SAUDI ARABIA: A Muslim king's Western dream

Up the corniche, along the Saudi Arabian coast where boats carrying pilgrims bound for Mecca sailed for centuries, a thicket of cranes rises over whitewashed mosques along the Red Sea.
Steel flashes and blowtorches glow as 20,000 workers build a $10-billion university ordered up by a king who hopes Western ingenuity will revive the economy of this ultraconservative Muslim nation. When finished next year, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology will offer coed classes, Western professors, a curriculum in English and other touches loathed as dangerous liberalism by Islamic fundamentalists.
The West may be dependent on Saudi crude, now as high as $145 a barrel, but this campus outside the ancient fishing village of Thuwal is a recognition that the country that is home to Islam’s holiest shrines needs the likes of USC, Oxford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to survive globalization.

Read more about the university in the Los Angeles Times.

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

Photo: King Abdullah. Credit: AFP

EGYPT: Sex and a feminist novelist

The apartment door bears no man's name, which is unusual in Cairo, but it's a fitting snub at convention for feminist author Sahar El-Mougy, who lives and writes outside society's strictures. Her independent lifestyle -- women here are whispered about and prayed for if they live alone -- defies the patriarchal order beyond her flat and inspires emancipation on the pages of her novels and short stories.

El-Moguy, 45, is a rising Arab feminist voice, articulating  the conflict between western liberal values and Middle East gender identities. Her two novels and two short-story collections have gained wide acclaim, especially since the recent publication of "Noon," a story that explores the challenges and paradoxes facing independent Egyptian women navigating a nation rooted in traditional customs and a growing strand of conservative Islam.

"These women don't have enough space in society; however, they seem very influential," said El-Mougy, who works as assistant professor of English poetry at Cairo University.  "Their mere presence sets a model for my girls in their 20s who live in a society that suffers from a frightening spread of salafi [Islam]. These women lecture, write and deal with other sectors in the society."

The protagonist in "Noon" is Sarah, a divorced woman in her late 30s who lives alone, hangs out with men and women alike, derives fulfillment from academic research, fights male dominance over her intellect, and more controversially, enjoys extramarital sex. For El-Mougy, Sarah represents a widening class of women struggling to carve out a space for themselves.

MIDDLE EAST: More tolerance of abortion in Arab world

By Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

I knew it wouldn't be an easy story to pursue, writing an article about a subjective as sensitive as abortion in the Muslim Middle East.

But over the course of weeks of reporting, as I asked around among friends and acquaintances, I was shocked at how commonplace abortions were in the Middle East. Everyone, it seemed, knew someone who had had an abortion, and knew of doctors and midwives to contact in case someone needed one.

And though it's a topic that is strictly taboo, I was surprised at how many women were willing to speak discreetly about their experiences, even to a male reporter. One even considered allowing the use of her name, before realizing it might put her in trouble with the law.

Beneath the Muslim world's conservative veneer, attitudes are a lot more liberal. Abortions except in rare cases are illegal outside of Tunisia. But according to a survey published this month by WorldPublicOpinion.org, 53% of Egyptians, 66% of Iranians, 68% of Turks and 70% of Palestinians oppose criminalizing abortion.

Click here to read the whole story.

Photo: Kuwaiti women listen to political candidates at a forum in April. Credit: RAED QUTENA/EPA

YEMEN: The child bride who sought a divorce and dared to dream big

By Borzou Daragahi in Sana, Yemen

The scuttlebutt among the reporters in the Yemeni capital was that nobody walks out of 10-year-old Nujood Ali’s house without giving her a donation.

And I would find out that was correct.

But I had assumed that she and her family were trying to capitalize on her fame as Yemen’s first preadolescent divorcee — a story told Wednesday in the Los Angeles Times — by trying to charge journalists money for interviews.

And I was very wrong about that.

When we arrived near her house, Nujood herself greeted us on the main avenue, hopped into our car and helped us navigate her sewage-infested shantytown until we reached the $75-a-month house her family rented.

We were all shocked by how steady and self-possessed she appeared. After all, just months earlier she had been forced into a marriage with a man three times her age and beaten until she submitted to his sexual advances until the day she worked up the courage to walk into a courthouse by herself and demand a divorce.

EGYPT: Parliament criminalizes female circumcision

After weeks of heated deliberations, the Egyptian parliament on Saturday passed new pieces of legislation that impose relatively harsh legal restrictions on female circumcision and allow women for the first time to register their babies even if the father’s identity is unknown.

