Group items tagged

This article is about an interview with Katherine Zoepf. In the interview, they talk about her new book "Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World". The book is about her journey to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern countries. In her journey, she gained rare access to the lives of these young women.

This article is about the facebook page that was made after the death of Khaled Mohamed. It offers a more specific example of a time when social media was used in a middle eastern revolution.

This article discusses a man who was so inspired and impacted by the use of facebook and other social media aspects and how they played a part in middle eastern revolutions that he named his daughter facebook. This really demonstrates how deeply social media really impacted the lives of the everyday people in this area.

This article depicts a very real and recent trauma that Yemen is undergoing; their healthcare system and facilities, much like other poorer middle eastern countries, is on the brink of extinction. This raised the question that we have been discussing in class; would foreign aid eliminate poverty? While there are millions in Yemen starving, would it be justified to provide their country with aid as more developed countries are supplying refugee camps in Jordan and Syrian rebels?

This article provides a detailed outline of the battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria through the use of maps, charts, and photographs to allow readers to visualize areas where fighting is taking place. Several maps provide locations of ISIS controlled territory, locations of airstrikes, and locations of ISIS controlled oil refineries. It was really helpful to see different maps outlining this information because I often hear about this conflict on the radio or television programs and it can be hard to understand the scope of the conflict without any visual aids. I really appreciated the effort to show in detail the specific locations.

This article outlined the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq providing detailed maps, charts, and photos to present a more clear picture of where violence and air strikes are occurring.

The article details the history of censorship by Middle Eastern governments and how it has responded to newer technologies. Most notably social media and the Internet are the most prevalent targets of censorship by modern governments.

More Middle Eastern countries are following Saudi Arabia and cutting ties with Iran. Saudi Arabia severed all diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday. "The move comes after Iranian protesters attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran, ransacking and setting fire to the building in retaliation for Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric and 46 others on Saturday," Business Insider's Natasha Bertrand reports.

This article discusses women and media in the Middle East, and how women can "gain power through self expression." I thought that this was a very important message, and found points that the article raised about women in film and journalism were very relevant.

This article basically highlights the significance of Libyan oil fields in terms of the international community. Chaos in Libya not only affects the eastern region, but all OPEC members and importers of crude oil across the globe. After the recent attacks on Sharara, the biggest field in Libya, production has significantly slowed down. Libya's elected parliament assures the global community that they will resume normal outputs soon, but as the country deepens further into civil war, international actors remain skeptical.

This article from News Week basically paints a picture of Libyan history and how Gaddafi's reign devastated the state economically, socially, and politically. Author Dirk Vandewalle uses the phrase "a political tabula rasa" which in Latin means a blank slate, to describe the fate of Libya after Gaddafi's rule and convey the extent to which the country has to literally reconstruct every component that makes up a society and its government. He highlights major events that led to the downfall of both the Gaddafi regime and the Libyan state as a whole such as Arab nationalism, Jamahiriya, the Green Book, security apparatuses snuffing all opposition, terrorist incidents, isolation and international sanctions, the Lockerbie bombing, weapons of mass destruction, human right violations, divide and rule policies, and his use of oil revenue to fuel his insurgency. Vandewalle concludes the article with uncertain ideas thoughts towards Libya's future and the way the state is going to literally rebuild themselves from this "blank slate" that Gaddafi left behind. 

Finally, aid has made it to Deir al-Zor. This eastern city has been besieged by ISIS militants for some time now. I will be keeping an eye out to see how the aid is used. This is also interesting because the city is in a part of the country that is less accessible to government forces, with ISIS being in control of the surrounding area.

Those three countries have followed different trajectories since the start of the Arab Spring in 2011, but what they have in common now is instability that is not likely to be overcome in the short term.

This article offers a differing perspective than most, stating that social media was more of a contributing factor in the middle eastern revolutions rather than "the driving force." Another interesting aspect of this article is the fact that it was written very recently. I think it's interesting how the difference of opinion over time on how social media has impacted and is continuing to impact revolutions in this area.

On 25 January 2011 hundreds of thousands of protesters started to gather in Tahrir Square and planted the seeds of unrest which, days later, finally unseated the incumbent president, Hosni Mubarak, after 30 years of power.

A political conversation between Vox journalist, Max Fisher, and Middle Eastern politician, Michael Doran. In the article, Fisher speaks with Doran about the nuclear deal under Obama and Iran. They discuss underlying assumptions of Obama's Iran policy and end goals of the overall deal.

Turkey has announced that, along with the US, they will be training some 2,000 Syrian rebels. Tensions have been rising between Syria and Turkey ever since Turkey went into Syria to retrieve a historical figure and relocate him but they are hoping this move will calm the tensions between the two states. 

Kurdish Aspect covers issues related to Kurds and Kurdistan within the larger context of Middle Eastern concerns. The website offers readers a treasure of information as a useful guide to know how others view the Kurds. Kurdish aspect is proud that a significant number of contributors who have a deep understanding and experience in Kurdish history, culture and politics constantly write for the website.

Any doubts that Libya has pivoted to a proxy war have been eliminated with the recent bombings outside UAE and Egyptian embassies as a backlash against their role in the regional "tug of war" on Thursday. Each side of the conflict has its own government as well as city headquarters. Islamists have occupied Tripoli and Haftar's forces Tobruk. The actions of regional players are escalating the civil war to the utmost extent.

As their sole source of income the control over oil policy and revenue proves to be a huge factor in which government will gain control over the greater Libya. Thinni, the prime minister recognized by the international community, has assured OPEC members that oil revenues are deposited into the Libyan Bank, which then transfers them to the central bank. While this may be true, OPEC members are worried that the continuation of Islamist militant aims for political autonomy through the occupation and attacks on oil ports. BPD have already become a fifth of what they maintained just one year ago. 

This article conveys that AS has claimed Benghazi as an Islamic Emirate. While Haftar argues that only certain positions are under Islamic occupation, but the fact that they control the whole city is something he denies.