Part I – Delineating Differences As queer Arab activists working on the ground in several countries in the Middle East, our initial disagreements with GayMiddleEast.com were political in nature. But rather than respond to them or engage in dialogue with …
Posted in Activism, Arabs, Regional Issues | 9 CommentsAfter Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight in protest at repeated ill-treatment by the police, the whole Arab world echoed his scream of pain and call for justice and many countries were shaken by anti-government demonstrations. Mohamed Bouazizi is a street …
Posted in Activism, Arabs, Art, Civil Rights, Creative Media, Creativity, Culture and Society, Democracy, Film, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Middle East, Youth | 4 CommentsEvery once in a while we come to believe that the ends justify the means. But most of the time we scramble to find the means to a given end. And if we don’t find the right means, then the …
Posted in Arabs, Awareness, Current Events, Democracy, Demonstrations, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Middle East, Regional Issues | Leave a commentIn oppressive countries, the noble persons dwell behind the bars. Don’t grieve my friends, I’m in the normal place! I’ve made a mistake when I was in Hisham Mubarak Law Center once, and declared my intention to write a sequel …
Posted in Activism, Arabs, Civil Rights, Egypt, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Literature, Mideast Youth, Minorities, Petitions | Tagged Maikel Nabil, Maikel Nabil trial | 11 CommentsFor over 50 years, over 300,000 Kurds in Syria were labeled foreigners in a 1963-census that was carried out in an arbitrary manner which restricted the “foreigner” Kurds acquiring employment, education, health, property, or even marriage. The government has banned …
Posted in Activism, Arabs, Civil Rights, Culture, Culture and Society, Democracy, Demonstrations, Education, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Kurdistan, Kurds, Middle East, Syria | 2 CommentsHosni Mubarak, the ousted president of Egypt who ruled for 30 years, is said to have accumulated $70 billion from corruption and Egypt has been under Emergency Law as long. Under the law, the police power was extended, constitutional rights …
Posted in Activism, Arabs, Awareness, Bahrain, Censorship, Civil Rights, Current Events, Democracy, Demonstrations, Education, Egypt, Events, Freedom of Speech, Iraq, Jordan, Kurdistan, Kurds, Libya, Media, Middle East, Morocco, Politics, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen | Leave a commentIn the past few weeks, MidEastYouth was attacked by hate groups whose aim was to silence the MEY’s Alliance for Kurdish Rights project but subsequently brought down all of the MidEastYouth’s websites. Thus, the attackers demonstrated a belief that an attack on all groups that so desperately need a voice in the Middle East was worth it so long as their main target could be silenced.
Posted in Activism, Arabs, Civil Rights, Democracy, Freedom of Speech, Human Rights, Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Kurds, Media, Middle East, Nationalism, Palestine, Racism, Regional Issues, Society, Syria, Turkey | 3 CommentsDear friends: At bottom is a press release about recent rallies throughout Palestine in solidarity with the Egyptian and Tunisian Popular Uprisings and call for action February 11. I blog regularly about what is happening here especially what is not …
Posted in Activism, Arabs, Awareness, Civil Rights, Current Events, Democracy, Demonstrations, Egypt, Palestine, Tunisia | Leave a commentHashtag Tahrir, hashtag revolution, Lotus revolution, among many other names given to describe the ongoing protests in Egypt.
The last 12 days have seen a lot of twists and turning points since the very beginning, when we’ve expected here that Egypt was on the verge of several successive days of rage, following the first Day of Rage which has jolted the regime on Tuesday 25th of January 2011. Accordingly, the regime has had to step closer to a real democratic reform, but on the other side the protesters kept their pressure up, their hands high, and their fingers crossed.
Posted in Activism, Arabs, Civil Rights, Culture and Society, Current Events, Democracy, Demonstrations, Egypt, Freedom of Speech, Jordan, News and Politics, Podcasts, Society, Tunisia, Yemen | Tagged Day of Rage Egypt, Day of Wrath, Egypt's demonstrations 2011, Egypt's protests 2011, Friday of Departure | 10 CommentsTo my people! I’ve released this new version of “Aheb Aisht Al Huriya” in video and mp3 to give wind to our movement. Please share it, but more importantly, sing and write songs of freedom today. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVIwHMu1m-M Video Francais: …
Posted in Arabs, Egypt, Music | 1 Comment