MIDDLE EAST: Women's status up in Saudi Arabia, down in Syria, says study

The subject of women's rights in the Middle East is contentious. Sensational media coverage of honor killings and child brides equates religious conservatism with gender inequality, incensing Western feminists on the one hand and provoking regional backlashes on the other.

The reality is far more nuanced, according to the the 2009 Global Gender Gap Report released in late October by the World Economic Forum, which ranks countries based on women's economic participation, educational attainment, health and political empowerment.

In Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar -- socially conservative Persian Gulf countries that all rely on some form of Sharia Islamic law -- more women than men enroll in higher education, although they have yet to be fully incorporated into the workforce. 

Syria, on the other hand, which is ruled by a nominally secular regime, has slid in the rankings for the last three years. 

Iran scores low in the fields of economic, educational and health equality, but performs relatively well on political empowerment. 

Saudi Arabia and Egypt still hover near the bottom of the list, but have improved steadily since 2006. 

Yemen remained the lowest-ranked country in the world for the fourth year in a row.

EGYPT: Students’ dilemma as swine flu forces schools to shut down

 
Thousands of parents have been left clueless about their children's fate after a number of private and public schools were forced to close as a result of the growing H1N1 infections.
 
The Ministry of Health announced this week that 466 confirmed cases of swine flu have been reported among students throughout the country. The increasing numbers prompted the Ministry of Education's decision to shut down at least 22 schools and quarantine students in dozens of classrooms in other schools that have remained open. 
 
The ongoing procedures have raised fear among parents, especially after the Ministry of Health said that a decision may be made to close schools nationwide if cases of pneumonia and H1N1 continue to rise. Many already doubt whether end-of-semester exams, originally scheduled for January, will be held as planned or not. 
 
"We really don't know what will happen; we paid our sons' full fees for the current school year and we are scared the ministry might end up closing down all schools," said a father of two boys studying in an international school in Cairo.
 
While private and international schools have found a saving grace in providing their students with daily curriculums and assignments on the Internet, students of public and less-equipped institutions were left with no other choice than costly and privately organized classes, which are being held at homes and nongovernmental education centers.
 
"My children never depended on private classes. They are too expensive and we were only counting on school education, but now I'm obliged to enroll my kids into one of those centers after their school was closed," says a parent whose son and daughter study at a public school in the Giza area.
 
According to official figures issued by the operations room at the Egyptian Cabinet's information and decision support center, the student cases of swine flu have raised the overall tally in Egypt to 1,881 cases.
 
So far, 1,746 people have fully recovered from the virus. The others are still being treated at hospitals.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Swine flu invades Egyptian schools. Credit: AFP

IRAN: Scholarship honoring slain protester Neda Agha-Soltan irks Iranian officials

Iranian officials are up in arms over a decision by The Queen's College at the University of Oxford in Britain to establish a scholarship fund in memory of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 27-year-old Iranian woman whose videotaped June 20 death at the hands of an unknown gunman made her an international symbol of Iran's opposition movement. 

Iran's Embassy in Britain formally condemned the decision.  In a letter to the school's chancellor, the embassy called it a ploy to attract students. 

"It was a politically-motivated move," said the letter, cited in an article on the website of Iran's Press TV. "It seems that Oxford University is involved in a criminal case, which is still under investigation by the Iranian police."

Iranian officials have suggested her death was caused by foreign operatives seeking to sully the image of the Islamic Republic.

LEBANON: New government greeted mostly with pessimism and a dash of hope

Even while the Lebanese press and many analysts welcomed the new Cabinet and national unity government in Tuesday's papers, many harbored doubts over whether Prime Minister Saad Hariri will be able to bridge the deep divisions between his coalition and the opposition, supported by Syria and Iran.

"Government of the Two Trenches," read a headline carried in the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, which is considered to be close to the opposition.

Lebanon's national unity government received warm plaudits amid the questions over whether the rival U.S. and Saudi-backed majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition would be able to set aside their long-running disputes to work together. 

The new government underwent internal tussles over distribution of ministerial posts even in the first hours after its formation on Monday.

LEBANON: 'Clear pattern' of migrant-worker deaths alarms rights advocates

On Oct. 21, 26-year-old Zeditu Kebede Matente of Ethiopia was found dead, hanging from an olive tree in the southern Lebanese town of Haris.

Just two days later, her compatriot, 30-year-old Saneet Mariam, died after falling from the balcony of her employer’s house in Mastita, just north of Beirut.

It's been a deadly month for women working as domestic laborers in Lebanon. At least six have died under mysterious circumstances, constituting a "clear pattern that cannot be ignored," Human Rights Watch researcher Nadim Houry told the Daily Star recently.

