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OPEC's fact book entry on Libya.

This link provides information regarding President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. There is a summary of his ruling which has been since 2000, as well as many more facts pertaining to personal life, public life, human rights role, foreign relations and much more.

Being terrorist groups, Al Qaeda and ISIS, are sometimes perceived as the same things, but that is not the case. This video brings in motives and other things that separates the 2 groups. Also, some cool facts and things most people do not know are included.

Discloses 6 key facts about the Iran Nuclear Deal and all it entails. Includes information regarding how the deal will hinder Iran's Nuclear program but overall benefit their government.

Claims regarding purpose behind Iran Nuclear Program was for electricity. Iran gov. They claim they were never trying to build nuclear weapons.

This site stats that women's rights have improved over the years. A new law made in 2010 gave women 12% of he seats in Parliament.

Information on women rights in Egypt are presented. Women political, voting, educational and health rights are included.

This piece talks about women in politics, voting, and it public positions. It also gives facts dealing with women's health and education.

This article by the BBC news talks about the recent banning of social media in Turkey. The interesting thing that this article points out is that social media was banned when it was near an election. The fact that they control the flow of information to the citizens around election time is extremely significant, because not being able to communicate about the elections can greatly impact the results.

This report discusses the conditions of the media in Saudi Arabia. It claims that in 2012 Saudi Arabia media environment "remained among the most repressive the the world." It also talked about the fact that their government justified this repression by saying that it violated the Islamic Sharia law. This brought up and interesting point, because I had never thought about freedom of speech and religious freedom being linked in this regard.

This article takes a look at how the media- particularly in Western countries- has affected what is commonly known as islamophobia. Many people in America has strong prejudices against people who identify with the Islamic faith, and much of this is because they only hear negative attitudes about them from news media outlets. One interesting thing that I found about this article was the fact that it related these trends in media coverage to 9/11

This article reveals some chilling facts about ISIS and what is going on behind the lines thanks to the western journalist that was able to enter. They were also believed to have been led by Jihadi John.

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.

The article from June of 2013 addresses the issues women face in Egypt and the causes of those issues. The article reflects on the need for women to identify the roots of their injustices and seek opportunities to prevent further restrictions on their rights. The article concludes by recognizing the means that will work best for encouraging women to pursue their rights, such as sing audiovisual media campaigning as well as well as developing "their sense of empowerment to make choices."

This article mentions setbacks in the progress to women rights. These include setbacks by the government and societal norms within the culture.

Re-examining a revolution that is needed in order to create a better environment for women. The Muslim Brotherhood coming into power damaged women's rights.

The Council on Foreign Relations published an article about democratization in the middle east and the major obstacles that are present in the process. While most assume Islamists and Islamic embedded institutions are the root of the delayed democratic transition, the problems are much bigger than that. While Islamist regimes do indeed stunt the growth of democratic progress in terms of creating a stable government, Arab countries struggle with economic and social factors as well. The Arab Spring Revolutions have caused economic and social degradation across the region, resulting in a road block of political leadership. Without a reliable and capable government structure, the states are unable to progress economically. However, in order to have a stable government, social and economic institutions must be in place to create this capitalist economy that they strive for. Because most wealth resides in oil, the revenue that the states bring in isn't distributed properly throughout society and is concentrated within few business elites. The article stresses that instead of foreign aid going into the hands of an unstable leader or regime, it should be invested in institutions in order to spur economic growth and eliminate corruption. Rather than focusing on the Islamist-secularist divide, the world should be working towards the strengthening of institutions to create a stable foundation for governance. 

The author of this article was on NPR Friday discussing the women of Isis and their use of social media. The author stated that whole social media accounts of these women are constantly shut down, they operate several accounts at all times to ensure they spread their message.

As Yemen falls into disarray, a power vacuum is allowing ISIS and al-Qaeda to gain more power. This, along with the fact that much of this is being supported by Iran, is making it difficult for the US to maneuver.

Russia claims that the arms deal it has with Syrian President Assad was made before the Syrian civil war started and simply just carried out the deal throughout the war. On the other hand, Assad states that they signed agreements at the beginning of the war, maybe a bit earlier.