Stories about Egypt from February, 2008
Egypt: Kudos to Al Jazeera
“Kudos to Jazeera for condemning the recently announced “ethical charter” for Arab satellite stations,” writes The Arabist from Egypt.
Egypt: When Violence Against Women is Acceptable
“Here is the typical misogynist argument we have to fight against everyday. Human rights and feminist NGOs aim at destroying family morality because they want women to report their abusive family members to the police!!” writes a cynical Hatshepsut from Egypt.
Egypt: Free Moroccan Fouad Mourtada
“The arrest and brutal treatment of Fouad Mourtada, the young man who create a fake Facebook profile of Morocco’s Prince Moulay Rachid, is a sad testimony to the fact that things have not changed as much as the regime would like you to believe in Morocco,” notes The Arabist, from...
Egypt: Free Kareem Rallies Planned
Worldwide rallies to protest the jailing of Egyptian blogger Kareem Nabil Sulieman are being lined up for February 22, announces Free Kareem.
Middle East: Protesting Love
Valentine's Day has come and gone, but in the Middle East, the debate still continues on whether it is an occasion which should be celebrated or shunned. With both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait warning against Valentine's Day celebrations, bloggers had a lot to talk about.
Egypt: Kissing Women Picture
Egypt's Sandmonkey posts a picture here of two women kissing each other, which sparks a debate – around 110 comments and counting so far.
Egypt: Mughniyeh's Assassination
Zeinobia from Egypt sheds light on the assassination of Lebanese Hizbullah second in command Imad Mughniyeh in this post.
Jordan: Cairo Pictures
mohammad alQaq, from Jordan, travelled to Cairo and shares pictures from his trip here.
Egypt: On Abortion
“my friend, who is very liberal & believes so much in individual personal rights believes that abortion should be rightfull,” writes FreeSoul from Egypt.
Egypt: Copts on Al Jazeera
“Al-Jazeera English ran some rare incisive coverage of Coptic issues in Egypt a few days ago, good questions from the interviewer (notably on the census and church-building) with interesting interventions by Michael Mounir, the prominent US-based Coptic activist,” notes The Arabist, from Egypt, and links to the video here.
Egypt: On Winning the African cup of Nation, Ghana 2008
Ask any Egyptian, he’d tell you that last Sunday night, February the 10th, wasn’t like any night.. a night like “thousand nights”.. Egypt won the African Cup of Nations in Ghana 2008 after a fierce match with Cameron 1-0. A marvelous score in a beautiful ditto between Abu Tarika and Zeidan. Egypt won.. Celebrations was almost every where on each and every street in Egypt, as well as in many other Arab countries.
Ghana/Egypt: Egypt wins the Africa Cup of Nations
Emmauel posts a photo from the Africa Cup of Nations final in Ghana: “digital camera capture of the President of Ghana John Kufuor awarding a member of the Egyptian team. Note the inscription on the back! It speaks volumes!”
Lebanon: Fairouz Attacked for Singing in Syria
Egyptian blogger Zeinobia expresses her annoyance with the way legendary Lebanese singer Fairouz is being attacked after singing in Syria.
Egypt: New Limits on Satellite TV
Last week, during discussion with a fairly senior Egyptian journalist, I was told that the Egyptian Ministry of Information had just finished a preparing a new “code of ethics” in order to puts limits on what satellite TV stations could broadcast, especially when the topic was political in nature, writes...
Egypt: Wael Abbas in the US Press
Ibn Al Dunya, from Egypt, sheds light on fellow blogger Wael Abbas, who was featured in a US publication.
Egypt: Twitter Messages from Gaza
Nora Younis from Egypt writes about her visit to Gaza and shares her Twitter messages in this post.
Egypt: Syrian Blogger Still in Prison
From Egypt, Elijah Zarwan writes: “Syrian blogger Tariq Biassi, 22, is still detained, apparently without charge or trial, in Damascus’ notorious Palestine Branch detention center. Syrian Military Intelligence officers arrested him from Tartous on June 30 after he insulted the security services in a blog post.”
Israel: One Wall Down, a New Reality in the Middle East
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians poured into the Egyptian side of Rafah as the wall on the Egypt-Gaza border was brought down by Hamas over a week ago. Egyptian attempts to revert the situation to its previous state where they hold little or no responsibilities, have failed. Many bloggers have been writing about this new reality in the Middle East, having immense implications on both Egyptian politics and Israeli security.
Middle East: Internet Outage Enrages Bloggers
What is a blogger without access to the Internet? This was the dilemma facing tens of thousands of bloggers in parts of the Middle East and Asia, after an optical cable in the Mediterranean was damaged, crippling millions of Internet users. No surprise, some of the region's bloggers were fuming especially when they realised that it could take up to two weeks to fix the damage.
MENA: Let it Snow ..
After a lull in the weather, it's back to cold and snow in some parts of the Middle East and North Africa. This time, bloggers were better equipped and had their cameras on standby.