EGYPT: Speculations grow around the ban of Iranian TV channel

The recent barring of Iran's Arabic-speaking news channel, al-Alam, or the World, from two Egyptian and Arabic satellite companies has prompted a number of contradicting suggestions over the motives behind the decision.

Both satellite companies -- the Egyptian-owned Nilesat and the Saudi-managed Arabsat -- ended the World's broadcast signal last week without warning.

Nilesat's executive director, Ahmed Anis, announced that the broadcasting was cut due to contract violations. But the head of the World's bureau in Cairo said he was informed by Nilesat officials that the decision came from a higher Egyptian government authority.

EGYPT: Police officer imprisoned for torturing suspect

In a nationally followed case that highlighted Egypt's long-standing problem of human rights abuses, a police officer has been sentenced to five years in prison for torturing a mentally disabled suspect in July.

Col. Akram Soliman first appeared in front of a criminal court in the city of Alexandria in September after he was accused of detaining and beating Ragaie Soltan for eight days without any formal charges. Soltan had been taken into custody July 21 during a random police sweep of the homeless in the seaside city.

Soltan was transferred to a public hospital one week later, where he was diagnosed with brain concussion and internal bleeding after losing consciousness as a result of the physical abuse.

IRAN: Defying supreme leader, reformist Khatami continues to question election

Iran's moderate former President Mohammad Khatami continued to question the results of the June 12 presidential election, defying the nation's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said flatly last week that publicly voicing such doubts was illegal. 

"We should not decide for people," Khatami said in an a lengthy interview (in Persian) published today by Jamaran, a news website operated by the family of the Islamic Republic's revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

"Nor should we restrict our people's choice and vote," he said. "Those who do not believe in the people's vote and even allow themselves to tamper with their votes or ignore them are unfamiliar with the Islamic Republic and revolution."

Khatami is a pillar of the country's battered reform movement and, along with presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, one of the three de facto figureheads of the opposition movement, which took to the streets again this week. 

All are under heavy surveillance and intense political pressure. Grass-roots opposition activists hunger for news and direction from the leaders, but have mostly had to make do without their guidance. 

TUNISIA: Online activists rally to free fellow blogger Fatma Riahi [Updated]

Lina Ben Mhenni was one of the last people to see Fatma Riahi the day she was arrested. The two women bloggers had been in touch online and by phone, but it wasn't until Ben Mhenni saw that Riahi's Facebook profile and blog had been shut down that they made urgent plans to meet for coffee on last Sunday. Riahi, a high school drama teacher in the small seaside city of Monastir, had been ordered to report to the Criminal Brigade in the capital, Tunis, where Ben Mhenni lives.

"From one cup of coffee, we spent the whole day together," Ben Mhenni wrote of Riahi in a series of e-mails to the Times. "In fact, I discovered an exceptional person -- funny, full of life, [an] artist [...] We talked about music, we laughed watching Tunisian television, we talked about blogs and bloggers."

They also talked about the Criminal Brigade, the investigative security force Riahi would have to answer to, and Ben Mhenni's boyfriend, Muhammad Soudani, who was arrested on Oct. 22 after giving an interview to a foreign radio station and has not been seen since.

[Updated, Saturday, Nov. 7, at 11:55 p.m. PST: Fatma Riahi was released Saturday morning, according to a statement posted on the Facebook page and blog devoted to her release. 

The statement said Riahi was in good health but was still in danger of being re-arrested.]

IRAN: Prayer leader condemns protesters, shuns 'satanic' nuclear negotiations

Friday prayer leader Ahmad Khatami, a hard-line acolyte of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, condemned the protesters who took part in Wednesday's anti-government march, and attempted to create divisions within the ranks of the protest movement.

Khatami, not to be confused with the reformist former president of the same last name, simultaneously and contradictorily downplayed the protest, admonished opposition supporters and besought them to come back into the fold.

"Out of the hundreds and thousands of people who take to the streets, only one or two thousand shouted" opposition slogans, he said. "Americans must not be happy, as there is no red carpet waiting for them."

Then he shifted gears. 

"My brothers and sisters who have  fallen in the wrong and incorrect track, look who is supporting you," he said. 

"Those who were named by the late imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] as 'blasphemous' and their Islam was called 'Americanized Islam.' The miserable monarchists are supporting you. What is wrong if you follow the mainstream of the nation? Come back to the embrace of the nation and the nation will accept your repenting and remorse."

But, he added, "Of course the criminals’ cases are different and they should be punished." 

IRAN: In wake of protests, accusations and counter-accusations of media lies

 

It was supposed to be a public show of Iranian unity during day marking the 30-year anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by Islamic revolutionaries.

