· July, 2011

Stories about West Asia & North Africa from July, 2011

Kuwait: Bidun fly “Freedom Balloons”

A month ago, the stateless community of Kuwait started a 3 day-long campaign of “flipping your twitter avatar” to catch the media's attention and highlight their cause for the world. This Friday, they've made another campaign to set balloons in the air, calling them “freedom balloons". Mona Kareem shares the story.

29 July 2011

Lebanon: Maritime Dispute with Israel Escalates

Hezballah leader Hassan Nasrallah has exclaimed that God had given Lebanon an opportunity to rid itself of a crippling debt, and become a "rich country" by providing it lucrative offshore oil and gas reserves. However, the reserves potentially lie in a disputed maritime border zone with Israel.

28 July 2011

Iran: Campaign to Free Last Two Jailed American Hikers

Sarah Shourd spent 410 days in solitary confinement in Tehran, Iran, on charges of "espionage". She now calls on the world to speak up for her two friends, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, who are still in prison in Iran since all three were arrested while hiking in July 2009.

26 July 2011

Tunisia: Time to Register for Elections

Registration for electoral lists in Tunisia started on July 11 and will be closed on August 2, but statistics have shown that Tunisians are reluctant to register on the lists. A group of Tunisian bloggers have launched an online campaign to urge people to register for the October elections.

25 July 2011

Egypt: Clashes in Abbasseya

On July 23, Egyptian demonstrators marched from Tahrir Square to the Ministry of Defense demanding the stoppage of military trials for civilians, the trial of Mubarak and his former regime, and asking their military rulers to speed up reforms. The initially peaceful protest ended with violence.

24 July 2011

Saudi Arabia: The Marriage of #Tabukgirl

Mona Kareem brings us the tale of #Tabukgirl and how this controversial story about a young girl being forcibly wed to a 60-year old man has sparked a strong response on Saudi Arabian social networks.

24 July 2011

Iran: Rage Against Pre-Islamic Statues

It seems that even statues are not safe in Iran. Religious motives appear to be behind the recent theft and destruction of several bronze statues of Iranian national heroes from public places.

19 July 2011

Kuwait: Bloggers Fight Internet Companies

In the past two months, Kuwaiti bloggers have campaigned against Internet companies in Kuwait which are enforcing a policy of limited bandwidth, steeply raising prices in the past year by agreeing between each other on the same prices, and killing the competition in the Internet market. Mona Kareem expands on this protest.

18 July 2011

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