...Or Does It Explode?

North African Free Press Monitors Form Alliance

Organizations monitoring freedom of the press from across North Africa (Mauritania to Egypt) have recently joined forces for an anti-censorship alliance:

...The founding members have agreed to: 

  To share information on the incidence of violations of free expression

  To organize campaigns and solidarity actions with victims of the violations By

-organizing rallies and protests in front of embassies
-sending letters of support to victims of repression
-launching urgent actions
-inciting the media to highlight attacks on free expression in our respective countries. 

  To create a Website for the working group

  To document and report the attacks

  To send fact findings missions to countries if required by the situation

  To share experiences

The founding members have decided to open it doors to new members provided that they fulfil the conditions of being credible and active on the ground. New members application must be approved by the founding members.

Interesting stuff.

Rock'n'Rula Revolution Hits Kuwait: It's Election Time!

Time for some good news, for a change, and amidst so much seeming cause for despair. It's E-day in Kuwait, and the gals running for office have a chance to make history. That's right, it's time for Rula Dashti to make good on all that "Run, Rula, Run" hype.

Above is a nice picture of her on the campaign trail. She and her fellow female pioneers have a few factors in their favor, not the least of which is that more women than men are registered to vote (and are apparently more likely to get off their duff and get to the voting booth than World Cup-watching males).

Regardless of the outcome, it's a nice breakthrough to see in action. Dashti worked hard for this, too, spearheading the March 2005 successful protest movement demanding women's suffrage.

In the US, women earned the right to vote decades before the civil rights movement secured voting rights for disenfranchised minorities. The long-term hope is that this breakthrough for women will eventually enable the 2/3 majority of Kuwait's residents (the permanent non-citizen underclass) who have no direct stake in society. Maybe someday, though it will likely take a Rula Dashti from within the South Asian community in Kuwait to make it happen. Anyway, today, let's savor the moment.

Saleh's Grip on Yemen: 28 Years and Counting

Last July 17, Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh ostensibly threw in the towel, telling the nation he would not run again for a 5th term. After 28 years in power, it indeed seemed about time for a peaceful democratic transition. But that was the line he used back in 1999, and it worked wonders then too.

Sure enough, Saleh has decided to continue with his Energizer Bunny routine. At a rally on Saturday, he addressed a throng of several hundred thousand people: "As a response to your calls, I want to say that I’m with you, together on board the country’s ship to sail to safe shores." Oh, captain, my captain!

According to the AP, one factor that seemed to sway Saleh was a phone call on Friday from none other than the region's longest-serving despot, the Q-man himself:

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi phoned Saleh on Friday to urge him to run, the Libyan official news agency reported. It quoted Gadhafi as saying Saleh's decision "stems from the confidence of the Yemeni people in him."

Hey, if Muamar can pull it off for 36 years, then why should Saleh make do with a mere 28-year run?!

Felony Alert: Defaming the President!

Hosni is at it again. The BBC lead paragraph says it all:

Two Egyptian journalists have been sentenced to a year's imprisonment for defaming President Hosni Mubarak.

Read the whole sad story here. Oh, and check out this gem:

Two years ago the president promised to abolish prison sentences for publishing offences but the new legislation has not yet been adopted.

Al-Dustour is an independent weekly paper which returned to newspaper stands last year after a seven-year ban for criticising the government.

*Sigh*

Female Cops Walk the Beat in Mauritania

Here's another photo to celebrate the new female member of Mauritania's police force, who made their debut this week.

Qaddafi's bodyguards have got nothing on these sisters.

Mauritanians - Including New Female Cops - Vote on New Constitution

Two big changes going down in Mauritania, which hasn't been in the news much since last August's coup.

(1) Mauritanians are hitting the voting booth today to vote on a proposed new constitution that would enshrine presidential term limits and promote peaceful democratic political change. The new constitutional reform is spearheaded by military officers who led the August coup. Whether they will stay true to their vow of now running for office in the slated March 2007 elections remains to be seen. But the referendum seems like a step in the right direction, and enshrining term limit is a foreign concept to much of the rest of North Africa (we're talking to you, Muamar).

