Tag Archives: Middle East & North Africa

Ideology + Affiliation, Nationality + Migration

Egypt News | Foreign Intellectuals

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Italian student found dead in Cairo after writing article critical of government
  • Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old graduate student at the University of Cambridge, was found dead alongside a road outside Cairo with cigarette burns and other signs of torture on his body.
  • Regeni had been conducting research on Egyptian labor rights and had written an article criticizing the Egyptian government’s anti-union stance and lack of press freedom for Il Manifesto, a left-wing newspaper in Rome,.
  • Italy summoned its Egyptian ambassador to discuss the situation, requesting a joint investigation to determine the cause of the student’s murder, which Egyptian authorities have ruled an accident.

Read more:
“Italian student Giulio Regeni found dead in Cairo ‘with signs of torture’” (The Guardian)
“Italian student Giulio Regeni’s body found in Egypt” (BBC)
“Italian student killed in Egypt criticized Cairo govt. in articles” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Twitter photo, via The Guardian)

Ideology + Affiliation, Nationality + Migration, Religion + Belief

Saudi Arabia News | Artists

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Saudi Arabia reduces sentence for poet from death to imprisonment and lashes
  • Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh, a refugee in Saudi Arabia, had initially been sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes for apostasy, but was sentenced to death on appeal.
  • Fayadh will now face 16 years in prison, receive 800 lashes, and must publicly apologize and disavow his work.
  • Fayadh’s case stirred a fierce response from the international community, including artists, celebrities, nonprofits, and other human rights advocates.

Read more:
“Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh’s death sentence quashed by Saudi court” (The Guardian)
“Saudi Arabia Reduces Ashraf Fayadh’s Death Sentence to Eight Years in Prison and 800 Lashes” (Global Voices)
“Lawyer: Saudi court revokes poet’s death sentence” (AP)

(Image Credit: AP, via The Guardian)

Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Syria & Turkey News | Turkmen

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Syrian Turkmens flee coastal Syria for Turkey as violence intensifies
  • Hundreds of Syria’s minority Turkmen community left the province of Latakia for Turkey as violence between pro-government and opposition forces increased.
  • Women- and children-majority groups were bussed across the Turkish border as a key opposition-held town fell in the province.
  • Turkey has been particularly critical of what it argues has been Russia’s targeting of the Turkmen minority, which has displaced tens of thousands among the Turks’ ethnic cousins.

Read more:
“Syrian Turkmens cross to Turkey, fleeing advances of pro-Assad forces” (Reuters)
“Hundreds of Turkmens flee Russian airstrikes, enter Turkey” (Today’s Zaman)
“Displaced Turkmen Villagers Brace for a Cold Winter” (Syria Deeply)

(Image Credit: Stringer/Reuters)

Nationality + Migration

Iran News | Iranian-Americans

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Iranian government releases five Americans as U.S. sanctions lifted
  • Four of the released, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, were dual Iranian-American citizens released as part of a U.S.-Iran prisoner exchange.
  • A fifth American, student Matthew Trevithick, was released separately.
  • The exchange comes as the U.S. lifts its sanctions as a part of its agreement with Iran to halt its nuclear development program.

Read more:
“Iran Frees 4 Americans, Including Jason Rezaian, in Prisoner Swap” (The New York Times)
“Iran frees Post reporter Jason Rezaian, 4 other Americans, officials say” (The Washington Post)
“Iran separately releases fifth American: U.S. official” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Zoeann Murphy/The Washington Post, via The New York Times)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Israel News | Arabs

Israel announces multibillion-shekel plan to improve living conditions of Israeli Arabs
  • The government announced that 13 billion shekels ($3.3 billion) will be allocated towards education, infrastructure, culture, sports, and transportation over five years in predominantly Arab areas.
  • Poverty, unemployment, underemployment, and lower educational achievement and attainment have long plagued Israel’s Arab minority, which comprises around a fifth of the total Israeli population.
  • The Mossawa Center, an Arab advocacy organization, criticized the announcement as vague and far short of the funding requested to bring the living standards of Israel’s Arab citizens in line with its Jewish population.