One law imposes a sentence of a maximum of two years and a fine of a maximum of $1,000 for performing female genital mutilation.  This issue has caused much stir in the people’s assembly, especially among the Muslim Brotherhood, which holds one-fifth of the parliamentary seats. Conservatives maintain that Islam condones the removal of a girl’s clitoris to tame her sexual desires and condemn the amendment as a western import. 

Attention-getting opposition to the bill came from an ostensibly secular MP a couple of weeks ago. Mohamed El-Omda, a member of a marginal opposition party, appeared before the people's assembly with his three daughters to protest the ban. One of his young daughters raised a banner reading: “No to any attempt to forbid what is divinely allowed. No to any attempt to allow what is divinely forbidden.”  El-Omda said that two of his daughters were already circumcised.

IRAQ: Murdering the messengers

Sarwa Abdul Wahab was many things: a lawyer, a journalist, a daughter, a dreamer. Last week, she became a victim, another in the long list of media workers murdered in Iraq by extremists who target journalists for exposing the violence, corruption and human rights violations taking place in much of the country.

Wahab, who was 35, was in a taxi with her mother on the morning of May 4 when gunmen forced the car to stop. It appeared to be a kidnapping attempt. Wahab resisted and was shot to death in front of her mother, whom she was taking to a hospital to visit an ailing relative.

The killing occurred in the northern city of Mosul, which Iraq and U.S. officials say is the last holdout of Sunni Muslim insurgents loyal to Al Qaeda in Iraq. She wasn't the first journalist to die in Iraq, and sadly, she probably will not be the last. Many of the reporters, editors, and television anchors slain since the war began five years ago have been women, a reminder of the extra risks female journalists face in a country where rising religious conservatism creates hurdles for professional women.

EGYPT: Female blogger elicits criticism

The “wanna-b-a-bride” blog has recently elicited a storm of controversy on Babylon and beyond for its unconventional content that mocks Egyptian patriarchal norms.

Since a piece was posted about the blog last month, more than 40 comments carrying divergent views have been sent to the author Ghada Abdel Aal. Some hailed the blog as a daring exposure of an unjust reality while many dismissed it as a sham.

“Ghada  u r really a wonderfull gilr, go ahead allah with u and always remember every sucessfull person has many difficulties & critics and please belive in your  opinion, it's yours :),” Wafaa wrote on Babylon and Beyond

Yet, Abdel Aal’s detractors had a different say on her blog which was turned earlier this year into a book. “To the worst example of unmarried girls. To the person  who only represents herself and sick people, enough dissoluteness. Where are decency and purity?” wondered a respondent. 

LEBANON: Country of dichotomies

By Noha El-Hennawy in Beirut

Carrying the preconceived baggage of many Arabs, I traveled to Lebanon: A beautiful country with a Westernized population and beaches flecked with bikinis not far from bars where men and women mingle freely. Reality, however, turned out to be more dizzying and complex. After a week of shuttling between the North, South, East and West of Lebanon, my Egyptian sensibilities realized that despite its small size, it’s hard to believe this exceptionally diverse land is actually one country.

EAST BEIRUT: In a nutshell, it is quiet, clean and cosmopolitan. You may think the country’s official language is French as you hardly hear the neighborhood’s Christian residents speak Arabic. Even houses are built and renovated according to European architecture. Blond women walk around in tight blouses showing cleavage; they seek posh malls and Western baubles. On weekends, nightclubs on the famous Gammayze Street are packed with young couples who cruise with hip-hop music thumping from luxurious cars. This is but one, intriguing window into Lebanon.

IRAQ: Girls go to war, on the sports field

Najaf is best known for its holy Shiite shrines and lately for the fear and intrigue that have taken hold among its religious leaders as different factions compete for power and influence over Iraq's Shiite south. But this week, it has become the center of a different kind of competition: among girls and young women vying for athletic awards from the minister of education.

The eight-day competition began April 26 and has brought teams from 11 southern and central provinces to compete in volleyball and soccer. Suaad Saqab Kamil, who oversees women's sports in the Ministry of Education, said it's the first time the competition has been held since the start of the war five years ago.

Kamil admitted the teams are not up to the standards one might hope, but she hopes with training and support, that will change. The best surprise, she said, has been the encouragement of fans, who participants feared might create problems given this city's religiously conservative nature. As we wrote recently, women's sports face huge obstacles in Iraq,  due to insecurity, inadequate financial support and the growing influence of hard-line Shiite Muslims.

SAUDI ARABIA: A nightmare for women

Human Rights Watch today released a 54-page report criticizing the lack of women's rights in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one of America's key allies in the Middle East.

