Posts tagged Middle East

From npr: The U.S. will soon begin to open combat positions to women. That’s already the case in Israel, where women say it is an important step but doesn’t guarantee full equality. The military’s upper echelons remain male-dominated. — Women In Combat: Some Lessons From Israel’s Military : Parallels Photo: Larry Abramson/NPR Because American politics is so closely tied (via foreign policy commitments and for ideological and cultural reasons) to Israel, it’s a case that should be more integrated into the general “comparative” canon of cases. Their civil-military relations are particularly interesting—and perhaps relevant as an alternative model of what “citizenship” means.

From npr:

The U.S. will soon begin to open combat positions to women. That’s already the case in Israel, where women say it is an important step but doesn’t guarantee full equality. The military’s upper echelons remain male-dominated.

— Women In Combat: Some Lessons From Israel’s Military : Parallels

Photo: Larry Abramson/NPR

Because American politics is so closely tied (via foreign policy commitments and for ideological and cultural reasons) to Israel, it’s a case that should be more integrated into the general “comparative” canon of cases. Their civil-military relations are particularly interesting—and perhaps relevant as an alternative model of what “citizenship” means.

Free Syrian Army rebels defect to Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusra

Syria’s main armed opposition group, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), is losing fighters and capabilities to Jabhat al-Nusra, an Islamist organisation with links to al-Qaida that is emerging as the best-equipped, financed and motivated force fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Evidence of the growing strength of al-Nusra, gathered from Guardian interviews with FSA commanders across Syria, underlines the dilemma for the US, Britain and other governments as they ponder the question of arming anti-Assad rebels.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said that if negotiations went ahead between the Syrian government and the opposition – as the US and Russia proposed on Tuesday – “then hopefully [arming the Syrian rebels] would not be necessary”.

Maybe (just maybe?) this wouldn’t have been an issue if the West had helped the FSA about a year ago? No one will every know for sure, of course. But worth thinking about.

From haaretz:

The West Bank’s first international marathon took place on Sunday in Bethlehem. Read one Israeli-Canadian runner’s account of the experience.

This is pretty cool.

Edit: Tumblrer Mohandas Ghandi added:

They also paid tribute and dedicated the race to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if an American sporting event took a moment to honor victims of terrorism in other parts of the world? One can hope.

From globalvoices: Online, several Iranian men have photographed themselves dressed as women as part of a Facebook campaign to say, “Being a woman is not an instrument to punish or humiliate anybody.”  Iran: Act Like a Man, Dress Like a Woman! Really interesting take on the issue of women’s rights—and feminism.

From globalvoices:

Online, several Iranian men have photographed themselves dressed as women as part of a Facebook campaign to say, “Being a woman is not an instrument to punish or humiliate anybody.” 

Iran: Act Like a Man, Dress Like a Woman!

Really interesting take on the issue of women’s rights—and feminism.

From theatlantic: Sex, Violence, and Radical Islam: Why ‘Persepolis’ Belongs in Public Schools So we’re faced with a choice. Do we want to micromanage our schools for ideological purity? Or do we want kids to learn something — even, sometimes, something with which we might disagree? If we want the first, we should keep on as we’re keeping on. If we want the second, we need to stop being so worried that teachers might teach the wrong thing that we don’t let them teach anything at all. Read more. [Image: Marjane Satrapi]   I’ve actually considered assigning Persepolis in my intro course, as a way to think about the Iranian Revolution (a topic I spend a whole day on as it is) and putting it in context. So, yes, I think more people should read Persepolis.

From theatlantic:

Sex, Violence, and Radical Islam: Why ‘Persepolis’ Belongs in Public Schools

So we’re faced with a choice. Do we want to micromanage our schools for ideological purity? Or do we want kids to learn something — even, sometimes, something with which we might disagree? If we want the first, we should keep on as we’re keeping on. If we want the second, we need to stop being so worried that teachers might teach the wrong thing that we don’t let them teach anything at all.

Read more. [Image: Marjane Satrapi]

 

I’ve actually considered assigning Persepolis in my intro course, as a way to think about the Iranian Revolution (a topic I spend a whole day on as it is) and putting it in context. So, yes, I think more people should read Persepolis.

From theatlantic: Gun Control, Yemen-Style Driving across Sana’a, walking down the street, or eating at a restaurant, it’s almost impossible not to encounter a firearm. And that’s the capital. Gun-slinging in tribal areas, especially northern ones, is even more cavalier. “Yemeni society links the weapons culture with manliness,” says Abdulrahman al-Marwani, the founder and director of Dar al-Salam (House of Peace), the first NGO in Yemen to focus on disarmament. In Al-Marwani’s many roles — a list that includes everything from mediator in tribal conflicts to organizer of educational, anti-gun drama classes — he says that one of his primary goals is to convince citizens that “a Yemeni can be a man without carrying weapons.” Read more. [Image: Reuters] Interesting comparative perspective.

