...Or Does It Explode?

Kurdish Activist Arrested in Syria

Yet another advocate of reform gets rounded up:

Syrian police have detained a human rights activist in the mainly Kurdish northeastern city of Hasakah, rights watchdogs said on Thursday.

"The state security service in Hasakah arrested activist Osama Edward Qario on Wednesday evening because of his activities and his writings about public life in Syria," the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights said.

The 31-year-old English teacher had recently been called in by the security services over a critical article he had written about the economy entitled: "No gas, no oil, no electricity," the watchdog added.

No freedom.

UAE Blocked Facebook?

So says Casual PR. While the ban, if any, is likely not still in effect, it's yet another illustration of how dictatorships are struggling to come up with the right formula to tame the net.

Al-Akhdam - The Servants Remain on the Margins

"But where Yemen's other hereditary social classes, the sayyids and the judges and the sheiks, and even the lower orders like butchers and ironworkers, slowly dissolved, the Akhdam retained their separate position. There are more than a million of them among Yemen's fast-growing population of 22 million, concentrated in segregated slums in the major cities..." Read the whole story.

The Satellite TV Code

The Club of Dictators has issued a nice Orwellian joint policy statement:

During their meeting in Cairo on February 12, Arab ministers of information adopted “Principles for Organizing Satellite Broadcast and Television Transmission and Reception in the Arab Region.” The document, introduced by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, calls on the regulatory bodies in Arab League member states to ensure that satellite channels broadcasting from their jurisdictions do not “negatively affect social peace, national unity, public order, and public morals” or “defame leaders, or national and religious symbols [of other Arab states].” Only Qatar and Lebanon publicly opposed the document and its proposed restrictions.

"Passing Coffee to Women is Not Allowed"

Click the image for the full story.

Random Sunday Yankees Fan: Imad's Son

Slow Sunday, folks, so you're left with this little gem of a photo off the AP newswire. The irony meter has hit eleven: Look who is a big fan of the Bronx Bombers:

"Jihad Mughniyeh, one of assassinated Hezbollah top commander Imad Mughniyeh's sons, sits during a memorial service for his father in his hometown of Tair Debba, south Lebanon..."

[thanks to all who emailed with this link]

Another Yemeni Journalist in the Firing Line

A legal complaint accusing a Yemeni MP and human rights activist of offending Islam has angered intellectuals, who say such charges aim only to incite violence against activists...

Female Journalists under the Gun in Tehran

The body-count of shuttered publications and detained journalists continues to mount:

Iranian authorities' decision to shut down an influential women's magazine for "damaging society" and painting a gloomy picture of life in Iran has sparked criticism at home and in the West.

The closure is notable in that the monthly, "Zanan," is widely regarded as a moderate magazine that cautiously avoids politics and focuses exclusively on women's issues. That strategy had allowed it to survive the political pressure and crackdowns that had led many other publications in Iran to be shuttered by authorities.

Iran's Commission for Press Authorization and Surveillance revoked "Zanan's" license on January 28, saying the magazine offers "a somber picture of the Islamic republic" that "compromises its readers' mental health" by "publishing morally questionable information."

...The "Zanan" closure was followed by a court summons for female journalist Jila Bani Yaghoub on January 23. The daily "Sarmayeh" reporter is being prosecuted for reporting from a women's demonstration in March 2007, when she was arrested and held for three days. Bani Yaghoub was also charged with "activity against national security."

Female Internet journalists Maryam Hosseinkhah and Jelveh Javaheri were sent in November-December to Tehran's Evin prison on similar charges. They were released weeks later when their relatives posted considerable bail.

Come to think of it, there are tons of magazines in circulation that "compromise" the "mental health" of their readers (US Weekly, anyone?). But Zanan rises above tabloid tawdriness and actually offers thoughtful apolitical insight. But a frank discussion of women's rights in Iran - "a sombre picture" indeed - is evidently "morally questionable," at least to the guardians of the glorious revolution.

Thing You Can't See in Cairo

Random tidbit for Thursday: Promotion for the Da Vinci Code film may have used a pyramid to market the film at Cannes, but in Cairo you legally cannot screen or possess the film - even visiting tourists.

Tehran: Where the Terriers Live in Terror (Doggone it!)

Iran's security forces are now targeting pooches: