· May, 2007

Stories about Syria from May, 2007

Israel: What's Wrong With Golan?

Israeli blogger Shmuel writes about how a customer service center in Jerusalem, which promises to deliver packages anywhere in Israel, refuses to deliver him a package to his home in...

29 May 2007

Jordan: The Other 3% in Syria

From Jordan, Naseem Al Tarawnah writes: ‘The BBC Reported: “The interior ministry said he (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) won the backing of more than 97% of Syria’s 12 million voters...

29 May 2007

Egypt: From Here and There

Egypt-based blogger Issandr El Amrani selects a few essential readings here, where he links to articles of interest to his readers including one about how some Iraqi refugees are turning...

29 May 2007

Syria: Presidential Referendum and Lebanon Clashes

Today, Syria is reelecting president Bashar Assad for a new seven-year term in office. The process is done through a referendum, which means there will be no other challengers. The referendum paper has a green circle that says "Yes" and a gray one that says "No". The result is expected to be 99.xx% in favour of the president - as is the tradition in Syria for the last 37 years. Yazan Badran sums up the reactions of Syrian bloggers here.

27 May 2007

Syria: Lebanon is Boiling

Writing from Syria, Mustafa Hamido says: “Lebanon is boiling. It is the filed of all conflicts in the world. When US tried to prove its strength in the world after...

24 May 2007

Syria: Lebanese Ceasefire

“Fateh Al Islam has accepted a government offer of a ceasefire. They say they will stop attacks if the army does not attack them. The army has responded by saying...

22 May 2007

Syria: Bombing Nahr el Bared Camp

Blogger Golaniya from Syria announces: “My friend Ashraf, a Palestinian refugee in Rashydyeh Camp in the South, has recently launched his blog, and posted about the current Uncovered situation of...

21 May 2007

Arabeyes: The Middle East in Pictures

Today's Middle East in Pictures tour takes us to Dubai's lovely beaches, Doha at night, a picture of a flower in Bahrain, the blooming flower gardens of Syria this spring and finally on a Viagra buying spree in the bazaars of Fez, in Morocco.

21 May 2007

Jordan: Arab Media Watchdog

Jordanian blogger Lina links to a news article which says that journalists from five Arab countries are to launch a media watchdog group in reaction to what they call increased...

17 May 2007

Kurdistance: The Honor Killing of Dua

This may seem like old news....but it isn't. Even though the tragic honor killing of a young girl in Northern Iraq/Southern Kurdistan took place in early April, sometimes the meaning of these sad stories take a while to surface. There are conflicting reports about how 17-year-old Dua died, some say that she was lynched, some stoned to death, others say both. What we do know was that Dua was a young girl in love, who left her Yezidi faith to live her life with a man that she loved. She was brave and idealistic; and she died horribly because of it. A mob of Yezidi men dragged her into the street, tore her clothes to shame her, and then the mob killed her...the final blow being a large rock taken to her head. And someone filmed this horror, which is floating around the internet somewhere if you truly wish to see it. What is important, is that this tragedy not only is sad in the individual sense of this girl's death, it is also sad in what it signifies for a culture and society eager to change, but unable to, as the Kurdish bloggers point out.

16 May 2007

Syria: A Challenger to Assad's Presidency

Lawyer Abdallah al-Khalil announced that he submitted an application to be nominated for presidency of Syria, days before the referendum on current President Bashar Assad. Citing a constiutional contradiction, between...

15 May 2007

Syria: censorship and repression

Based on a list, by ISP, provided by the Syrian center for media and freedom of Expression, the Tharwa community has posted a brief history of the Internet Filtering in...

14 May 2007