...Or Does It Explode?

Sphynx of the Referendum

Gender Apartheid at the Janadriya Festival

Via the Guardian comes this latest expose of gender apartheid in the Saudi kingdom effectively condoned by major international players:

Janadriya is an annual event that includes camel racing, sword dancing, native craft displays and lectures by Saudi artisans and historians, among other things. International dignitaries are invited to visit or participate in some of the activities; as are some Arab Americans leaders who work in civil rights.

From a distance, Janadriya appears as any other cultural festival until one takes a closer look. While men and women mix in the streets and markets of Saudi Arabia, even as women buy lingerie from mostly foreign men, the Saudi "reformer" King Abdullah bars women from joining their husbands and children from visiting the festivals. They must do so on separate days while no men are around, except, of course, for the religious police who appear to have a divine permission to be around women...

The segregation between the sexes in Saudi Arabia has become more stringent in the last few years and its effects on Saudi women have been increasingly negative. In a society where women are forbidden from baring their faces in mixed company or driving cars even in cases of dire emergency, their autonomy and important role in home and family life can be their only outlet for freedom.

Recent Saudi reforms, however, have been aimed at making the role of Saudi women diminish even in their own families by denying them access to events and venues where their husbands and sons can freely go and enjoy a meal at a restaurant or a Bedouin sword dance at Janadriya. And while some advancements have been made in granting higher education and work outside of the home to Saudi women, women are only welcomed in "gender appropriate fields" such as nursing and female education.

The international community and the United States responded with great outrage to the imposition of race apartheid in South Africa. American companies and investment banks pulled business and resources out until the apartheid was officially ended and race discrimination was no longer practised. Should gender discrimination be considered any less appalling than racial discrimination? International outrage at the plight of the Saudi woman, which is arguably as severe as those conditions faced by blacks in South Africa, has been sorely lacking. Articles have been written and books published on the subject, but financial divestment and the resultant economic strife in the kingdom is a sure way to induce change in Saudi government and society.

So who will start the divestment drive?

 

Tell the UAE regime what you think of their proposed new labor law

In response to growing international protest over the total lack of labor rights in the UAE, the Emirates regime is proposing an amended labor law - and asking for public feedback. Check out the site here - and lodge your own complaint.

Needless to say, the proposed law doesn't have much bite (e.g., no right to organize or strike), all the more tragic in a country where an estimated 95% of the workers are non-citizens. Yes, do a double-take. 95% of workers in the UAE are not citizens and thus denied any basic rights under UAE law. For a complete take-down of the weak legislation, see Human Rights Watch recent press release.

Syrian Human Rights Group Releases Scathing Report

The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria has recently released its latest report on the state of human rights in the land of Bashar. Here's a summary:

Political rights and public liberties in Syria suffered "a considerable retreat in 2006," the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria (NOHRS) says in its annual report. Martial law and a tough Publications Law continue to obstruct and undermine political life, while arrests and prison sentences contradict constitutional protections of freedom of opinion.

Syrian authorities monopolise all means of expression, especially newspapers, two of which were suspended in 2006. The El Sham television channel received a licence to operate, but soon after was forced to close. Only one in 18 Syrians uses the Internet, due to its expense and complex application process, and several websites were deleted and users harassed. Even NOHRS's application for a legal licence has been twice rejected. NOHRS filed an appeal in December 2006.

The organization can't even get a license to operate legally as an organization. Ah, banning human rights groups. Classic!

Salute Back

Popular street art in Tripoli

The Infamous Banned Satellite Dishes of Iran

Hidden in plain sight

Plugged Pulled on Kuwait Unplugged

Seems the shifting political sands in Kuwait have led to a recent crackdown on one of the country's most innovative media programs, the weekly TV show Diwaniya. Blogger Kuwait Unplugged was supposed to be on the show - a discussion about blogging in Kuwait - but the episode got blocked from the air on orders of the government:

Here I was ready to celebrate my blog's 4th birthday today with a possible recap of our appearance on an episode about blogs on the weekly show "Diwaniat Al-Osbou3", hosted by Dr. Shafiq Al-Ghabra, that was scheduled on KTV last night, but alas... it was not meant to be. Instead KTV pulled the plug (geddit?) because apparently the topic was too hot for their liking. I felt like the Ministry of Information had cancelled my party at the last minute, like they do on with musical concerts on a regular basis under whatever bogus religious pretense.