It is a lengthy indictment of a a legal system that deprives women of basic rights considered ordinary almost everywhere else in the world.

According to the report, the law treats Saudi women like children, maybe worse.

If you're a Saudi woman, you can't board an airplane, get a job, go to school or get married without the permission of a male "guardian," whether a husband, father or, if they're both out of the picture, your son.

You're not even allowed to make decisions on behalf of your own children without the approval of your husband or father.

Sometimes you're even barred from undergoing a medical exam or leaving a hospital without the permission of a male relative.

YEMEN: Parliament upholds female circumcision

Yemen's conservatives are still in control.

After a heated debate in parliament this month, Yemeni women's rights advocates lost their battle to ban female circumcision, according to a report in the Yemen Times.

The parliament in recent days voted against a bill that would have outlawed female genital mutilation, a practice that is believed to affect almost 25% of Yemeni women.

Opponents claimed that the issue remains too sensitive among Yemeni and that no legal measure could be taken as long as there was no consensus among religious scholars against the practice.

Female circumcision is a widespread practice in the Middle East and Africa. Many Muslims believe that removing a girl's clitoris to tame her libido is a religious obligation.

Top Muslim clerics, including the Grand Sheik of al-Azhar Mosque, the world's oldest Sunni Muslim religious institution, have repeatedly decried the practice as purely traditional and without basis in Islamic scriptures.

Yet the scholars’ declarations have not been able to end to the centuries-old practice.

Egyptian lawmakers have been embroiled in a similar debate. A draft bill calling for the criminalization of the practice has been dismissed by Islamic lawmakers in Cairo as a Western ploy to demonize Islamic traditions.

— Noha El-Hennawy in Beirut

Photo: Yemeni women attended ceremonies in the city of Aden marking the anniversary of the British withdrawal from their country. Credit: EPA/YAHYA ARHAB

IRAQ: More and more find divorce the solution

For years, most of the solemn young couples who sought out Sayid Rafid Husseini were looking for a marriage certificate. Now, the robed cleric says, many who make their way to his office near a revered Shiite Muslim shrine want a divorce.

"I try to convince them not to do it," Husseini says.

But times are hard. Waves of killing and displacement, not to mention sectarian pressures, have ripped families apart. And soaring unemployment is adding unbearable strain, turning what was once an almost unthinkable taboo into an increasingly common reality of Iraqi life.

The number of divorces granted annually by Iraqi courts has doubled since U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003, from 20,649 that year to 41,536 in 2007, according to figures provided by the Supreme Judicial Council, which oversees the nation's courts. But the real number is probably higher.

Click here to read more.

— Alexandra Zavis in Baghdad

Photo: Court-appointed social worker Firdos Mohammed tries to persuade a couple not to divorce. Credit: Saad Khalaf

EGYPT: Wanna be a bride?

More and more young Egyptian women are tapping into the blogosphere with wit and attitude. One of the most prominent is Ghada Abdel Aal, a pharmacist in her late 20s, whose "wanna b a bride" blog offers a strong, humorous voice for unmarried women facing the demands of patriarchal marriage rituals.

"I am one out of 15 million girls, between the ages of 25 and 35, who are pressured on a daily basis by their society to get married," reads Abdel Aal's profile on her blog.

In colloquial Arabic, Abdel Aal offers satirical accounts of how girls navigate a society dominated by men, tribes and religion. The blogger underscores the dominant perception of women as inferiors who cannot be fully recognized unless they are married. She depicts a series of funny anecdotes that ridicule arranged marriages and attempts by mothers to hunt for grooms on behalf of their daughters.

EGYPT: A woman's voice equal to a man's

A deputy speaker in the Egyptian Parliament has challenged orthodox Islam by suggesting that a woman’s voice is equal to a man’s.

Zeinab Radwan, who is also a professor of Islamic studies, argues against mainstream interpretation of Sharia law, which holds that in business transactions and legal affairs a man’s testimony is equal to that of two women.

Radwan sparked further outrage in Cairo by suggesting that non-Muslims should have increased rights regarding inheritance of property. Human-rights groups have long criticized Islam for discriminating against non-Muslims.

IRAQ: Women allegedly abused in prison

Sad, tired eyes peer out from behind the bars of Kadhimiya Prison. The pleas are desperate: "I swear I am innocent." "The criminal investigators raped us." "I have been here eight months and I have not seen a judge."

Nearly 200 women, some with their toddlers and infants living with them in their cells, are imprisoned in Baghdad's only detention facility for women. Suspected killers bunk with women charged with petty crimes. Some don't know why they were arrested.