From theatlantic:

Gun Control, Yemen-Style

Driving across Sana’a, walking down the street, or eating at a restaurant, it’s almost impossible not to encounter a firearm. And that’s the capital. Gun-slinging in tribal areas, especially northern ones, is even more cavalier. “Yemeni society links the weapons culture with manliness,” says Abdulrahman al-Marwani, the founder and director of Dar al-Salam (House of Peace), the first NGO in Yemen to focus on disarmament. In Al-Marwani’s many roles — a list that includes everything from mediator in tribal conflicts to organizer of educational, anti-gun drama classes — he says that one of his primary goals is to convince citizens that “a Yemeni can be a man without carrying weapons.”

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

Interesting comparative perspective.

From thenewrepublic:

What They Bring to Battle by Sebastiano Tomada Piccolomini

Late last year, during a particularly bad day of fighting between the Free Syrian Army and the Assad regime, a band of rebels took refuge in the basement of an abandoned factory building in Aleppo. They had just lost two men and were in desperate need of more supplies and more fighters. As we all waited for the shelling to stop, I discovered a small hole in one of the factory walls. With that opening providing our only light, I photographed many of the rebels, each with the single item they claimed was the most crucial in their struggle against the government.

See the rest of this photo essay here. 

Both inspiring, and haunting, at the same time.

As a child I used to ask my mother why we don’t have Qatari passport. And now, my children ask their mother the same question. I am afraid, my grandchildren would be doing the same.

Abdul Wahid, a stateless person who says he calls no country but Qatar his home.

The man, who has lived here since he was a child and has worked for state electronic media for more than 30 years, called into Qatar Radio yesterday to plead for the rights of long-term expat residents.

The Peninsula reports:

“I travel overseas using a document since I hold no passport,” he added. He told ‘Good Morning, My Beloved Country’ call-in programme early yesterday that Qatari people are surprised he is not a fellow citizen…

Abdul Wahid said he hoped his plea for Qatari citizenship would be considered favourably. “It’s ironic that in my own country I have to live under the sponsorship of someone else,” he said.

The citizenship of the children of Qatari mothers and expat fathers was also brought up on the show, the newspaper said.

Under Qatari law, only children whose fathers are nationals are entitled to citizenship and the various associated benefits, including free healthcare and higher education.

The call to change that law has grown louder in recent years, especially after the UAE’s president decreed last year that children with Emirati mothers and non-national fathers could apply for citizenship after they turned 18. 

The question of citizenship is a sensitive one in Qatar, where nationals account for only 15 percent of the population, some 300,000 people in a population of 1.84 million.

What are your thoughts on how Qatar should tackle the rights of those without passports and the children of mixed marriages?

Credit: Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

(via dohanews)

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From theatlantic: Women Don’t Exist at Saudi Arabia’s Ikea Ikea’s Saudi Arabian catalogue looks like any other Ikea catalogue— weird beds with names you can’t pronounce, merchandise that looks way better in photos than it will in your living room— except for one thing: there are no women.  See more. [Image: Ikea US/Ikea Saudi Arabia]

From theatlantic:

Women Don’t Exist at Saudi Arabia’s Ikea

Ikea’s Saudi Arabian catalogue looks like any other Ikea catalogue— weird beds with names you can’t pronounce, merchandise that looks way better in photos than it will in your living room— except for one thing: there are no women. 

See more. [Image: Ikea US/Ikea Saudi Arabia]

Fascinating! Read the whole thing. From theatlantic: Free Speech in the Muslim World? Ask the Egyptian TV Station That First Aired the Anti-Islam Movie For all the damage that mobs and armed groups have done in majority-Muslim nations in the past week, there is one target that they missed. The mobs in Cairo, one of many cities where protests followed the Innocence of Muslims video ridiculing the Prophet Muhammed, overlooked the Egyptian TV station that had actually broadcast it, Al Nas TV. Egyptian prosecutors have now issued arrest warrants for eight people in the United States with connections to the film — but they, too, overlooked the TV station. While the film’s creators have received the attention they craved, it’s more illuminating to focus on Al Nas TV, which made them famous. The station’s story even suggests one possible answer to the problem of offensive speech in a number of volatile majority-Muslim societies. Read more. [Image: YouTube]

Fascinating! Read the whole thing.

From theatlantic:

Free Speech in the Muslim World? Ask the Egyptian TV Station That First Aired the Anti-Islam Movie

For all the damage that mobs and armed groups have done in majority-Muslim nations in the past week, there is one target that they missed. The mobs in Cairo, one of many cities where protests followed the Innocence of Muslims video ridiculing the Prophet Muhammed, overlooked the Egyptian TV station that had actually broadcast it, Al Nas TV. Egyptian prosecutors have now issued arrest warrants for eight people in the United States with connections to the film — but they, too, overlooked the TV station.

While the film’s creators have received the attention they craved, it’s more illuminating to focus on Al Nas TV, which made them famous. The station’s story even suggests one possible answer to the problem of offensive speech in a number of volatile majority-Muslim societies.

Read more. [Image: YouTube]