· May, 2006

Stories about Middle East & North Africa from May, 2006

Lebanon: Looming Clash

  31 May 2006

lebanon.profile: published in anger over the recent Israeli bombing of Lebanon, the Israeli threat to bomb Beirut, and the need to call in Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to halt Israeli military action given the impotence of Hezbollah and the Lebanese and Syrian governments. A dangerous war of ideologies is...

Iraq: Incomplete cabinet

  31 May 2006

Observers and Mohammed do not expect any considerable progress to happen soon and it seems that there will be more obstacles to deal with before the cabinet is complete. It makes Mohammed feels that the sound and smoke of explosions in Baghdad were not enough to wake up our politicians...

Palestine: Free Hait Cut

  31 May 2006

Palestinian hairdressers in the West Bank town of Hebron offered a free trim to local government employees who have not been paid for more than two months, Fadi said.

Egypt: Hunger Strike Escalates

  31 May 2006

Hossam el-Hamalawy report that the Egyptian prison authorities cracked down on the hunger-striking detainees in Tora, as the strike escalated, with 13 activists in total taking action on its second day. The strike started on Saturday night/Sunday morning, with six detainees refusing to eat. The prisoners made it clear to...

Kurdistance: NGO Project Update

  31 May 2006

Ok, so maybe the title of today's post is a little bit of a misnomer, but our commentators today all mention NGO projects…and I'll give you some extra links to other Kurdish NGO projects as well. Pearls of Iraq officially starts her purple ribbon campaign for the people of Iraq...

Jailed Cartoonist, Riots in Universities & Anniversary of a Victory

  31 May 2006

Last week Global Voices reported about the cartoon affair and unrest in Azeri community. This affair goes on and Mana Neyestani, the cartoonist who drew this cartoon, and his editor, Mehrdad Ghasemfar, were arrested. Several bloggers discuss this affair again this week. Birthday in prison We read in Free Mana...

Iran: Student Leaders in Jail

  31 May 2006

According to Daneshe Sorkh, Abede Tavancheh and Yashar Ghajar, two student leaders were arrested after demonstration in universities in Tehran. The blogger has published their photos on his/her blog and ask for their freedom.

Iran: An office to support religious blogs

  31 May 2006

According to Kamangir, an “Office for Religious Blog Development” has been established in Qom. The blogger says this organization will support religious blogs in Iran.

Iran: Burning Banks!

  31 May 2006

Noqte tahekhad , Iran based blogger, says banks get burned when there are riots in Iran and tell us why (Persian). According to this blogger most banks are run by government and then they symbolize it , banks are easy targets and lending money with high interest rate ( 25...

Jordan: Unemployment

  29 May 2006

The percentage of educated individuals is continuously increasing and the number of schools and universities is on the rise as well; this is one of the successful trades and business models in Jordan and despite that the education fees are exploding every year; more students are enrolling and more graduates...

Tunisia: Cactus customs

  29 May 2006

Some strange customs in Tunisian culture. To bring a guest through the kitchen door is humiliating to the house owner. Worse would be if the guest sees the house owner eating… Cactus fruit. Leilouta tells us why!

Syria: Six years in power

  29 May 2006

Six years into his administration, how significant are the reforms Bashar Al Assad put in place? Read Rime Allaf's opinion.

Echoes from the Tunisian blogosphere

  29 May 2006

The Tunisian blogosphere has been buzzing as usual with a bunch of different topics, ranging from the serious to the light, and the following is a snapshot of some of the interesting topics discussed these past 2 weeks. We start off with Zizou who writes about how he thinks an...

Turkey is Typing….

  27 May 2006

It has been a busy week, news wise in Turkey, the continuing dialouge about the Islamic fundamentalist who killed a Turkish judge (reported on GV last week) and the fire at the Istanbul airport has been foremost in the news….but the bloggers seemed to be fairly quiet this week (..that...

Iran: Free Mana Blog!

  26 May 2006

Free Mana (Persian) is a new blog which reports all news about arrested cartoonist, Mana Neyestani. Mana drew the cartoon which provoked riots among Azeri community.

Arabisc: Arabic Bloggers Ken

  26 May 2006

From Egypt… Malek who was scheduled to be free few days ago is now officially free. He just made his first post, titled: Free Morning. Malek writes: الحمدلله تم الافراج عني اليوم في حوالي الساعه الرابعه والنصف من قسم ترحيلات الخليفه لحد دلؤتي مقريتش حاجه اتكتبت عني بس بجد شكرا...

Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome

  26 May 2006

There is a new government and this historic event has raised more than a ripple in the Iraqi blogs, but, actually, not much more than that. And in this week snapshot of life in Iraq blogs I will show what has been diverting bloggers attention. From high jinks to the...

Iran: Syriana in Iran!

  26 May 2006

Hanif Mazroi, Iran based blogger & journalist, says George Clooney's Syriana was broadcasted on Iranian Channel 3. Mazroi, who had already seen movie in English version, adds that in Persian version, dialogues have been changed so much that we thought Clooney and others are playing a new script written by...

Iran: Bribing System

  26 May 2006

Karmand writes about bribing system in Iran. This blogger says if you are an employee either you get bribe or you keep silence about it. Blogger adds in country everybody is in competition to become rich and there is no rule in this competition (Persian). According to blogger humanity &...

Senegal: Immigration as colonization

  25 May 2006

“No Sarkozy! Immigration does not come from a vacuum,” says (Fr) Semett in a post on French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy's immigration policies. “With centuries of merciless exploitation of subsaharan countries and a continuous transfer of their riches to the North, it is logical that the disinherited masses from Africa...

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Mariam A.
Mariam A. is the editor for the Middle East & North Africa. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.