But not only did anti-government demonstrators, many of them dressed in green scarves and headbands,  hijack the state-sponsored event. They also managed to steal the media's attention media, much to the displeasure of the authorities, who blamed the Western media for distorting the facts.

On the other hand, Iran's official media, also appeared to play fast and loose with reality. 

EGYPT: Activist Ayman Nour blasts authorities for travel ban

Opposition leader Ayman Nour has attacked the ruling regime after he was barred from traveling to the United States, where he was invited to speak about Egypt's political climate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Nour and a number of Egyptian politicians, including Gamal Mubarak -- a top official in the ruling National Democratic Party and the son of President Hosni Mubarak -- were invited to the Carnegie event. Nour said he is convinced that his travel ban was intended to prevent anti-government figures from spoiling Gamal Mubarak's trip. 

"Mubarak's son wants the lion's share of the Egyptian political sphere, whether that is inside or outside the country," Nour said. "But I will not give him such pleasure, and I will take part in the Carnegie seminar through video conferences." 

The founder and former head of El Ghad opposition party, who was also planning to take part in a number of conferences organized by the Egyptian community in the U.S., previously said that the Egyptian public prosecutor had issued an administrative decision preventing him from going to the U.S. and other nations in the Middle East and Europe.

Gamal Mubarak is being groomed to succeed his father, a scenario resented by many Egyptians who have suffered under the government's economic programs and repressive human-rights policies and don’t want a Mubarak dynasty. Nour and fellow opposition activists and parties recently formed a coalition under the slogan Mayehkomsh ("You don't have the right to rule"), rejecting any succession plan.

After losing to Hosni Mubarak in Egypt's first contested elections in 2005, Nour was sentenced to five years in prison on what are widely regarded as trumped-up charges of forging signatures in order to establish El Ghad party. He was released on health grounds in February and since then has only been allowed to leave the country to receive healthcare abroad.

Nour, who has been touring Egyptian cities to interact with citizens and demonstrate his political vision over the last few months, can't run in the 2011 presidential elections because of his earlier conviction.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Ayman Nour. Credit: AFP
 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Named after famed scientist, robot readied for life of mall drudgery

He has facial expressions, speaks classical Arabic and wears elegant traditional robes. 

Perfect, scientists say, for directing hungry shoppers to the food court.

Students and faculty at United Arab Emirates University in Al-Ain have created what a team at the university's lab says is the world's first Arabic-speaking socially interactive robot.

Nicholas Mavrides, a professor of computer science, said the human-like Ibn Sina, named after the Islamic philosopher and scientist commonly known in English as Avicenna, said the robot could be used as a receptionist, salesman or shopping assistant at one of the Persian Gulf's many shopping malls.

"We're very close to being able to get him to work as a receptionist or a helper in a mall," he told Agence France Presse. "If we work on it in a group of five people, we will be able to develop those skills in six months to make him ready for full operations."

-- Los Angeles Times

Photo: Karim Sahib / AFP/Getty Images

IRAN: Protesters turn anti-American holiday on its head, videos show

Thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets of Tehran today, hijacking what was supposed to be a state-sponsored celebration of the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the American Embassy by Islamist revolutionaries.  Videos posted on Facebook and YouTube show police forces clashing violently with the demonstrators, led mostly by young activists and students.

 Protesters in the above video, which was posted on YouTube, chant, "Allahu Akbar" or "God is great," an echo of the nighttime rooftop chants in protests that have taken place since the disputed presidential elections in June.

SAUDI ARABIA: Push for a smoke-free Hajj pilgrimage

It is not only in the bars of New York or bistros of Paris where smokers are being pushed to the sidelines and asked to step outside to light that cigarette. Now, Saudi Arabia's health ministry is launching a public campaign to make the holy cities of Mecca and Medina smoke-free during this year’s pilgrimage season.

The move is a part of a larger health drive for the pilgrimage season that has been spearheaded by the ministry to create a healthier environment for pilgrims and prevent a swine flu breakout among them. Over 2 million people from around the world travel to the two holy cities each year to perform the pilgrimage.

Speaking to the Saudi English-language daily Arab News, Majed Al-Munif of the health ministry’s Tobacco Control Program said that brochures advertising the anti-smoking campaign are being handed out to arriving pilgrims.

“Under the ministry’s Tobacco Control Program, we have printed around 1.5 million leaflets in different languages for distribution among pilgrims — both smokers and nonsmokers,” he said. 

LEBANON: Israel admits spying on its northern neighbor

Israel has openly admitted to collecting intelligence in Lebanon, an uncharacteristically frank admission and a slap in the face of its neighbor.

Of course, everyone spies on everyone in the Middle East. 

