Egypt's Naked Blogger Is a Bomb Aimed at the Patriarchs in Our Minds
THE GUARDIAN: By posing naked, Aliaa Mahdy has brilliantly challenged the misogyny and sexual hypocrisy of Egypt's leaders

When a woman is the sum total of her headscarf and hymen – that is, what's on her head and what is between her legs – then nakedness and sex become weapons of political resistance. You can witness how nudity sears through layers of hypocrisy and repression by following Aliaa Mahdy, a 20-year-old Egyptian who lit the fuse of that double-H bombwhen she posted a nude photograph of herself on her blog last week.

It was in Egypt, after all, that the ruling military junta stripped women of both headscarves (detained female activists were made to strip) and hymens when it subjected them to "virginity tests" last March, by which a soldier inserted two fingers into their vaginal opening. What are the military's "virginity tests", but a cheap tactic to humiliate and silence? When sexual assault parades as a test of the "honour" of virginity, then posing in your parents' home in nothing but stockings, red shoes and a red hair clip is an attack towards all patriarchs out there.

Supporters and detractors quickly lined up to comment on her blog, where the counter for pageviews outpaces a pendulum many times over. Far from the immature naïf some have tried to paint her as being, Mahdy knows exactly where it hurts – and kicks. She wrote:

"Put on trial the artists' models who posed nude for art schools until the early 70s, hide the art books and destroy the nude statues of antiquity, then undress and stand before a mirror and burn your bodies that you despise to forever rid yourselves of your sexual hangups before you direct your humiliation and chauvinism and dare to try to deny me my freedom of expression".

She might have been born 10 years into Hosni Mubarak's rule, but Mahdy understands the way personal freedoms have steadily shrunk in Egypt. The double whammy of military rule – in place since 1952 – along with the growing influence of Islamism, ensured that. Mubarak would fill jails with Islamists, but would fight their ideas not by giving civil and personal liberties room to express themselves, but through conservative clerics employed by the state. When the only two sides fighting are conservative – even if one of them is just conservative in appearance – then everyone loses. And women don't just lose; they're also used as cheap ammunition.

Witness the ultra-conservative Salafi party's use of female candidates on their list: it looks good when you have female candidates; you can tell the feminists who decry your misogynistic ideology to shut up. But the said candidates have no face, and no voice. On election pamphlets, a rose represented one Salafi female candidate – and soon after, the rose was replaced by a picture of the candidate's husband. There are reports that if Salafi women win parliamentary seats, their husbands or a male guardians will speak on their behalf because Salafis consider a woman's voice to be sinful. » | Mona Eltahawy | Friday, November 18, 2011

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Politischer Akt: Nackte Studentin erzürnt Ägypter

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mut oder Leichtsinn? Eine ägyptische Kunststudentin versetzt ihr Land in Aufruhr, weil sie aus politischem Protest nackt im Netz posiert. Kurz vor den Parlamentswahlen gehen jetzt selbst liberale Kräfte auf Distanz zu ihr - und Freunde fürchten um ihre Sicherheit.

Rote Lackschuhe, Nylonstrümpfe, eine Schleife im Haar. Mehr trägt Alia Magda al-Mahdi, 20, Studentin der Kunst- und Medienwissenschaften, nicht auf dem Foto, das in ihrem Heimatland Ägypten ein Tabu gebrochen hat. Ihre provokante Aktion hat ihr Drohungen, aber auch Solidaritätsbekundungen beschert - und die ohnehin gereizte politische Stimmung gut eine Woche vor dem Start der Parlamentswahlen weiter angeheizt.

