Stories about Middle East & North Africa from December, 2005
Philippines: Filipino Intimacies in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has long been a major destination for Filipinos seeking work. The PCIJ blog hosts a podcast from a journalist who lived there for three years, on how they deal with their loneliness and isolation there.
Iran: No More Beethoven?
In Free Thoughts, a collective Iranian blog, we read The President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has decided to ban all Western music from his nation’s state radio and TV stations. According to TCS daily, Newspaper columnists attacked Ali Rahbari,who was the conductor of Tehran’s symphony orchestra and chose to perform...
Africa: Music
This is my last roundup until next week and I would like to end with a blog I think we all love Benn loxo du taccu……….Africa's music for the masses – North and South of the Sahara.
Travels in the Kurdish Blogosphere
This was my first week of using a feed aggregator for watching the Kurdish blogs and I am not sure how I feel about it. Part of me really enjoyed checking every single blog each week, but it can be terribly time consuming. I set up the aggregator for the...
Iran: 352 comments & No Post
Khatamionline is apparently a weblog where former President,Mr.Khatami, will go blogging. Before he starts to write more trhan 350 people left comments or message for him. You can find anything among them. (Persian)
Iran: More Sites Filtered
Reporters Without Borders welcomed an initiative by 13 Iranian deputies who have written to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to protest against censorship of the Internet, which they described as “unconstitutional”.The Iranian representatives urged the head of state, who is guarantor of the constitution, to lift filtering of three news websites in...
Khatami goes Blogging, Air Crash & survivors, Bread & Freedom!
According to Zannevesht, Iranian female blogger & journalist, former President Khatami has decided to go blogging at the end of this week. His blog , Khatamionline, is ready without a post but he has received already more than 240 comments to encourage him to blog! His friend, former Vice President,...
Iran: Student Web project becomes cultural campaign
A former USC student now living in Iran has turned a class project into a unique cultural effort: Inside Iran, a blog that offers a personal, small-scale look at Iranian life and society. Under the name of “Shiva the Spy” she promises to “be your eyes and ears in Iran....
Egypt: Karim Interview's Chomsky
Karim Elsahy finally made his interview with Noam Chomsky. He describe it as a lecture than an interview. Karim thinks that Chomsky is too extreme for him. Though he find his ideas factually correct and certainly logical, he find them lacking a certain “on the grounds” reality that makes them,...
This Week in Palestinian Blogs: Once Upon a Time
Photo credit: Raising Yousuf Little Yousuf (one year and 8 months old) played in a pumpkin patch in Maryland and fed some pet goats while in the US. Few days later he was shaking, terrified and disoriented. Photo credit: Angela CafeLulu paused to appreciate the breath-taking sunset she probably needed...
Iran: Stock Market & Ahmadinejad
Zeytoun, a blogger based in Iran, says each time Ahmadinejad says something about Israel, Iranian stock market goes down. She adds people are really angry about this. Many working class people, according to blogger, received shares from their companies and their life depends on their values. Zeytoun says we wish...
Turkey is Typing….
It has been a quiet week in the Turkish blogosphere, some of my favorite bloggers such as Turkish Torque and Talk Turkey have been silent. Mavi Boncuk and Erkan's Field Diary, however, have been as active as ever. The trial of Orhan Pamuk, Turkish Novelist, for speaking out against the...
From the Jordanian Blogosphere
Some interesting and controversial social topics are being discussed in the Jordanian blogosphere this week. Freedom of Speech Freedom of speech is not a given commodity in the Arab world, but are there winds of change? Naseem Tarawneh reports about the plans to start a “Freedom Square” in Amman to...
Iran: Football & Politics
IranianTruth says Banning Iranian Football team from World Cup in Germany 2006 will deprive the Iranian people of these rare moments of genuine happiness.
Saudi Arabia: Fox News & Journalists
Sabbah wonders if Fox News can stand for their slogans, specially after hearing the influence of the Saudi Prince, Al-Waleed Bin Talal, on changing the channel reports of the Paris riots. “Within 30 minutes, the title was changed from Muslim riots to civil riots”, Al-Waleed said. While talking about media,...
Bahrain: Independence Day
Today marks the 34th of Bahrain independence day. While Silly Bahraini Girl sees it as a time for fun and parades and fireworks and … rallies.. and demonstrations.. and the sound of explosions… chaos… anarchy.. the ugly smell of fear; Mahmood hopes that the 35th anniversary would be happier if...
Algeria: Floods in Annaba
Nouri bin Ziri is asking us to put the city of Annaba and the surrounding area in our prayers, so that they may recover rapidly from the floods (French). Many schools, houses and other structures have been ruined or destroyed.
Dubai blog blocked
The UAE's telecoms regulatory authority has blocked the blog Sorry Dubai, following a post that criticised the monopoly state telco Etisalat. The blog also attacked Etisalat's blocking of popular Internet telephony website Skype. UAE bloggers are in a nervous mood after this. The blog, written by someone who goes by...
Echoes from the Tunisian Blogosphere
The first Tunisian blog awards Tunisie Blog Awards 2005 have been launched to promote the Tunisian blogosphere even more, encourage bloggers to work more on their blogs and give credit to the bloggers who are doing a great job. The process will be going through 3 phases: Phase 1: Blog...
Iran: Graffiti in Tehran
Irangraffti shows urban art and graffti in Tehran. (English & Persian)
Egypt: Elections ends and more
Finally the elections of the People's Assembly (the lower house of the Egyptian Parliament) are over. With a bloody end and surprising results, that would probably heat the political debate in Egypt for the next five years. Summary and results With a 26% voter turn out and out of the...
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