But in the past, for the sake of politesse, Israel has refused to acknowledge mounting espionage operations in Lebanon, although their existence is an open secret.

Lebanon has arrested dozens of alleged spies working for Israel this year alone, and recently found and destroyed a number of eavesdropping devices attached to Hezbollah's communications network. 

At the time, Israel said allegations of spying "did not warrant a serious response."

But during a recent visit to the volatile border separating Israel from Lebanon, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon confirmed Israel's information-gathering activities in Lebanon, which he said targeted Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite Muslim militia and political organization that maintains de facto control over southern Lebanon.

"The moment Hezbollah renewed their attacks, we began to collect intelligence. ... We will stop when Hezbollah disarms itself and the border is a border of peace," Ya'alon said, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

"When we are in conflict with an enemy, we gather information about them," he added.

EGYPT: NDP conference fails to ease succession fears

Egypt's ruling elite is not talking about what everyone wants to hear. 

The National Democratic Party's annual convention, launched on Saturday under the slogan "For every citizen's sake," is unfolding amid the fears of many Egyptians that Gamal Mubarak -- a leading NDP official and son of current President Hosni Mubarak -- is being tailored to succeed his father in the 2011 presidential elections.

While many were anxious to see if the party would announce or even drop a hint on whether Gamal Mubarak would be nominated for the coming elections, top NDP officials did not broach the matter during speeches Saturday and today. In his address to the party faithful, President Mubarak, 81, gave no indication whether he would seek another term or step aside.

IRAN: Concern over fate of star student who spoke out to Khamenei [Updated]

 

It was near the end of a meeting Wednesday between Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a group of university students when the man who is Iran's highest political and spiritual authority asked if there were any other questions. 

He spotted a young man in the corner with his hand raised and called on him, asking him to go to the podium to speak through the public address system. 

What followed was an extraordinarily candid 20-minute speech by the student, later identified as national math Olympiad winner Mahmoud Vahidnia, in which he publicly and explicitly criticized Khamenei for the government's conduct in the unrest that followed Iran's June 12 elections. 

Vahidnia, a first-year student of mathematics at Tehran's prestigious Sharif University, spoke without notes.

[UPDATED at 4:30 a.m. PST on Nov. 1:  Despite reports of his arrest, reports surfaced that Vahidnia is okay. He told the Persian-language Alef.ir news agency in a report that appeared in the reformist newspaper Sarmayeh on Sunday that rumors of his detention were unfounded. 

He also said he made the speech on his own volition. "I had not coordinated with anyone," he told the news agency. "Even my family had no idea what I was going to say."

He added, "On the whole the meeting with the Supreme Leader was constructive."]

LEBANON: Militant group's attack on Israel complicates the situation along tense border

For years, Israel's main concern on its northern border was the militant Shiite group Hezbollah, a tightly organized resistance movement that participates in the Lebanese government but still maintains its own military and social infrastructure. 

But now another player has appeared, a previously little-known Islamist group calling itself the Battalions of Ziad Jarrah, a branch of the Abdullah Azzam Brigade, that has now claimed responsibility for its second rocket attack on Israel this year.  Ziad Jarrah was a Sept. 11 hijacker, and Abdullah Azzam a mentor of Osama bin Laden.

Although Hezbollah has been labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel, it often coordinates with the Lebanese army and the U.N., which maintains a peacekeeping force in the south.

The Battalions of Ziad Jarrah, on the other hand, are thought to have connections to Al Qaeda, using the well-known Jihadist Fajr media center to claim responsibility for the rocket that was fired on northern Israel on Tuesday from the Lebanese border village of Houla. 

IRAN: Grim fates for prisoners with ties to foreigners

No mercy for those accused of trying to topple the Islamic Republic.

Britain on Thursday protested a four-year jail sentence apparently imposed on one of its senior employees at its embassy in Tehran accused of spying and fomenting violence. 

Hossein Rassam, 44, who served as chief political analyst at the British Embassy in Tehran was sentenced in a closed courtroom earlier this week, according to The Times of London. 

British authorities were informed of the sentence Tuesday and have summoned the Iranian ambassador while Britain’s ambassador to Iran has filed a complaint with Iranian authorities. The outcome of the trial has yet to be officially announced. 

In other developments, an Iranian human rights group is claiming that judiciary officials in Iran refuse to let a lawyer file an appeal on behalf of Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian American scholar sentenced to 15 years in jail for allegedly stirring up trouble during recent protests. 

And a vacation video (above) said to “prove the innocence” of three American hikers detained in Iran since the summer has been released online. 

Not all the news is grim. Iranian authorities recently released Maziar Bahari, a Newsweek reporter and Iranian Canadian who was arrested in the post-election unrest.