CULF 3331: "Middle Eastern Revolutions"

04 August 2013 Egyptian street art is everywhere; from the dark underside of 6 th October Bridge to the face of Giza Zoo - and even on the sides of tanks. Since the January 25th Revolution, artists in Cairo have been in inspired form and as a city, Cairo has become a forerunner in Middle-Eastern revolutionary art.

Over the past few months, there have been dozens of articles published about how Kurdish women of the PKK have been engaged in combat against the Islamic State. In this article in the Hurriyet Daily News (a major Turkish newspaper), the author examines the PKK's claims about being an organization that practices gender equality. Rather unsurprisingly for a Turkish author, he argues that the PKK's history of terrorism, in particular its use of female suicide bombers, is ignored in recent news articles, and that the organization has a long history of abuses towards women.

After mounting domestic and international political pressure, the Foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that Turkey will allow some Kurdish forces to cross the border into Syria to fight the Islamic State in the Syrian town of Kobane. Turkey will not allow all Kurdish forces to fight, and will only allow the Peshmerga, rather than the PKK, to cross the border. "Peshmerga" is a Kurdish word for armed fighters, but more specifically refers to nationalist soldiers for an independent Kurdish state.

In the upscale neighborhood of Zamalek in Cairo, Egypt, a military tank faces off with a man, on a bicycle, carrying bread. This scene is a five-minute taxi ride from Tahrir Square, the primary spot within the city and the country where thousands of protesters are currently fighting against the rule of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF).

In this article, it present different graffiti art in egypt and tunsia. Since my research digital project is on the graffiti art during the revolution, most of my blog post and diigo posts will be emphasis on different pieces of art.

Since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak sent Egypt into turmoil in 2011, Egypt has been home to a street-art movement of unprecedented vitality. A living record of Egypt's mercurial political situation, these murals have once again proliferated in the wake of the recent coup d'état.

Reuters - No sooner had Egyptian authorities painted over a wall of revolutionary graffiti near Tahrir Square this week than the street artists were back with spray cans and a new target: President Mohamed Mursi.

Every inner city area has its fair share of buildings tattooed with layers of colorful graffiti and gang symbols. Given the stigma attached to graffiti, one would not expect to find true art on cracking walls, between trash cans, and on street signs. However, a more advanced form of graffiti-street art-conveys a deeper expression of the artist.

Turkey has seen the Kurdish groups as an enemy. But because Assad faces a much greater threat, they are forced to see the Kurds as allies in fighting. Similarly the Kurds must utilize Turkey as an allie, or be surrounded by enemies.

The Assad regime in 2011 tried to right their wrongs and gave citizenship to Kurds in Northern Syria to appease this group. 10% of the population was angry with Assad, and this was their attempt to appease them.

Jonathan Guyer is a Cairo based scholar who is currently looking into the comic satire used throughout Egypt.

This is an article from the Columbia Journalism Review discussing about a popular illustrator Mana Neyestani. In the article, Neyestani talks about his career in Iran as a comic illustrator and how it landed him in jail. This correlates to the issues that are currently happening in Egypt