Click here to read more.

— Kimi Yoshino in Baghdad

Photo: The locked gates of a prison on the outskirts of Baghdad. Credit: Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images

EGYPT: Church and state

A court ruling on marriage has reignited tensions between the state and the Coptic Christian community.

Egypt's Higher Civil Court ruled that divorced Copts had the legal right to remarry. The church viewed the decision as an infringement on its religious laws. Coptic Pope Shenouda said he "would not allow legally divorced Christians to remarry as long as he is on this chair."

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Selling immigrants into sex slavery

She came all the way from Eastern Europe to treat her daughter's asthma. Instead, once in Dubai, the 27-year-old Moldavian woman found out that she was lured into the city to literally be sold as a sex slave.

Her Ukrainian friend had actually planned to offer her to a local for nearly $8,000.

A few days ago, this case was brought to a court in Dubai, where the 36-year-old Ukrainian broker was charged with sexual exploitation, according to media reports.

But this is likely only the tip of the iceberg of human trafficking to the Persian Gulf.

IRAQ: It's her day, Women's Day

A couple hundred of the city's most elite women — and a smattering of poor women who wandered in to sell traditional bathing products (above) — made it to Baghdad's Alwiya Club to celebrate International Women's Day with music, dance and food.

The women included the city's upper crust, at least those who haven't fled to Amman or Damascus yet. Among them was the famous Iraqi actress Awatif Naeem (right), now a director and writer. She sat eating her lunch beneath a blue sky. We asked her what Women's Day means in Iraq:

It's only one day in the life of women annually. The rest of the days are the property of men. During this day we try to remind men that women are one half of the population and any marginalization of us is unfair.

EGYPT: A necklace and a voice

It was the story of a necklace threaded with 1,800 pearls that got me searching for an old cassette tape. The necklace belonged to Umm Kulthum, a daughter from a poor Nile Delta village who became Egypt's favorite diva until her death in 1975. Her voice was big and strong, yet nuanced, attuned to the whims of love and broken love and all the human rhythms in-between. She sang poetry and verse. Wearing sunglasses and coiffed hair, her hands rising amid the orchestra, Kulthum could put you in a place and gently bring you back.

She was loved throughout the Arab world; millions attended her funeral. Her necklace of nine rows of pearls will be auctioned by Christie's in April, according to the Associated Press. I remember the first time I heard her voice on a scratchy car radio in Cairo. It was years ago. I was rushing for a plane. Her phrasing soothed me. I didn't understand the words, but the voice was pure, transcending language and time.

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: Umm Kulthum / Credit: Arabfilm.com

EGYPT: A woman presiding

A new feminine touch on the Egyptian marriage scene has a lot of men unhappy. The country recently appointed it first woman mazoun — a judicial official, much like a notary — who presides over wedding ceremonies and stamps marriage and divorce certificates. When it comes to legal and religious matters between men and women, men across the Middle East prefer to have another man in charge.

"I completely reject the idea," Mahmoud Ali, a bearded man from Cairo told AFP. "There must be religious texts forbidding this. . . . There are also obstacles on a social level. She would always take the woman's side. The idea won't spread. It's a one-off and it won't last."

The appointment of Amal Soliman, a 32-year-old lawyer, as a mazoun is not a violation of Islamic law, according to Sheik Fawzi Zefzaf, deputy director of nation's leading religious institute, Al Azhar. He added: "But when a woman is menstruating she must not enter a mosque or read Koranic versus and that will affect her job, so for this reason we say it is not advisable to have a woman."

Biology, religion, bureaucracy, discrimination and curious eyes have all come into play as a woman appears where she hasn't been before. Some regard it as progress; others view it as an unnerving perversion.   

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Illustration: A new mazoun presides over a wedding ceremony. Credit: Tarek Shahin, courtesy of CairoFreeze.blogspot.com

ISRAEL: Writing on the wall

Modesty is at times an issue in Israel ,too. Its self-appointed enforcers are perhaps less institutionalized than in some of its neighbors. Shopping malls are safe. But ad-hoc patrols have been known to scold, intimidate and even assault women failing to conform to strict modesty standards — mostly in ultra-Orthodox circles.

In January 2007, a rally attended by rabbis in Jerusalem ended with the burning of 'impure' clothing. "We will get rid of the tight clothes," read a sign held by one protester. Among the abominations was, of course, lycra. Actually, I know several liberal dressers who'd agree.