Das Foto hat die Studentin der Amerikanischen Universität in Kairo in ihrem Blog veröffentlicht, gemeinsam mit weiteren Aktbildern. Eines zeigt einen nackten Mann mit Gitarre und dann wieder Mahdi mit gelben Balken vor Augen, Mund und Scham. Die Rechtecke stünden für "die Zensur unseres Wissens, Ausdrucks und Sexualität", kommentiert sie in dem Blog, das sie mit "Tagebuch einer Rebellin" betitelt hat. Sie wehre sich "gegen eine Gesellschaft von Gewalt, Rassismus, Sexismus, sexueller Belästigung und Heuchelei" - mit einem Aktporträt, das sie nach eigenen Angaben vor Monaten im Haus ihrer Eltern aufgenommen hat.

Für europäische Verhältnisse wirkt das eher altmodisch als revolutionär. Doch in der konservativen ägyptischen Gesellschaft, wo sich Paare in der Öffentlichkeit nicht küssen dürfen und Frauen auf der Straße nicht einmal ihre nackten Arme zeigen, hat die Aufnahme eine Lawine der Entrüstung losgetreten. » | son/dop/AP | Freitag 18. November 2011

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The Arab Awakening - Death of Fear
Rageh Omaar examines how the death of a penniless fruit seller in Tunisia first ignited mass revolt in the country, led to the overthrow of its president and effects far beyond its borders

Libya: Anti-Gaddafi Activists Speak Out in Tripoli

BBC: Opposition activists in government-controlled Libya have told the BBC that Col Muammar Gaddafi is more unpopular than ever but is clinging on to power through intimidation and murder.

Tripoli is penetrated by fear and suspicion.

There are police stationed on every street corner and, more to the point, there are thought to be thousands of state agents in workplaces, schools and cafes.

They report back anything or anyone who could be regarded as remotely suspicious.

Wanting to know what Libyans are really thinking, we gave our government minders the slip and headed across the capital to meet four young opposition activists in a safe house.

They all said they had suffered at the regime's hands in one way or another.

Friends have been killed. They're tired of the corruption and nepotism and say pressure is mounting on Col Gaddafi to go.

Salem (not his real name) told me it was, for now, simply too dangerous to head out, unarmed, on to the streets to protest because the risk of being fired on by the security services was simply too great. » | Wyre Davies, BBC News, Tripoli | Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Libyan Rebels Promised £780m by Western and Arab Governments

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Foreign leaders have finalised a funding mechanism to pump hundreds of millions of dollars to Libya's cash-strapped rebel forces, intensifying pressure on Colonel Gaddafi's weakened regime even as Nato warplanes bombed targets in the capital Tripoli.

Western and Arab leaders met rebel leaders in Abu Dhabi to plan for a Libya free from Gaddafi's clutches.

Donors immediately promised more than £780m for the fund, which is backed by billions of dollars in frozen Libyan assets.

At the start of the third meeting of the Contact Group for Libya, Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, urged the coalition to intensify pressure amid optimism that Tripoli would soon fall.

"Gaddafi's days are numbered. We are working with our international partners through the UN to plan for the inevitable: a post-Gaddafi Libya," she said.

While senior officials from the Contact Group – which includes Britain and France as well as Arab allies Qatar, Jordan and Kuwait – worked on ways to support the rebels, Nato air strikes rattled the Libyan capital with bombing runs believed to have targeted the outskirts of Tripoli.

There were eight explosions in a first series of strikes on Thursday.

Hours later, the sound of six more attacks boomed in the distance, according to reporters in the city. » | Rob Crilly, Dubai | Thursday, June 09, 2011

Tony Blair Issues Arab Spring Warning to West

THE GUARDIAN: Dictators must 'change or be changed' says ex-PM as western leaders urged to prepare wider plan for Middle East

Tony Blair warns the west today that it urgently needs a wider plan to respond to the Arab spring, including a warning to autocratic leaders across the Middle East "to change or be changed".

His call for a clearer strategic approach comes in a new foreword to the paperback edition of his bestselling autobiography, The Journey.

The former prime minister also praises Europe, and by implication David Cameron, for showing leadership in Libya, saying it would have been inconceivable to leave Muammar Gaddafi in power.

He said that if America and Europe had done nothing, "Gaddafi would have retaken the country and suppressed the revolt with extraordinary vehemence. Many would have died."

