Stories about Middle East & North Africa from February, 2006
Arabic Blogs Dreams
The following is an abbreviated translation from some of the Arabic-language blogsphere. Some disappointment in blogging and Arab blogsphere is floating around. Here, Tarik Abu Ziad from Jordan writes; Running from forums to fall under the overpower of blog aggregators: كان أحد أهم الأسباب – بالنسبة لي على الأقل –...
Iran: Football & Women
Panahandegi writes about women & their problem to go watching a football game in Iran. Blogger says did you know that a woman in Iran need to be granted an “authorization” to enter the stadium and watch a live football game? Apparently it would be “unholy” for them to listen...
Non Violence, Conservatism & Human Rights
Fanousian , a collective blog, has done an interview with Dr. Brian Martin writer in nonviolence, and associate professor in Science, Technology and Society at the University of Wollongong. This blog has already focused on non violence movement for couple of months. It is fascinating that bloggers not only provide...
Bahrain: another eventful week in review
an eventful week in Bahrain.. but we've ALMOST moved away from "the cartoons"...
From the Jordanian Blogosphere
“No Comment” caricature by Wael Attili The Jordanian blogosphere is discussing more traditional aspects relating to our culture and language this week. Khalidah writes about Jordanian traditions when it comes to marriage, this time discussing why she doesn't think the traditional method of arranged marriage works, “heck the chat rooms...
Palestine: Parliament Convens
The Palestinian parliament convenced its first session today the 18th of February, 2006 despite of Israeli moves to bar Gaza workers, lawmakers, people and even goods from entering Israel. Laila el-Haddad wrote a comprehensive report about the event in addition to her photostory on the views of nine Palestinians and...
Iran: Poetry & Nuclear!
Abbas Maroufi, Germany based famous writer, poet and blogger, has writtena poem about nuclear energy (Persian). He says in this nuclear energy is not modern, killing people is not modern, a stone is always modern, but throwing stone is not modern…a flower for you, every day, is modern.
Bahrain: When my People ban the Valentine
Mohammed wasn’t so surprised to see a handwritten sign displayed at one of the busiest roads in Bahrain calling for the ban of valentine in collaboration with the recent Danish boycott calls. “Why is it that we Muslims keep mounting up the barrier between our cultures and the rest of...
Iran: Valentine & a Joke
Abtahi, a cleric blogger & reformist politician, writes about Valentine that a guy buying love gifts asks the sales attendant for a dozen cards with the sentence “I ONLY LOVE YOU.”
Palestine: Ali Suliman in the Hot Zone
Will of kabobfest says that Yahoo's Indiana Jones-journalist Kevin Sites is slowly getting on his good side. “I blogged about him in critical and in not-so-critical ways. But his interview with ‘Paradise Now‘ actor Ali Suliman of Nazareth is a solid effort in support of good art. Despite the cheesy...
Egypt: Cannot Meet Democracy Promises
Egyptians are still happy with their success after winning the football’s cup of African nations. On the other hand, the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, quietly takes a decision to postpone the local/municipality elections scheduled for April in a hush-hush manner, using the fact that the people are busy with their...
Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere
Like the rest of the world, the infamous Danish cartoons was one of the main topics discussed in the Saudi blogosphere during the past two weeks. Abu-Joori believes that boycotting Danish products was a very civil choice, even though he understands that neither the Danish government nor the Danish people...
Iran: Bloggers back Fired Professor
According to Rooznamenegar No (New Reporter) many bloggers back popular communication professor, Mr.NamakDoost, who was fired recently (Persian). It seems Saturday there will be a demonstration to back him. During recent months more university professors and responsibles have been fired without clear reason.
Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome
Love is in the air this week and even hardened Iraqi bloggers go mushy at the knees on Valentines day. The cartoon controversy has been brewing with more thoughtful comments and Iraq has been dealing with its own controversy – the demon of abuses by British and American troops has...
On Valentine's Day, Supermale Interviews African Men on Infidelity
Supermale, a.k.a. Morad Ouasti (FR) interviews 8 men from all over Africa about infidelity and concludes that there is no consensus on where to draw the line between fidelity and infidelity while personal experience and … convenience influence individual opinions.
Kurdistance:
Hello everyone! I'm finally back -and married. The winner of the “GV Kurdish Post Title” contest was Metin from Talk Turkey, and I particularily enjoy the irony that it was a Turkish gentleman that came up with the neatest name for a Kurdish weekly, it just goes to show the...
Valentine and the U2 in the Moroccan blogs
No political posts in the Moroccan blogosphere last week, or at least very rare. It seems the Moroccan bloggers opted for lighter subjects, in order to mark a pause, after the very political week dominated by the Danish cartoons. Bono in Morocco Supertimba is in the United States on assignment....
Ganji, Revolution & Cartoons
Nima Milanian in Iranian Truth, a group blog, writes about Akbar Ganji, jailed journalist, Blogger reminds us Ganji's solitary confinement and says: “Five months in solitary confinement. There is a greater threat to the world then Iran's nuclear technology. Its treatment of political prisoners. Call on foreign governments to create...
Iran: Word “Lovers “Filtered!
According to Gladiator, an Iran based blogger, in most ISPs word lover(s) (Ashegh or Asheghan in Persian) has been filtered!
This Week in Palestinian Blogs: Palestine Now
Via The Black Iris, Naseem Tarawnah blogs the latest news of the first Palestinian movie to ever be nominated for an Oscars right after winning the Golden Globe: Paradise Now. Naseem posted an article about Israeli lobbies against tagging the film again as Palestinian. An interesting chain of comments evolved...
Supermale on Moslem World Boycott of Danish Goods
Morad Ouasti reports (FR) at Supermale on the mechanisms behind the moslem world’ s boycott of Danish goods: “Denmark is already suffering early consequences while the boycott is being organized via Internet and text messaging … Meanwhile, European companies [such as Danon and Nestle] adopt an ad hoc strategy of...
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