When the plane of deposed Tunisian dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali touched down in Jeddah in January 2011, the Saudi monarchy’s worst nightmare re-emerged. Ben Ali was a close personal friend of then Saudi strongman, the late Saudi Crown Prince and longtime Interior Minister Naif bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. For the Saudi monarchs, seeing two More »
A decade ago, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) shone a spotlight on the sorry state of education in the Arab world with its inaugural Arab Human Development Report in 2002, and its 2003 follow-on report, “Building a Knowledge Society.” The reports’ statistics still shock: in one year, Spain translates the same number of More »
The Arab Spring introduced us to the strength and determination of the many Arab women who took to the streets and the Internet to call for change in their governments and societies. Gone were the stereotypes of oppression and passivity. In their place were voices and faces of hope, courage and indomitable spirit, calling More »
Just days ago, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah made history when he named thirty women to the kingdom’s Shura Council, an appointed advisory body that cannot enact legislation but is still the closest institution to a parliament in that country. He also amended the Shura Council’s law to ensure that women would make up no less than More »
Saudi King Abdullah is poised to appoint* women for the first time as members of the country’s Majlis al-Shura (Consultative Council). The move is symbolically important, but the assembly itself lacks real power. The king first announced his intention to appoint women to the Majlis al-Shura over a year ago, and, since that time, newspaper reports More »
The mention of Saudi Arabia often has people envisioning an oil-rich, nearly empty desert, where Islam originated. An exhibit in Washington, D.C., offers insight into the real history of the Arabian Peninsula, focusing on its pre-Islamic role as a trade route, the influence of nearby cultures, and the evolution of language. VOA’s Faiza Elmasry More »
Recent reports that Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has been in poor health have fueled new questions about royal succession, an issue that has been looming over the Kingdom for years. Six kings have ruled Saudi Arabia since its creation in 1932, including its founder, King Abdul Aziz bin Abdulrahman al-Saud. All of his successors have More »
According to a new report by the World Bank, Arab states spend far more on social programs than other developing countries. Whereas states outside the region with comparable income levels spend roughly three percent of their GDP on social expenditures, the weighted average in the Arab world stands at nearly double that amount – More »
Asia specialists will not openly admit it, but they hate the Middle East. To them, the Middle East is the great distraction that keeps people from focusing on what’s really important – their own area in the Western Pacific. The media are primarily to blame, according to this narrative. The media love sudden drama, even More »
After just four months at the helm, Ahmed bin Abdel-Aziz al-Saud has been replaced as Saudi Arabia’s interior minister in favor of his deputy (and nephew), Mohammed bin Nayef (pictured above). The appointment of Prince Mohammed, who was assistant interior minister between 1999 and July 2012 (and deputy interior minister thereafter), is a logical move More »
As someone who writes and lectures about women and gender in Islam, I am often asked if women had any role in the making of the Islamic tradition. Happily, the answer is always yes. There were in fact many prominent women in the early history of Islam. At the top of the list would have More »
Our source for this post, Mousab Alhamadee, by his own account, is a school teacher and an activist serving as an international media spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees of Syria. He purportedly works under the protection of the Free Syrian Army in the mountains near Hama. He also says he is a former translator More »
October 11, 2012, marks the United Nation’s first-ever observance of the International Day of the Girl Child. According to the U.N., selected as this year’s theme was “Ending Child Marriage.” Organizers say it was chosen because the practice is seen as a phenomenon that violates millions of girls’ rights, disrupts their education, jeopardizes their More »
On October 1st, 2012, women organizers launched a Facebook page, “The Uprising of Women in the Arab World,” to highlight the discrimination against them which they don’t feel comfortable – or safe – enough to protest in the streets. In just ten days, the page has generated nearly 35,000 “likes” and conversation among more More »
Recently, the Saudi Industrial Property Authority – or MODUN – announced it was building a number of industrial cities which will include women-only business sectors. This would allow women to work without violating strict religious laws on gender mixing. The announcement has generated some controversy. Some see it as an attempt to empower women, More »
Violent clashes between supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebel fighters are showing no signs of abating, and Middle East expert Daniel Newman, a professor at Durham University in Britain, says for at least the next few months, that’s what the world can expect. He spoke with VOA’s Meredith Buel about the Syrian conflict, and said More »
This week in Bahrain, human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to three years in prison in what observers call a ‘shocking’ decision. In Iran, earthquakes killed hundreds and injured over 4,500. Relief workers tried desperately to free trapped citizens from the rubble and Tehran, after initially rejecting help, called for international aid. In Syria, fierce More »
This week in Syria, government forces pushed back Free Syrian Army rebels in Aleppo, a bomb exploded in the state news agency, and President Bashar al-Assad’s newly appointed prime minister, Riad Hijab, defected, raising the question, is the Syrian regime coming apart? In Lebanon, security forces detained for questioning former information minister Michel Samaha, an ally of Syrian More »
In this newsmaker interview, Marc Lynch, author of The Arab Uprising, The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East, discusses his recently published book and the future of the new Middle East with host Carol Castiel and VOA Middle East senior reporter Cecily Hilleary. Listen and find out why Lynch identifies Turkey, Qatar, Egypt More »
To eat or not to eat? That is the question for about 3,000 Muslim athletes in London’s 2012 Summer Olympic Games. All 17 days of competition, from July 27 to August 12, fall within the holy month of Ramadan — a time when Muslims are required to fast and refrain from drinking water from sunrise More »