Read more:
“Israel to spend $3 billion more to improve living standards of Arab minority” (Reuters)
“Israel Seeks to Bring Arab Citizens Into Mainstream With Funds” (Bloomberg)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Israel News | Interethnic

Israel’s education ministry denies inclusion of novel featuring Jewish-Arab romance
  • The request to include Borderlife by Dorit Rabinyan in the high school curriculum was denied out of fear of escalating already tense relations between Jews and Arabs in the country as violence continues.
  • As teachers and students protested, the ministry relaxed its ruling, saying the work could be studied in advanced literature classes, but that other controversial content—including its depiction of soldiers—and concerns about national identity would keep the book from the general curriculum.
  • The book centers on a Jewish Israeli woman and a Palestinian man, who fall in love while overseas in New York.

Read more:
“Israel bars novel about Jewish-Arab love affair from school curriculum” (Reuters)
“Bennett Backs School Ban on Novel About Jewish-Arab Love Affair” (Haaretz)
“Education Ministry under fire for excluding novel about Jewish-Arab love story” (The Jerusalem Post)

(Image Credit: Ofer Vaknin/Haaretz)

Nationality + Migration

Egypt News | Sudanese Refugees

More than a dozen Sudanese refugees killed by Egyptian security forces
  • At least 15 Sudanese refugees were killed and eight wounded attempting to enter Israel from the Sinai peninsula.
  • Egyptian officials first said the refugees were shot attempting to reach the southern border of Israel, but later revised their account to say they were caught in the crossfire between security forces and smugglers.
  • The incident is one of the most violent involving Sudanese refugees since 2005 and comes as the refugees face crackdowns by Egyptian police, exploitation and abuse by smugglers, and detention and deportation in Israel.

Read more:
“Sudanese refugees shot dead on Egypt-Israel border” (Al Jazeera)
“15 Sudanese Asylum Seekers Shot to Death by Egyptian Police While Trying to Cross to Israel” (AP via Haaretz)

Nationality + Migration

Jordan News | Foreigners

Three foreigners, two Jordanians killed in attack on training facility near Amman
  • Two Americans and one South African were killed along with three Jordanians at a U.S.-funded police training facility on the outskirts of Amman, Jordan.
  • The Americans and South African were security contractors, while one Jordanian was reportedly a translator.
  • The shooting comes as Jordan commemorates the 10-year anniversary of the 2005 Amman bombings, coordinated hotel attacks that left 60 dead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVS-BtPH4XE

Read more:
“Jordan says death toll rises to six in training facility attack” (Reuters)
“Jordanian officer fatally shoots two Americans, South African at security training site” (Reuters)
“What we know so far about the Jordanian police shooting” (Al Bawaba)

Ideology + Affiliation, Religion + Belief

Europe News | Saudi Dissident

Imprisoned Saudi blogger wins EU’s top human rights prize
  • Raif Badawi won the Sakharov prize for creating the secularist blog Free Saudi Liberals, which called for political reforms in the Arab world and criticized the illiberal effects of theocracy.
  • Following his arrest on charges of apostasy in 2012, Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes, the first 50 of which led to injuries that required the indefinite deferral of the remainder.
  • International authorities and advocates including U.S. officials and Amnesty International have condemned Badawi’s imprisonment and called for his release.

Read more:
“Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi Awarded Top EU Human Rights Prize” (BuzzFeed News)
“Jailed Saudi blogger awarded Europe’s rights prize” (Al Jazeera)
“A look at the writings of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi – sentenced to 1,000 lashes” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: Facebook, via BuzzFeed News)

Nationality + Migration

Iran News | Iranian Americans

Fourth Iranian American reportedly detained in Iran
  • Businessman Siamak Namazi has become the fourth American of Iranian descent detained in the country in recent years, according to Iranian media sources and personal associates.
  • What Namazi has been accused of has not been made public, but reports allege he, like the other three Iranian Americans arrested, came under suspicion of Iran’s security forces.
  • Dual citizens face vulnerability in Iran as the country does not recognize dual citizenship, making it easier for them to detain Iranian passport-holders without cause.