(2) The current ruling junta has allowed women to become police officers for the first time in Mauritanian history. This weekend marked their debut on the streets of Mauritania's capital, Naukchott. One of the female cadets first acts was to vote in the referendum.

The big looming question is whether the unprecedented openings in Mauritania will enable society to address the underlying taboo issue of Arab-Berber minority rule. For centuries, this ethnic group has dominated Mauritanian society, in part through chattel slavery, and there has never been a South-Africa-style reckoning with the past (and present) domination. Could a national reconciliation commission and freedman's bureau at last be in Mauritania's future?

Iran's "Butcher of the Press" drops by the UN

Nasrin Allavi, author of "We Are Iran: The Persian Blogs," points out a scandal that largely got lost in the shuffle this week. Tehran's prosecutor-general Saeed Mortazavi showed up for the opening of the UN's new human rights council in Geneva. A rather auspicious start, indeed, for the new glorified UN body! Allavi reports:

Mortazavi was the presiding judge of the infamous Court 1410 and hailed as the "butcher of the press" for his vicious rulings against journalists and freethinkers. He is credited with the closure of more than 100 publications and the harassment and imprisonment of many writers, activists, lawyers and bloggers in recent years. Shirin Ebadi, the lawyer and Nobel laureate, has even accused Mortazavi of being present in 2003 when Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was tortured and killed.

Mortazavi's arrival at the UN has rightly provoked an outcry from human-rights groups. He is undeterred. His first official meeting in Geneva was with Zimbabwe's infamous minister of justice, Patrick Chinamasa.

Birds of a feather flock together, evidently. Yet another sign that the UN is more a club for dictators than a source of serious pressure for civil rights reform. More on this outrage here and here.

Leilouta Outdoes Herself

Check out her whole photo series here. A little fun for Friday.

Photo of Alaa in Prison Uniform

HRInfo is reporting on the release of blogger Alaa Abdel Fatah (also known as Alaa Saif al-Islam) after 45 days of detention following his arrest at a non-violent rally. They offer what appear to be a camera-phone image of Alaa in Egyptian prison garb (right). We still await final confirmation that Alaa is actually back home and no longer in the prison system. Then the next chapter in this saga begins...

UPDATE: That chapter has already begun.

Muttawa Bag Four African Christians in Daring Raid on Private Service

The long arm of the Saudi religious police strikes another blow against the most basic of religious freedoms. What's even sadder than the inane crackdown is that acts like these hardly shock us:

on 9 June, 10 police armed with wooden clubs broke into a private residence in Jeddah, arresting four Christians of African origin who were conducting a prayer service. The two Ethiopians and two Eritreans are reportedly still detained in a prison for immigrants in Jeddah.

When the raid of the muttawa took place, more than 100 Eritrean, Ethiopian and Filipino Christians were gathered in the house in Al-Rowaise district in Jeddah. The worshippers invited the police to sit down; the latter waited for three hours until the service was over and then they arrested the four group leaders: Mekbeb Telahun, Fekre Gebremedhin, Dawit Uqbay and Masai Wendewesen. All four except the last are married. Local sources said “some police had already come two weeks earlier but they did nothing then.”

A Christian who spoke with the detainees by telephone reported they were “doing fine, with okay morale.” But he said he did not know how they were being treated, or whether they were undergoing interrogation. According to local sources, the incident has been reported to consular officials of the Philippines and the United States.

The government of Saudi Arabia forbids the practice of any religious other than the fundamentalist Wahhabite version of Islam. Mission and any public manifestation like carrying a Bible, a crucifix, a rosary beads and praying in public, are forbidden.

Let's see if the US consulate does anything. Let's see if anyone other the Christian media outlets cover the story. Let's see if we can mobilize ourselves to do more than simply shake our head and move on.