Even as the pace of modernization in the Arab world shows some signs of acceleration, we all must recognize that deep-rooted cultural norms around women’s roles and rights are slow to evolve. Guess who is going to change that? The women of Generation Z. I was an Arab Muslim girl in an American school in… Read More SUZAN KANOO: Systemic Change Is Coming to the Arab World Thanks to Gen Z Women
The Kurdish people have sacrificed 13,000 lives in the fight against ISIS. Progressives should support their effort to build a secure base for direct democracy, feminism, and pluralism. In the night of Thursday, January 20, ISIS mounted a fierce attack to free its prisoners, several thousand of whom were being held in Sina’a prison in Hasaka,… Read More Meredith Tax: Turkey Helps ISIS Attack Rojava
The escalation of tensions between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) prompted humanitarian organisations on the ground to sound the alarm, as the United Nations forecasts January will “almost certainly” be a record-shattering month for civilian casualties in the country. Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) warned the recent air raids launched… Read More Yemen civilians bear the brunt of escalating Houthi-UAE conflict
Saudi Arabia’s role as a counter-revolutionary force in the Middle East is widely understood and thoroughly documented. Historian Rosie Bsheer calls the Saudi kingdom “a counter-revolutionary state par excellence,” indeed one that was “consolidated as such.” The Saudi monarchy has gone into counter-revolutionary overdrive since the onset of the Arab uprisings, scrambling to thwart popular… Read More Danny Postel – The Other Counter-Revolution: Iran’s Role in the Shifting Political Landscape of the Middle East
In April 20, the State Department renewed multimillion-dollar bounties on three senior leaders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK): Cemil Bayık, Duran Kalkan, and Murat Karayılan. Bayık and Karayılan are founding members of the PKK and Kalkan is a senior commander. The Kurdish freedom movement sees these men as instrumental in the defeat of ISIS, but to some this… Read More Meredith Tax: Biden is supporting Turkey’s Bounties on Kurdish Leaders / American silence over Israeli land encroachments and attacks on Palestinians
Middle East Monitor – Violence has become a permanent feature of Ramadan for the people of occupied Palestine. The first day of the fasting month this year began with the Israeli army breaking locks and cutting the wires to the loudspeakers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to silence the evening calls to prayer. In yet another… Read More Anjuman Rahman: Israeli Repression and Land Grabs, and the Palestinian Protests in Jerusalem // Israel-Gaza violence: death toll rises as UN envoy warns over escalation
British officials authorised the export of almost £1.4bn of weapons to Saudi Arabia in the quarter after the UK resumed sales of weapons that could be used in the war in Yemen. Campaigners accused ministers of “putting profit before Yemeni lives” and said the figures highlighted the discrepancy between the UK and the US, which under President… Read More Dan Sabbagh: UK authorised £1.4bn of arms sales to Saudi Arabia after exports resumed
The Biden administration on Friday declassified and released a CIA assessment that Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman bears responsibility for the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 3, 2018. President Biden will not, however, impose sanctions on Bin Salman. Apparently the only punishment will be that Biden won’t talk to… Read More Juan Cole – Biden’s Double Standards: Iranian Civilians under severe US Sanctions but not accused Saudi Murderer Bin Salman
NB: The fact that this activist has been forbidden to talk about her experience in jail, where she was molested and beaten shows that the Saudi Arabia is one of the most viciously misogynistic regimes in the world. We should never forget the brutal murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. DS The prominent Saudi dissident and women’s… Read More Martin Chulov: Saudi women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul released from prison // Bill Law: Can America’s Favorite Police State ever Change?
Parvin Mohammadi needs support from labor activists and feminist activists around the world. During all these years of struggle, she has never separated the labor struggle from women’s struggles for their rights. On December 21, 2020, the Iranian government sentenced Parvin Mohammadi, in absentia, to a year in prison on charges of “sedition.” She has refused… Read More Defend Iranian Labour Leader Parvin Mohammadi
After the truth-shower 