Read more:
“Iranian-American Executive Arrested in Iran” (The Wall Street Journal)
“Another Iranian American arrested and imprisoned in Tehran” (Washington Post)
“Iran Is Said to Detain Another Iranian-American” (The New York Times)

Ideology + Affiliation

Morocco News | Dissident Intellectuals

Moroccan professor faces charges for government criticism as hunger strike ends
  • Maati Monjib, a writer and professor of political history and African studies, is charged with receiving foreign funds with the intent of undermining Moroccan institutions and national security.
  • Monjib ended his hunger strike after the government lifted the travel ban placed on him, though he has indicated that he will resume should government harassment continue.
  • Monjib faces up to five years in prison for his work with the Ibn Rochd (Averroes) Institute and the Moroccan Association of Investigative Journalism (AMJI), which received funding from Netherlands-based human rights organizations.

Read more:
“Moroccan intellectual suspends hunger strike, faces charges: lawyer” (Reuters)
“Maroc : l’historien et militant Maâti Monjib cesse sa grève de la faim” (Jeune Afrique, AFP)
“Maroc: Maati Monjib dénonce le harcèlement des autorités” (RFI)

(Image Credit: Stringer/Reuters)

Gender, Nationality + Migration

UAE Feature | Migrant Women

Trapped in Silence

Women in the UAE–particularly the country’s large population of Asian and African migrant women–have long faced a brutal catch-22 under the Gulf nation’s Sharia-driven legal system after being raped. When attempts at legal justice can lead to their own prosecution for extramarital sex, women find themselves coerced into silence and, for migrant workers, at the mercy of employers who control their movement in the country and ability to leave. BBC and the Guardian highlight the stories of rape victims and the structural disadvantages they face, from illegal abortions to imprisonment with illegitimate children.

Read more:
“Raped, pregnant and afraid of being jailed” (BBC)
“UAE imprisoning rape victims under extramarital sex laws – investigation” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: BBC)

Ideology + Affiliation, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Israel News | Eritrean Refugee

Eritrean refugee mistaken for Palestinian, killed by Israeli mob
  • Haftom Zarhum, 29, died of injuries from being shot and beaten by a mob who mistook him for a Palestinian attacker at a bus terminal in the city of southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
  • Video footage shows individuals attacking Zarhum, the latest victim in a tide of violence that has seen 44 Palestinians and eight Israelis killed to date.
  • The actual Palestinian assailant had been killed after stabbing an Israeli soldier, stealing his rifle, and opening fire in the bus terminal, injuring 10.

Read more:
“Eritrean mistaken for Palestinian shot dead in Israel” (Al Jazeera)
“Hunt for Israelis who killed Eritrean man falsely implicated in bus attack” (The Guardian)
“Netanyahu calls on Israelis not to pursue vigilante justice” (The Times of Israel)

(Image Credit: Dudu Grinshpan/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Israel News | Arabs

Several Israeli cities effectively bar Arab laborers from their jobs in schools as violence in the country grows
  • Several municipalities including Tel Aviv, Rehovot, Hod Hasharon, and Modiin-Maccabim-Reut prohibited school staff including maintenance workers, cleaners, and construction workers (most of whom are Arab) from going to work during school hours.
  • To date, 41 Palestinians and seven Israelis have been killed in recent weeks as cycles of revenge killings, protests, and state-driven violence continue.
  • While Arab-Israeli politicians and NGOs denounced the restrictions as illegal and racist, the Interior Ministry called for respect and equality without reversing the restrictions.

Read more:
“Four Israeli cities, citing security, ban Arab workers from schools” (Reuters)
“Israeli Towns Move to Ban Arab Workers From Schools” (Haaretz)

(Image Credit: Moti Milrod/Haaretz)

Nationality + Migration

Libya News | Tunisians

More than 50 Tunisians return home from Libya following abduction
  • Security sources reported 55 Tunisians were released and returned home following coordination with Libyan officials.
  • The Tunisians had been abducted from northwest Libya in retaliation for the arrest of a Libyan official on a UN-coordinated visit in Tunisia.
  • Tunisians in Libya have been vulnerable in the country’s instability, with 10 having been abducted from the Tunisian consulate before being released.

Read more:
“Dozens of Tunisians freed in Libya a day after being kidnapped” (Reuters)
“Dozens of Tunisian workers held by gunmen in Libya, families say” (Gulf News)