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This piece is about the education reform K-12 in Qatar. The program has started to use local education supplies to create a better community attitude toward education. Their have been efforts to create a universal curriculum and higher evaluation and testing. 

This paper discusses the opening that the 2011 Egyptian Revolution had on the discussion of women's right. Various platforms such as social media, art performance and graffiti have opened up a small dialog regarding this social issue.

Opening of a representative office of Syrian Kurdistan in Moscow - Russia seeks to "demonstrate it has allies other than Bashar al-Assad. I believe this is a great step for Russia as well as the Syrian Kurds for standing up next to Russia's ambiguous relationship w/Syria's dictator Assad.

This article is from the point of view of an anthropologist who was brought in as a cultural consultant to mediate an issue of "watsa" for a corporation in the Middle East. The company prides itself on its lack of internal corruption, and in turn hired a man named Girgis who grew up in the Middle East but lived and received an education in the US. In Girgis's first year he hired one of his cousins, which the supervisors saw as corrupt hiring practice. The author, and hired consultant, explained to the company supervisors that watsa was an "investment and return" framework in Arab culture, and that there are economic parallels between Arab families and businesses, families existing as economic units. Girgis conveyed that anywhere else in the world he would run the office by the book, but in the Arab world he must also adhere to social norms. The result of watsa through Arab eyes leads to greater loyalty, and less likelihood for deception and theft. The article basically introduces the idea that while in the Western world this may be seen as corruption, it is an embedded part of culture in the Middle East. 

Following an attack on a museum in Tunisia, they plan to open a consulate in Syria and plan to renew their ties with the Syrian government. They state that this is so that they can track Tunisian militant fighters who have joined ISIS and to prevent them form any future attacks. 

After the heated argument Ben Affleck had with Real Time host Bill Maher, people are still debating the topic of Islam in the world. A Muslim woman named Eiynah has entered the discussion, and directed her opinion of the often archaic nature of Islam in an open letter to Affleck, which was posted on Pakistan Today : Dear Ben, I am writing to you today as a woman who was born and raised in Islam. This topic is interesting because liberals in the West are so annoyed by the rhetoric that comes from bigoted sources; while Affleck was standing up for what he believes in, the writer suggests he should have gone about it in a different way. It's just also unfortunate that many are quick to judge and condemn a faith even though other faiths have had just as many problems (and have supported immoral practices) throughout history. However its still important to bring up and try to make solutions for human rights crisis that take place based on Sharia law.

After the heated argument Ben Affleck had with Real Time host Bill Maher, people are still debating the topic of Islam in the world. A Muslim woman named Eiynah has entered the discussion, and directed her opinion of the often archaic nature of Islam in an open letter to Affleck, which was posted on Pakistan Today : Dear Ben, I am writing to you today as a woman who was born and raised in Islam. This topic was interesting because liberals in America have to deal with bigoted rhetoric all the time and its frustrating. While the author of the letter was proud of Affleck for standing up for Islamic people and what he believes is right, she suggests he just go about it in a different way because discussions of human right violations in the Middle East should still be called out.

After fighting increased in Syria, Turkey decided to close dow two border crossings that lead to Syria as a precaution. Until this point, Turkey has kept its borders open to Syrian refugees and even so it still has been criticized for doing too little to stop foreign fighters from entering Syria. 

In Feb. the United Nations demanded Turkey to open its borders to thousands of Syrian refugees. Erdogan responded "are you mocking us?" and accused the UN for overstepping its powers and to basically back off from the Syrian conflict.

This article discusses the issue of censorship. By talking with Egyptian novelist Khaled al-Berry, presented is the idea of a strong hope for less censorship because the January 25th revolutions had opened up a future of possibilities and challenges for Egyptian literature. While in previous years there had been no actual direct political censorship, publishers would attempt both religious and moral censorship as a means to protect people. While the article does discuss that there will always be censorship, they also look forward to a culture that values art and reading that will change the perspective of the culture.

This article explores an exhibition called "This Is Not Graffiti" that was opened in 2011 and had the work of many major street artists. Steven Viney, the writer, talks about the different pieces displayed and the way the authors felt about their works.

There are 3 types of FGM. Type 3 is the most harmful. Older women were not given nay type of pain medication. Recently, young girls were given medication to help with the pain. 

This article focuses on the economic weakness that Saudi Arabia faces with its current and future workforce. Mainly focusing on the youth and future workforce of the country. "If you talk to young people now, most of them want to be entrepreneurs." Said Muhammad al-Jasser at the opening ceremony of the Euromoney Conference in Riyadh

This Electronic Intifada article is a re-posting of an open letter written by Jews in support of Palestine, the Palestinian people, their right to return home to their ancestral lands, and a call for a single-state. This letter touches on the years of political and military assault on the Palestinian people and disassociates themselves from the Zionist movement.

Open letter sent from Republican members of congress to Islamic Republic of Iran about nuclear deal said to be "an unprecedented violation of the tradition of leaving politics at the water's edge." Republicans said that by styling it as an "open letter," it was related to a statement, not an overt intervention in the talks.

This is a response by the Islamic Republic of Iran to the open letter that was sent to them by 47 US Republican senators on March 9, 2015.

With social media being such an open platform, it can lead to some issues. At the same time, people want to keep rights such as freedom of speech in place. This article discusses a conference held to uphold cyber safety in the Middle East. It discussed how important it is to protect this global platform because it connects the society around the globe in a way that the world has never seen

The whole Syrian civil war began when 15 kids were arrested for writing anit-government things. Protestors began to fill the streets, peacefully, in 2011. The government opened fire on the protestors.