Articles
A rape case in Tunisia puts the legal system on trial
A rape victim will today be accused of "indecency" in a Tunisian court. There is no public interest in the case continuing and she should be released
Red lines of offence cross both the West and the East
It is easy for those with ugly motives in the West to hide behind freedom of speech, just as it's easy for some in the Muslim world to command attention with protests.
Joumana Haddad - writing against machismo and for freedom
Joumana Haddad's new book, Superman is an Arab, is a polemic about the corrosive effects of macho culture and patriarchal attitudes on the women and the men of the Middle East.
'Ungrateful' Arabs? History shows Americans were, too
Current US charges of Arab ingratitude reflect a debate from the past, when Samuel Johnson denounced Americans as ungrateful for failing to recognise Britain's role in their liberation
Kazakhstan is a nation booming on the back of optimism
A largely unknown quantity, Kazakhstan is the focus of the latest book by former British politician Jonathan Aitken, who reveals a nation buoyed by a western outlook after years of control from Moscow.
As regimes arrest artists, their art explores Arab uprisings
The history of the Arab Spring is still being written. Is that a reason why fiction about the revolutions cannot be?
New Arab films at Venice tell human story of the uprisings
This year's crop of films about the Arab spring are closer to the ideals of the revolution – by not being about the revolutions at all.
A losing battle as Ennahda tries to define Tunisian women's role
In defining women's role in the constitution, it is better for Tunisia's Ennahda to position itself as a centrist party, mediating between the divided secular-liberals and the hardline Salafists.
Without intervention, Syria will be dragged down with Assad
Even if Bashar Al Assad loses in a war that drags on for years, the log term effects on Syria and the rest of the Middle East could be disastrous. The world cannot wait and watch while that happens.
The Violent Image explores use of pictures as propaganda
Neville Bolt's history lesson in using violence as a tool to influence is right in that images hold sway over the masses, but his application of his theory to the Arab Spring is flawed.
Syria's complexity defies pat answers on post-Assad era
The belief that post-Assad Syria will inevitably degenerate into sectarian bloodshed is based on a misperception.
Assads' family rule makes an Alawite state impossible
The Alawites remain Syrians and they will have to find their place in a democratic Syrian state.
Egypt's old allies must come to terms with a new power
Things have changed in the region, yet America's priorities have not – and it will soon have to adjust to the new realities.
North Africa's new secularists turn the page on old regimes
Secularism in the Arab world has a different meaning than in the West
West claims moral purpose to justify its interventions
Western governments often intervene in the affairs of others. In this they are not alone. But the West is unique in wrapping such actions in the cloak of morality.
