Stories about Middle East & North Africa
23 November 2018
Egypt hosts the first UN Biodiversity Convention held in the Middle East
it is now evident that most of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets — to address some of the biggest environmental challenges and due in 2020 — will not be achieved.
20 November 2018
Welcome to the ‘New Turkey': Five years after Gezi park, protesters face new threats of arrest
What seemed like a spike in repression against civil society advocates and intellectuals may actually be the new normal.
16 November 2018
Saudi Arabia's execution of another migrant worker angers Indonesians and strains an already fraught diplomatic relationship
According to the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, about 103 Indonesians were handed death sentences in Saudi Arabia between 2011 and 2018.
12 November 2018
Mauritania keeps anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid in prison — and far away from parliament
Biram Dah Abeid, who is also an elected government official, is accused of slandering and threatening a journalist with close ties to the Mauritanian government.
Lebanese health practitioners condemn anti-LGBTQ+ “conversion therapy”
The group's HINAD campaign follows multiple reports of gay people being subjected to various forms of conversion therapy, and a urologist's 2017 call for electroshock therapy to be used.
11 November 2018
The Litani River, Lebanon's main artery, is facing an environmental crisis
"A study has shown that the water extracted from the Litani for irrigation during the drier summer months is basically sewage."
9 November 2018
Algerian TV network director files defamation case against independent journalists
"When we denounce corruption and favouritism, it’s an act of patriotism....we are an actor of stability, seeking to drive the country in the right direction".
Western Saharan media activist Bashir Khadda suspends 45-day hunger strike in Moroccan prison
Khadda is among 25 activists prosecuted and jailed by Moroccan authorities for their roles in the 2010 Gdeim Izik protest movement.
7 November 2018
A conversation with Nicky Nodjoumi on the power and politics of his art
"Choosing power as one of the main topics of my work is rooted in the desire to drag it down to the ground and make fun of it."
6 November 2018
Eastern Ghouta's displaced residents are stuck between a rock and a hard place
The displaced masses of Ghouta arrive in northern Syria tired, broken and burdened by unbearable memories and the pressure to begin their migratory lives with difficult choices.
1 November 2018
Jordan reclaims lands ‘rented to the Israelis’ under 1994 peace treaty
Baqoura and Ghumar, long believed to be “Jordanian lands rented to the Israelis” under the 1994 peace treaty, were revealed to be “privately-owned Israeli lands under Jordanian sovereignty”.
31 October 2018
Israa Al-Ghomgham, a Saudi woman facing the death penalty for peaceful protest
Al-Ghomgham, and many other Saudi Shiites, took to the streets in 2011 to demand better rights.
25 October 2018
Arrested in Saudi Arabia, and then disappeared: Yemeni writer Marwan Almuraisy
In the authoritarian kingdom, the crackdown against independent voices has escalated under Mohammed Bin Salman's rule.
24 October 2018
Will Syria follow in the UAE's footsteps and censor VoIP services?
A policy banning VoIP services will present a direct threat to Syrians’ rights to privacy and freedom of expression.
In Iran, state-sanctioned messaging apps are the new hallmark of internet nationalization
Since they censored Telegram, Iranian officials have deployed aggressive measures in an effort to promote national messaging services.
16 October 2018
When will Egypt release photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid aka Shawkan?
More than one month after a Cairo court verdict that many saw as the end to his ordeal, Shawkan remains in jail.
14 October 2018
For these Iranian twin-sister artists, collaboration is “like one person working with her other self”
"'Reincarnation' implies a new life. If we can make the audience wake up and realize the world around them and see the beauty in it, it is a huge success."
3 October 2018
In Yemen, war, bad management and climate change are at fault for water shortage
"I blame the government for not managing and supervising the water crisis. No one cares about the people."
18 September 2018
In Syria, regime loyalists use art as a tool of war
"Since the early days of the revolution, the Syrian regime has idolized and romanticized a military state"
14 September 2018
One Syrian's harrowing journey to freedom
"For the first time in years we saw streets undamaged by missiles, sidewalks unmarred by shrapnel, and walls unblemished by war."
About our Middle East & North Africa coverage
Afef Abrougui is Advox Editor for the Middle East and North Africa. Email her story ideas related to freedom of expression online.
Lova Rakotomalala is the French editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.
