· March, 2010

Stories about West Asia & North Africa from March, 2010

Sweden: Parliament Recognizes the Assyrian Genocide

The Swedish Parliament has recognized as genocide the massacres that took place within the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1920 against the Armenian, Assyrian and Pontic Greek population - an episode that is also referred to as "Seyfo" by the Assyrian Diaspora. Bloggers react to this development in this post.

30 March 2010

Arab World: Earth Hour Marked Across the Region

Earth Hour is an annual event celebrated on the last Saturday in March. Awareness of Earth Hour has been spreading throughout the world since its inception in Australia in 2007. In this post, Katharine Ganly takes a look at some of the initiatives celebrating Earth Hour in the Arab World.

30 March 2010

Palestine: Anger At Opening Of Hurva Synagogue

Last week the rebuilt Hurva, or Ruin, Synagogue was opened in the old city of Jerusalem, amidst a wave of protests by Palestinians. The opening has been denounced by a number of Palestinian leaders as being part of a project to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is only 700 metres away. Mays Dagher reports on what Palestinian blogs are saying.

24 March 2010

USA: In Census, Only Some Races Count

Census forms are being delivered to all U.S. households this month, but some citizens complain that the question on race does not offer enough answers to give an accurate picture of their ethnicity.

23 March 2010

Morocco: A Photo Competition

The View From Fez announces a readers’ photography competition, in anticipation of the blog's fifth anniversary next October. Photographs should be taken in Morocco and can be submitted by email.

22 March 2010

Iran: New wave of blogger arrests

Another wave of blogger arrests has been reported in Iran but the details are murky. The leader of an anti-censorship group named Iran Proxy, and the founder of blog hosting service Persian Blog have both been arrested.

22 March 2010

Dubai: Iranian Blogger Omid Reza Mirsayafi Remembered

About 40 young people from all four corners of the world came together in a cafe in Dubai and remembered the first anniversary of the death of Iranian Omid Reza Mirsayafi, the first blogger to die in prison. The meeting also reflected on the March 18 Movement, OR318, via art.

21 March 2010

Lebanon: Runaway Maids

“When a maid runs away from her employer's house, the police station is unable to act because there's no law criminalizing runaway maids. So the police station officer tells the...

21 March 2010

Lebanon: Billboards for Mothers’ Day

Beirut Drive-by Shooting posts photos of the Billboards planted along the Lebanese roads. One billboard about Mothers’ Day states: “because she gave you the gift of life” and the blogger...

21 March 2010

Lebanon: Baysour's Oasis Hoax

BabaGannouj et La Zaytouni has images of Plitvice National Park in Croatia which are returned by Google Image search whenever one is searching for the village of Baysour in Lebanon....

21 March 2010

Iran: Obama's Norouz message

President Obama sends a message to those celebrating the Persian holiday of Nowruz (Norouz), and in particular to the people and government of Iran. Here is the message in You...

20 March 2010

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.