Democracy
France hardly alone on burqa ban
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On July 18, Syria ‘s Education Ministry announced a ban on niqabs in all of the country’s public and private universities.
Culture
Saudis raise the ante in mobile desalination
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Saudi Arabia has pushed forward in its efforts to turn seawater into drinkable water, re-launching the world’s largest floating desalination plant.
Democracy
‘Morality police’ are watching your every move on Arabian Peninsula
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New Kuwait all-women morality police will enforce laws against LGBTS, transvestites and the “flirtatious.” In Saudi Arabia, women are fighting back.
Democracy & Civics
A peaceful reality show in the Middle East
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Most reality shows tend to document 20-somethings in compromising situations, passed out from nights of drinking and catty fights over gossip.
But, what about a reality show about peace in the Middle East?
Democracy & Civics
Acid attack victim inspires Pakistani legislation
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Recently drafted Pakistani legislation has the potential to become the nation’s first law against domestic violence.
Culture
For Palestinians, There’s No Place Like Home
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Underfunded, living in illegal camps and turned away from Arab and Israeli borders — the lot of the Palestinian grows ever more dire. In the Palestinian territories, a Western aid boycott against the Hamas government has led to a strike last week by tens of thousands of government workers who haven’t been fully paid since the Islamists came to power. In Syria, Palestinians refugees from Iraq have been held at the border in a camp with only one doctor, and little shelter from winter floods and summer heat. Other refugees from Iraq are permitted free entry to Syria, but the U.N. news service reports that Syrians feel they already have “enough” Palestinians. In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees make up some 10 percent of the population, and about a quarter-million live in unregistered camps.
Culture
A Cold War Legacy of Persian Gulf Conflict: Central Command assures “unimpeded flow of oil”
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By Jennifer Huang | World Power III: Geopolitics
Ground troops in the desert and aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, Kurdish alliances and leafleting campaigns, oil field protection and one slippery despot: War in Iraq is a strategic and logistical behemoth. Legions of American soldiers have shipped out to the Persian Gulf region from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. An estimated 250,000 troops are in place — add another 40,000 from Britain and Australia and the number approaches 300,000. The modern military needs a small battalion just to orchestrate its own bureaucracy. That battalion is the Central Command, headed by General Tommy Franks.