If he had been left in power while the west was willing to see President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt deposed, "the damage to the west's reputation, credibility and stature would have been not just massive but potentially irreparable. That's what I mean by saying inaction is also a decision."

Blair does not call for immediate military intervention across the region, saying instead that "where there is the possibility of evolutionary change, we should encourage and support it. This is the case in the Gulf states." » | Patrick Wintour | Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Is this hypocrisy, or what? This is the man who courted Qadhafi not so long ago, and it was his party, NuLabour, that was complicit in releasing Megrahi – the man of Lockerbie infamy! Go back to sleep, Blair! Your ‘wisdom’ is not needed at this time. – © Mark

Robert Fisk: The People vs the President
THE INDEPENDENT: Syria in turmoil as resistance turns to insurrection

Syria's revolt against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad is turning into an armed insurrection, with previously peaceful demonstrators taking up arms to fight their own army and the "shabiha" – meaning "the ghosts", in English – of Alawi militiamen who have been killing and torturing those resisting the regime's rule.

Even more serious for Assad's still-powerful supporters, there is growing evidence that individual Syrian soldiers are revolting against his forces. The whole edifice of Assad's Alawi dictatorship is now in the gravest of danger.

In 1980, Assad's father, Hafez, faced an armed uprising in the central city of Hama, which was put down by the Special Forces of Hafez's brother Rifaat – who is currently living, for the benefit of war crimes investigators, in central London – at a cost of up to 20,000 lives. But the armed revolt today is now spreading across all of Syria, a far-mightier crisis and one infinitely more difficult to suppress. No wonder Syrian state television has been showing the funerals of up to 120 members of the security services from just one location, the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour. » | Robert Fisk | Wednesday, June 08, 2011

The Arab Spring Is Not Blossoming

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Telegraph View: The personal cost of tyranny in the Arab world is rising.

The personal cost of tyranny in the Arab world is rising. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali escaped from Tunisia to Saudi Arabia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is to stand trial for murder and corruption, and now Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen has been evacuated to Riyadh with burns and a shrapnel wound.

In each case, the president, once supported by the West as a stabilising factor, resisted the demands of protesters and became a liability. Mr Saleh, who repeatedly equivocated over a peace plan proposed by the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), had long passed that point. Instead of the “honourable exit” which he said he sought, he has suffered the humiliation of being injured in a rocket attack on his palace in Sana’a and forced to seek medical treatment abroad. Read on and comment » | Telegraph View | Monday, June 06, 2011

Listening Post - Al Jazeera and the Arab Awakening
Wadah Khanfar, Al Jazeera's director general, talks to Listening Post about the network's coverage of the Arab revolutions

Merkel sagt arabischen Reformstaaten Hilfe zu
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: In einer Regierungserklärung zum G-8-Gipfel im französischen Deauville sagt Bundeskanzlerin Merkel Ländern wie Ägypten und Tunesien Unterstützung zu. Für SPD-Fraktionschef Steinmeier fehlen der Regierung eigene Antworten auf die „Arabellion“.

Angesichts der politischen Umwälzungen in Nordafrika hat Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) den Ländern konkrete und schnelle Hilfe versprochen und einen Schuldenverzicht angekündigt. Die ersten politischen Erfolge dürften nicht durch wirtschaftliche Instabilität gefährdet werden, sagte die Kanzlerin am Donnerstag in einer Regierungserklärung im Bundestag zum G-8-Gipfel im französischen Deauville.

