· June, 2007

Stories about Middle East & North Africa from June, 2007

Iran: Protestors Torch Gas Stations

  30 June 2007

Enraged Iranian protesters torched several gas stations in Tehran and other cities on Wednesday, after the Iranian government announced fuel rationing for private vehicles. There is news item in Ilna [Fa], Iranian Labour news agency, reporting that people were killed in Yasouj, in southwestern Iran, during the protest. Iran is...

Syria: Blogspot Unblocked

  30 June 2007

Sasa from the The Syria News Wire reports that the .blogspot domain has been unblocked in Syria, after many months of blocking all blogs on Blogger.com from being accessible from Syrian ISPs. It comes as good news to the blogsphere that has suffered immensely from the ban.

Iran:Blogger got filtered

  29 June 2007

Freekeyboard says[Fa] Blogger got filtered,The blogger adds it is very shameful that when people who are involved with filtering say we are just doing our job!

Iran: Rushdie and Bin Laden

  29 June 2007

Mohmmad Ali Abtahi,blogger and former vice president criticised both Queen Elizabeth and Islamists for attributing titles to Salman Rushdie and Osama Bin Laden. The Queen made Salman Rushdie a Knight and some Islamists call Bin Laden, Seifallah, God's Sword.

Palestine: What's Going On in Gaza?

  29 June 2007

"In this day and age communications can turn the devil into angel and beat the angel to a pulp," says blogger Ramzi Khoury. This week, Jillian York attempts to dig beyond the news to find out what's really happening in the Palestinian blogosphere.

Bahrain: The Tale of a ‘Legal Slave’

  29 June 2007

No longer a tax haven, people in Bahrain are fuming at the introduction of a one per cent tax to benefit an Unemployment Fund. Bloggers caught on the bug and are ranting and fuming on their blogs in this report by Ayesha Saldanha. In other related matters, bloggers talk about a new law which bans workers from working between noon and 4pm in the summer heat, lavish weddings and the forgotten 'martyrs' of the civil unrest which rocked Bahrain in the 90s.

Libya: Blogger Back in Action

  29 June 2007

Libyan blogger Highlander announces her come back after being AWOL for a while. She also gives us a few sneak previews of what was happening on her blogosphere.

Kuwait: Best Shoes

  29 June 2007

Kuwaiti women are showing off their best shoes in these links – here, here and here.

Palestine: Daily Misery

  29 June 2007

Palestinian Haitham Sabbah posts videos produced and published by B’tselem (The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) showing the misery Palestinians undergo.

Tunisia: Dead Phone

  29 June 2007

Eman, from Tunisia, lashes out at the telecom services in her country after her land line has been dead for two months.

Tunisia: Survey of Arab Journalism

  29 June 2007

Or Does it Explode links to an article by Tunisian writer Kamel Labidi, who “surveys the state of journalism in the Arab world and offers a less-than-optimistic assessment.”

Egypt: GVO Wins Praise

  29 June 2007

Global Voices Online has been cited by Baha'i Faith in Egypt for linking to it and for “reporting on several other pressing human rights issues in Egypt.”

Iran:Persepolis pulled from Bangkok Film Festival

  29 June 2007

Cityboy informs us that the Bangkok International Film Festival dropped Marjan Satrapi's prize-winning animated movie,Persepolis.The blogger says Iranian embassy in Thailand announced that Festival managers responded positively to a request from the Iranian Embassy in Bangkok.The movie follows Satrapi's life through the 1979 Islamic revolution,war and mass executions.

Lebanon: Syria's “in the eye of the storm”

  28 June 2007

A strange conversation took place last April between Syrian president Bashar El Assad and UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon, writes Sophia. The meeeting ends with Bashar El Assad telling Ban Ki Moon: “We are in the eye of the storm. You will need to stay in contact with us.”

Arabeyes: The Moment of Truth for a Jordanian Father

  28 June 2007

Today's Arabeyes makes five stops - two in Kuwait and Saudi each and a last stop in Jordan, where a blogger and journalist is forced to face himself and take a stance on the Palestinian infighting between Fatah and Hamas.

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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.