, the Tunisian activist released from jail early August, left the Femen movement. She accused Femen of “Islamophobia”.  Femen confirmed online that: FEMEN confirms its break with the Tunisian activist Amina Tyler because of differences of opinion on tactics in the Islamic countries (…) FEMEN calls for new heroines who are able to...

A Sustainable Ecovillage in Sidi Amor, Tunisia

  31 July 2013

Nolwein Weiler and Sophie Chapelle reports on the remarkable development of an ecovillage in Sidi Amor, Tunisia [fr]. The project aims to protect the environment while providing a site for economic and social growth for local workers as explained in this video [fr].

MENA: Acclaimed Authors’ Favorites of 2012

  29 December 2012

M. Lynx Qualey, blogger, who is interested in Arab and Arabic literature, wrote a series of posts introducing acclaimed Arab poets, novelists, and short-story writers’ favorite Arab reads of 2012. She started with a list of nonfiction books, then followed by a list for poetry [En] and fiction [En].

France: World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg

  10 October 2012

The first edition of the World Forum for Democracy is currently taking place in Strasbourg, France (5-11 october, 2012). The theme of the forum is “Bridging the map: democracy between old models and new realities”. You can follow the discussions under the Twitter hashtag #CoE_WFD. Director of International Freedom of...

Tunisia: General Strike in Thala

  8 October 2012

On Twitter, Tounsia Hourra (Free Tunisian) says [ar] there is a general strike in Thala, in the province of Kasserine, today [October 8, 2012]. The protest is against rising unemployment and neglecting the maintenance of the city.

Tunisia: Civil Society and the Sharia State

  24 September 2012

Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni argues that belonging to any religion or culture is a “product of chance.” She says: And when, together with bloggers from my country, we attempted to participate in one manner or another in the awakening of our people and the uprising against the dictatorship, it...

Tunisia: In Defense (sort of) of French Weekly on the Muhammad Cartoons

  19 September 2012

As the French ministry of foreign affairs decided to temporary shut down 20 embassies [fr] after the publication of Muhammad Cartoons by French weekly Charlie Hebdo,  Linda Doufari in Nawaat takes a nuanced defense [fr] of the magazine. Doufari argues that although the decision is on par with the low level quality of...

Tunisia: Not a Twitter Revolution?

  12 September 2012

On Tunisian blogging portal Nawaat, Christopher Barrie writes: It is surely not unreasonable to argue that the 2011 revolution which followed this period of unrest could well have happened in the absence of new media. … It is therefore clear that the existence of Twitter was not a decisive element...

Tunisia: Racism on the Rise ?

  3 September 2012

Frederick Gore Djo Bi wrote [fr] on africavox.com about the rise of racism against black Africans in Tunisia. In his post, Bi  quotes a testimony of Fabien Siei, an Ivorian engineering student living in Tunisia since 2007 [fr]: Not a day goes by without a black African suffering from racial abuse....

Tunisia: The Plight of Palestinians in Iraq

  31 July 2012

Tunisian blogger Nawel Abdullah posts an interview [ar] she conducted with the founder of The Australian Society for the Palestinian-Iraqi Refugee Emergency Yousef Alreemawi, who speaks to her about the plight of Palestinian refugees living in Iraq and efforts to resettle some of them in Australia.

Tunisia: First Local Open Data Website Launched

  26 May 2012

Local open governance activists in Tunisia have launched the first open data website showing the municipal budget [ar, fr] of the city of Sayada for the current fiscal year. The Tunisian open governance community [ar, fr] has had some success in increasing the government's transparency; they have already convinced the...

Greece: Athens, 1st African Film Festival Week

  23 February 2012

The first African Film Festival will take place in Athens, Greece, from February 23 to 29, 2012, with the collaboration of various African countries’ embassies and consulates. Twenty one films from Angola, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia will be screened. The event is hosted by the Greek Film...

Tunisia: Spoiling the Revolution

  11 February 2012

Jolanare is weary of where the Tunisian revolution is heading to in terms of women's rights [fr]. She writes:  “A young man verbally attacked me because I was wearing red lipstick. He shouted at me : “these are the so-called women of the democracy.”  I replied that it is thanks...

MENA: Amnesty International's Forecast for 2012

  19 January 2012

“Repression and state violence is likely to continue to plague the Middle East and North Africa in 2012,” forecasts Amnesty International in an 80-page report. It documents the extreme violence deployed by MENA regimes when resisting the unprecedented calls for fundamental reform heard in the region in 2011, as well as...