Faisal Yafai has a piece up at commentisfree advocating that Islamic feminists return to secular arguments, as the religious rhetoric they have adopted in the recent past is not serving them well. It is an interesting piece, but he fails to make the case that it's better to have only one kind of feminism among […]
The editorial board of the Saudi based English-language Arab News takes a stance against families giving away their sexually immature daughters in marriage on both Islamic and human rights grounds. This editorial is no doubt a response to the divorce hearing (upcoming) in a Saudi court on a marriage between an 8 year old girl […]
Dexter Filkins, the NYT's Baghdad correspondent of 2003-2006 and author of the forthcoming book The Forever War answers questions at Baghdad Bureau, the blog of the Times’ … Baghdad bureau. Naturally the purpose of the Q and A is to promote his book, and he certainly makes a few comments to that effect, but generally […]
Secretary Rice has been a frequent traveler to Israel/Palestine in the recent past (17 times in the past 2 years), and she is now in the middle of another visit in an attempt to broker an agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians by the end of 2008. Read her remarks with Israeli Foreign Minister […]
Hello all, my name is Susan and I am the new Middle East blogger at FPA. You can refer to the About page to see the list of places that I lived/studied. I am replacing Brian, who has moved on from FPA to a new job, so I will be writing daily about news and […]
Not a day goes by without something happening in Lebanon. It is more of X said that, Y said the other, Z cursed all. I believe that for the next few months this will be the status quo. Hizballah arrested people in dahyeh. Again. Remind me not to carry a camera in dahyeh. Prince Talal […]
During the past few days I have had the chance to meet very interesting individuals. As soon as WSN [World Security Network] publishes the interviews I will add the links here. One of the things that I observed is that in Lebanon people always talk of details, of fixing this issue, fixing that issue, and […]
Stephen Biddle, Michael E. O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack have a plan for withdrawing from Iraq. Their article, published in the September/October 2008 Issue of Foreign Affairs states that Democratic and Republican goals can both be met through a withdrawal timeline. They argue that serious draw downs should not occur until after the Iraqi national election, set […]
The Salafi freezed the agreement with Hizballah. Sheikh Hassan Shahhal, who signed the understanding on Monday with Hizbullah's Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed, declared freezing the agreement pending “appropriate circumstances that allow its implementation.” Sheikh Hassan made the announcement after a meeting with leaders of Salafi factions presided over by their highest authority Dai al-Islam al-Shahhal who […]
Tripoli's tense situation continues. I don't know who is behind the attacks, and I doubt we’ll hear of the investigation results anytime soon. Michael Young has a very good op-ed on the latest events. Recently, colleagues who closely follow events in Tripoli have started hearing of Syrian warnings to the Lebanese that there would be […]
Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, along with his wife and Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh arrived in Syria at 5 p.m. They were greeted at the Syrian International Airport by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma, before traveling together to the People's Palace in Damascus, where an official reception welcomed the Lebanese leader. [NOW Lebanon] […]
After parliament granting the cabinet confidence by exactly 100 votes on Tuesday, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told reporters at the Grand Serail that he had been expecting an even higher margin.[NOW Lebanon] After four days of debate, only five members of parliament voted against the government, with two MPs abstaining. Not often did I see […]
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