Die Hilfe solle schnell in Gang kommen, „denn Zeit zählt in dieser Region“. Merkel nannte es eine „historische europäische Verpflichtung“, den Menschen, die in Nordafrika und Teilen der arabischen Welt für Freiheit und Menschenrechte auf die Straße gehen, zur Seite zu stehen. Die Entwicklungen seien für alle „eine historische Chance“. In Deauville solle auch darüber gesprochen werden, wie zusammen mit den internationalen Finanzinstitutionen ein „bedeutendes Maßnahmenpaket“ geschnürt werden könne. » | FAZ.NET mit dpa/AFP | Donnerstag, 26. Mai 2011

Merkel will nordafrikanische Länder unterstützen

Libyan Rebels Continue Fight for Border Crossing
Opposition fighters in western Libya are still fighting battles with government troops. One such fight is for control of the Wazin border crossing with Tunisia. Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid reports from the region.

Wave of 'Arab Spring' Refugees Heading for Britain
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Refugees fleeing conflict in Libya are gathering in Calais in an attempt to enter Britain.

n a filthy squat two miles from the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, Mohammed Yosif and his friends are hoping for a new life in Britain.

The 21-year-old is one of at least 40,000 to have fled to Europe as a result of the Arab Spring that has seen political unrest sweep north Africa.

Many are migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa who now believe their lives are at risk, especially in Libya where the regime used black mercenaries to attack rebel forces.

A growing number have now arrived in France and are sleeping rough near ports in a bid to sneak into the UK or at the Gare du Nord Eurostar station in Paris.

“It is very difficult to get on the train, but I dream of England,” said Mohammed, who arrived in Calais on Tuesday after fleeing the war in Libya, where he was a migrant worker from Chad.

“Maybe I will hide, but I hope to find a way to get there somehow. England is a great country where I can have my human rights.”

Until he can sneak onto a lorry heading for Britain, he is living with up to 400 other migrants in a squalid, chaotic encampment nicknamed 'Africa House’. » | Alastair Jamieson | Saturday, May 21, 2011

My comment:

Isn't this in part a spin-off of Cameron's war on Libya? So the bottom line is this: The UK will increasingly be subjected to Islamisation; Libya will eventually be improved. But in the meantime, the UK will have to suffer still more. Gee! Thanks David! You've 'done us proud.' Again, yet another politician who can't tell his a*** from his elbow! And doubtless, as tigerchopper rightly said: These people will get their council houses, welfare benefits, breeding assistance, etc. This ties in with my other comment today: here – © Mark

This comment is also appears here

Bahrain Special Court Upholds 2 Death Sentences in Protest-related Case
ARAB NEWS: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: A special appeals court in Bahrain upheld death sentences Sunday for two people convicted of killing policemen during anti-government demonstrations in March.

A report by the Bahrain News Agency said the court upheld death sentences against Ali Abdullah Hassan Al-Singace and Abdul Aziz Abdul Redha Ibrahim Hussein, who were accused of killing the policemen intentionally by running them over with a car.

BNA identified two other accused whose death sentences were reduced as Qasim Hassan Mattar Ahmed and Saeed Abdul Jalil Saeed.

Bahraini state media last month aired government-produced videos that including clips of purported confessions of the policemen’s killings. They also included testimonials from alleged relatives of one of the slain policemen and a taxi driver killed in the unrest.

The case was the first related to this year’s unrest, which was inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

Capital punishment is extremely rare in Bahrain and is typically not applied to the country’s citizens. A Bangladeshi man was executed last July after being convicted of premeditated murder. » | Adam Schreck | AP | Sunday, May 22, 2011

Syria's Defiant Women Risk All to Protest against President Bashar al-Assad
THE GUARDIAN: Women on the frontline of demonstrations against Syria's brutal regime are now being targeted by security forces


They came for the men first, as the security forces of Syria's PresidentBashar al-Assad killed, beat and arrested people protesting against his regime.

Next, they came for the women of Syria's revolution. Despite the threats, however, they refuse to be silenced.

As the violence has become worse, women activists have organised a Friday protest of Free Women showing solidarity with those seized or killed. Women-only protests in towns across the country have led the effort to let the outside world know what is happening in Syria. But they are now being targeted as well, with the same lethal brutality.

