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Cycles of violence in Egypt
It is common to hear people sitting in ahwas (street coffee houses) speaking of their latest plans to demand better conditions at work through strikes and walkouts. This culture of protest now appears...
View ArticleThe modesty wars: women and the Hasidim in Brooklyn
The recent cultural wars between the Orthodox Jewish Hasidim in Brooklyn, New York and their neighbours are really about women’s appropriate role in their families and communities, as well as youthful...
View ArticleThe second destruction: Syria and the upcoming reconstruction
The Syrian social movement has to be conscious of the necessity of establishing a just economy. Strong checks need to be built against the post-war government so that all Syrians understand the...
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Anti-deportation campaigns: ‘What kind of country do you want this to be?’
A new musical, Glasgow Girls, showcases the power of anti-deportation campaigns as both an expression of human solidarity and an essential device for holding states to account. But their key role,...
View ArticleQuestioning the imperative to be gendered
Despite women's progress, the norms that dictate that people should act along gender lines are stronger than ever. The rules of gender come first, humanity second. Genderqueers are transforming gender...
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Troubling parallels, hopeful differences: Iran, women, and the 'Arab spring'
Despite parallels with Iran, Haideh Moghissi notes more hopeful prospects for the future of women’s rights and democracy in post-Arab spring regimesIt is hard not to inspired by the popular uprisings,...
View ArticleThe tensions between Muslim identity and Western citizenship
Across the West the arrival of significant numbers of migrants has caused a number of acute and ongoing challenges, notably in terms of social cohesion. These should not be overstated, but nor should...
View ArticleNuclear weapons, basketball diplomacy and war in Korea
While North Korea's nuclear threats towards the US remain in the realm of the absurd, the government's latest denunciation of the armistice agreement dangerously raises tensions between an...
View ArticleThis week's window on the Middle East - March 25, 2013
Arab Awakening's columnists offer their weekly perspective on what is happening on the ground in the Middle East. Leading the week, Israel and the vertical politics of interruptionsIsrael and the...
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Europeans’ love-hate relationship with interdependence
Europeans both love and hate globalisation. They benefit from mobility across cosmopolitan Europe and there can be no return to the sovereign nation-state. But they want to limit their liabilities both...
View ArticleSeizing the day after
Often, attention to the economic dimension of a transition or peace-building process is neglected - and at peril. Can lessons be learned to look ahead in Syria? A few years ago I interviewed a number...
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Displacement, intimidation and abuse: land loyalties in Ethiopia
Industrialized farming in Ethiopia, serving business, political and foreign multi-national elites, is far removed from the concerns of local small-scale farmers and traditional pastoralists....
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Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door
In which the author increases his understanding of the intellectual and educational condition of modern Morocco with the help of leading historian, Maati Monjib; and, returns to his favourite subject...
View ArticleCSW: resisting the backlash against women's human rights
Women's rights activists spent two hard weeks at the Commission on the Status of Women pushing back against fundamentalist opposition and the attempt to roll back women's human rights. Susan Tolmay...
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São Paulo: insecure citizens, all of them
Recent spikes in homicides across São Paulo challenge the city's reputation as a darling of public security and underscores the pervasive control criminal gangs like the Primeiro Comando da Capital...
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Outsourcing battle at Sussex Uni: censorship, dictat and the mutation of...
Yesterday, thousands of students from around the UK joined the University of Sussex protesters against outsourcing. Maia Pal, a supporter from the beginning, gives the facts on a fight at the heart of...
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Laying siege to the villages: lessons from Shenzhen
In this 4-part series, Mary Ann O'Donnell explores the social antagonisms that have emerged through Shenzhen's informal urbanization of villages. ul#photo { list-style: none; background:...
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Reconstructing the Czech state
While clientelism, corruption and nepotism are still an ailing element of post-communist political reality in the Czech Republic, a new civic initiative seeks to bring more transparency and...
View ArticleFrankenstein Roma: the economic fallacy
The governments of many Roma countries of origin are guilty of resorting to an economic fallacy that prevents the social inclusion of Roma – both at home and in western Europe. This fallacy must be...
View ArticleThe path to hell…. an investigative journalist’s view of Leveson
The Leveson inquiry and demands for tighter regulation have already led to a chilling effect in the British media. The law of unintended consequences may lead to well-meaning measures undermining...
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