Upon chatting with my colleagues who appeared on the show, we tried to recall if we had possibly said anything controversial that may have provoked this cancellation. None of us felt that we said much, but then I pointed out that our standards and definitions of "freedom of speech" are very different from the government's and while we may say what we want on our blogs without fear of recrimination (the worst that could happen - so far - is that some over-zealous ISP could block your blog), when it comes to the government's own media a big fat line is drawn, never to be crossed...

In any case, with KTV's pathetically low viewership ratings, I'm betting not many people would've caught the show had it aired on schedule. Now that it's been censored, the natural reaction is, of course, more curiosity and interest.

They just don't learn, do they? The more effort you spend suppressing voices, the more those voices will find ways to be heard. The government should stop wasting its time and resources on suppressing opinions and focus on running the country. I even said that on the show.... wait a minute! Could that be the reason it got cancelled?! I hope I'm wrong!

X-Ould-Y Shuts Down

On the eve of the final round of the Mauritanian election, which goes down tomorrow, it's worth noting the closing of one of the country's leading blogs: X-Ould-Y.

The anonymous blog, whose title is a play on the common Maurianian name of so-and-so ould (son of) so-and-so, became a sensation inside Mauritania. It spotlighted the latest political gossip, pulled no punches, and break stories no mainstream Mauritanian media would cover. The blog debuted shortly before the coup against Colonel Taya and provided fascinating coverage over the past few years.

But now, on the eve of the big vote, the blog's author has evidently decided it was time to throw in the towel. His (or her) elegy - "The End of An Era" - is here. As another blogger, Day-Breaking, laments:

To me, the blog of X Ould Y was not just a platform of free speech or a wonderful gathering place from the world of Arabian Nights, it was more than that. Everyone of us, Mauritanians rendered anonymous by tyranny and state oppression, felt like we're part of something greater than the prosaic daily struggle to earn a living. Everyone of us felt that he matters for the first time and that what he says is going to be heard. We all felt that there's something somewhere which unites us and brings us together, in spite of all efforts to tear us apart. X ould Y was that something somewhere, nameless and without identity. It was simply the story of Everyman(woman), the Noah ship that saved us all from giving in to the dictates of the status quo and succumbing to despair...

All my life I've sought to find a Mauritanian who can stand up to power regardless of the costs, all my life I've found Mauritanians who stood up to power only when it's no more. You made the exception and that's also legendary. By power I mean the state, the taboos, the conformity , main stream culture and views, all these forces which occlude difference and limit individual freedom. It's not hyperbolic when I say that you are the first Mauritanian to my knowledge who matched words with deeds, and asked us to speak against tyranny after you have taken the lead yourself. Thanks...

We're a nation without symbols, living or dead, who can be witnesses to our achievements as a nation and a people. Our memory has always been short and didn't keep a record of the people who truly served us without expecting anything in return. I hope that this time around we'll succeed to immortalize you somehow. I know that statues won't be accepted but we can still give your name to a magazine, a journal or a wide circulating intellectual edition of some sort.

We've got a thing for anonymous bloggers, so we're especially sad to see X.O.Y. go. Bonne chance, buddy!

FridayFoto: Big Brother in Meknes?

Actually, just an optometrist...

Mauritanian Presidential Debate Tonight Live on Al-Jazeera

So Tuesday's planned Mauritanian presidential debate was postponed at the last minute. But tonight, in a few hours, the first ever Mauritanian presidential debate is slated to go live. And it will be watched in homes across the region, as Al-Jazeera is supposed to carrying it. Although neither candidate necessarily has smooth debating chops or offers the ultimate in prime-time political speechifying, it's a watershed moment. North Africa's equivalent of the Nixon-Kennedy debate debuts momentarily...