· August, 2007

Stories about West Asia & North Africa from August, 2007

Ukraine: Crimea

On the last day of summer, here's a translation of LJ user drugoi's photo report on his trip to Crimea, one of the favorite summer tourism destinations in the Soviet times, now facing fierce competition from resorts in Turkey and Egypt.

31 August 2007

Syria: Arab Bread Basket

Syria is the Arab bread basket of the Middle East, writes Egyptian D.B. Shobrawy, who adds that the Arab country is sharing the spoils with neighbours hit by a wheat...

31 August 2007

Bahrain: Nasfa Celebrations

Bahrainis marked the birth of the Shia Imam Al Mahdi with a lot of fanfare and blogger Mahmood Al Yousif was out with his new camera to record the celebrations.

31 August 2007

Egypt: Mubarak Deathwatch

“(F)or over a week now the Egyptian (non-state) media has gone into another one of its Mubarak deathwatch modes,” writes Issandr El Amrani, from Egypt.

31 August 2007

Turkey is Typing….WordPress Still Blocked

Last week Sami Ben Gharbia did an excellent posting about the blockage of the Wordpress blogging platform in Turkey, this week we will examine what Turkish bloggers have to say about it. There is anger, resentment, and sense of utter amazement at the absurdness of the situation. And yet, there is a powerful spirit of strength in combating this ban.

31 August 2007

Egypt: Complaining for Change

Something I love about Egyptian blogs is our tendency to complain. Firstly because we're Egyptian and its our nature and secondly because we have so much to complain about. Among our complaints this week: international scandals, intellectual persecution, the Egyptian Legal system (or lack thereof), the question of beauty and as usual, religious persecution rounding out the group, writes D.B. Shobrawy.

31 August 2007

Iran:Talking to Gary Sick

View from Iran continues his interesting interviews and this time she talks with Gary Sick. The blogger says Gary Sick was in the Carter administration during the taking of the...

31 August 2007

Arabeyes: Who is Using the Tunisian Presidential Airplane?

The Tunisian presidential airplane and the 'unofficial' trips it takes to Europe and the fashion capitals of the world has attracted the scrutiny of the country's most outspoken bloggers. Who is using the president's plane? Who approves the trips abroad and how much is it used for official business? These are some of the questions being raised in Arabic and French, which I am translating today into English.

30 August 2007

Palestine: Gul for Turkey

Fayyad from Palestinian blog Kabobfest writes about Abdulla Gul‘s election as Turkey's president. “Ironically, some secular extremists in Turkey, too (have) issue with the fact the Gul’s wife, Hayrunisa, wears...

30 August 2007

About our West Asia & North Africa coverage

Walid El Houri
Walid El Houri is the West Asia and North Africa Editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.