Two weeks ago three women were shot dead at an all-women march near the besieged city of Banias. A week later human rights activist Catherine al-Talli, 32, was detained in the Barzeh district of Damascus after being forced off a minibus when it was stopped at a checkpoint by the secret police.

Others, such as Razan Zeitouneh, whose husband has been arrested, have been forced into hiding as evidence emerges that the regime is targeting relatives of those it is seeking to arrest.

Yesterday it was Zeitouneh who reported that the final death toll for the latest crackdown on Friday protests by the regime had been 30. Twelve were reported dead in Ma'aret al-Nu'man, south of the city of Aleppo, after tanks entered the town earlier in the day to disperse protesters; 11 in the central city of Homs and seven in Deraa, Latakia, the Damascus suburbs and Hama. » | Peter Beaumont | Saturday, May 21, 2011

Saudi Arabia Shuns Thought of Arab Spring

BBC: Saudi Arabia has not seen the large-scale protests of the kind sweeping many Arab countries - it is a place which, above all, values stability.

There were hundreds of them, migrant workers, from South and East Asia, coming to Saudi Arabia to work for meagre, but tax-free, wages.

And their arrival in Riyadh coincided with my flight, making for a teeming but fairly orderly passport hall.

The queues were not moving much, however, and so one tall, thin Indian man decided to sit on the floor.

Not for long though.

Out of nowhere, one of the guards shoved his way into the line - spraying people left and right - and hauled the man back on to his feet.

Moments later, the same guard kicked the arm of another migrant worker who could not figure out how to operate the biometric scanning machine.

All this had taken place within 20 minutes of me setting foot on Saudi soil.

It was my first impression of the country - and to the extent that the incidents highlight the authoritarian, uncompromising nature of Saudi society, not to mention the appalling manner in which some low-skilled migrant workers are treated, then it has proven fairly accurate.

I have travelled the breadth - if not the length - of this desert kingdom over the past week or so, and the lesson I have learned again and again is that there is a Saudi way of doing things which is quite unique.

'Un-Islamic'

A tribal, hierarchical society defined almost exclusively by its religion tends not to tolerate much dissent - and looks suspiciously at any new behaviours and ideas.

A suggestion last week, for instance, from the education minister that it was maybe time to consider sending boys and girls to mixed-sex primary schools led to one opponent claiming the idea would turn boys into transvestites.

Any notion that Saudis had that the uprising in other Middle Eastern countries might take root here was brushed aside a few weeks ago by an edict from the country's religious leaders that dissent and protest were un-Islamic, and that Saudis should obey their rulers.

We do not challenge our parents in the house, one man told me, and so what makes you think we are going to challenge our government in the streets?

Beside a big stick, a rather large carrot has also been dangled in front of Saudis. » | Michael Buchanan, BBC News, Riyadh | Saturday, May 21, 2011

Top Agenda for Obama
May 19, 2011 – Obama speech on U.S. policy towards the Middle East?

Listening Post - Syria: Keeping the Story Alive
Remote online activists battle censorship in Syria. Plus, fake twitter accounts: a growing trend in the world of micro-blogging

US Politicians Talk Bahrain
Some US politicians are now calling for the White House to take action against Bahrain for its human rights violations. Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett reports from Washington D.C.

Libya Rebels Get Diplomatic Boost
The Libyan opposition seems to be scoring one diplomatic victory after another over Muammar Gaddafi.

The Libyan rebels get a warm welcome from David Cameron, the UK prime minister, as they prepare to meet senior officials in Obama administration.

Libya: David Cameron Invites Rebels to Open Formal Office in London
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: David Cameron today invited Libyan rebel leaders to establish a formal office in London, as fighting in the troubled country continued.

The Prime Minister made the offer after holding talks with Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the Interim National Transitional Council, in Downing Street.

Mr Cameron said the British presence in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi would also be boosted.

He said: "These steps continue our very clear intention to work with the council to ensure Libya has a safe and stable future, free from the tyranny of the Gaddafi regime." » | Thursday, May 12, 2011