"Your modesty [is] for your own good," reads the graffiti. Whether merely a brotherly piece of advice or missing an "or else," this slogan appeared on several walls in the town of Beit Shemesh this week.

— Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem

EGYPT: Nurses and veils

In a new bid to curtail Islamist influence in society, the Egyptian government is on the verge of passing legislation to prohibit nurses in public hospitals from covering their faces. The proposed law would affect nearly 10,000 nurses who wear the niqab, or face veil.

The Health Ministry considered the move after a poll showed that 90% of patients disapproved of nurses who covered their faces. Officials also contend that the niqab stands as an obstacle to interaction between patient and nurse. The decision has reignited the debate over whether Muslim women are obligated to cover their faces. Most scholars insist that it is not mandatory, but some hard-line clerics believe the niqab is required.

The matter is not strictly religious. The veil has long been a bone of contention between Islamists and the government of President Hosni Mubarak. There appears to be a campaign within the government targeting the face veil; the minister of religious endowments has challenged the veil in the past. The Egyptian media report that Islamist lawmakers, who occupy one-fifth of the People's Assembly, have vowed to prevent the imposition of any restrictions on the niqab. If the legislation is passed, it will be implemented next month.

— Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

Photo: Muslim women in Egypt wearing the niqab, or full face veil, walk to Friday prayers at a mosque in Cairo. Credit: Amr Nabil /AFP

SAUDI ARABIA: Mercy for a 'witch'?

Human Rights Watch has asked King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to rescind the death penalty imposed on an illiterate woman convicted of witchcraft.  Fawza Falih was accused of involvement in supernatural occurrences, including the sudden impotence of a man she is said to have bewitched, according to the human rights organization.

Falih admitted to such powers under police interrogation, but retracted her confession, claiming it was made under duress. In 2006, an appeals court ruled that Falih could not be executed because she had recanted. But a lower court, which is guided by the strict interpretation of Wahhabi Islam, reinstated the death penalty to "protect the creed, souls and property of this country."

Joe Stork, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, said:

The judges' behavior in Fawza Falih's trial shows they were interested in anything but a quest for the truth. They completely disregarded legal guarantees that would have demonstrated how ill-founded this whole case was.

An Egyptian pharmacist working in Saudi Arabia was executed in November after being found guilty of attempting to use sorcery to break up a married couple. King Abdullah has occasionally pardoned those convicted of what many in the West see as outlandish charges, including a rape victim who was sentenced to 200 lashes last year for being in the company of men other than her husband when the crime occurred.

— Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Art credit: "A Child's Book of Holiday Plays," by Frances Gillespy Wickes, 1916, from Openclipart.org

SAUDI ARABIA: 'Vice' crackdown at malls

Saudi Arabia's religious police ordered the arrest of 57 young men last week for "flirting" with members of the opposite sex while hanging out at shopping malls.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, often called the mutaween by locals, accused the young men of "wearing indecent clothes and playing loud music and dancing to it to attract girls' attention," according to the Saudi Gazette, an English-language daily published in the kingdom.

The young men's defenders said they were just trying to "have fun" without "imposing themselves" on women.

The mutaween are often at the center of Saudi Arabia's controversies over sex, morality and women's rights. This month they banned florists from selling red roses on Valentine's Day. According to Agence France-Presse, a leading Saudi cleric seven years ago declared the celebration of love "a pagan Christian holiday."

One blogger, Intlxpatr at Here, There and Everywhere, who wrote that he or she had once lived in Saudi Arabia, wondered what the arrests might have looked like:

I remember the mutaween were NOT police, but sometimes they took on the prerogatives of the police. So I have to wonder, like, who made the arrest in the malls? Was it the police? Was it the mutaween hitting the boys with their little sticks?

— Borzou Daragahi in Baghdad

Photo: File picture shows young men at a Starbucks in a shopping mall in the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia. BILAL QABALAN /Agence France-Presse

IRAQ: A woman's place in politics

The Iraqi national parliament has its share of outspoken female representatives. But in the fiercely tribal farming region southeast of Baghdad, the rough and tumble of politics is still considered a man’s domain.

U.S. soldiers in the region were used to hearing men tell their female counterparts on the local councils to keep quiet during meetings. But they were taken aback when Hawr Rajab’s first representative for women’s affairs announced that she would not attend council meetings at all. She preferred to form a parallel women’s council, which meets weekly at her home.

"I’m sorry," said the veiled woman in a long corduroy skirt and matching jacket. "Men speak very loudly and they fight."

The soldiers were impressed with how quickly the women came up with proposals to help the many left widowed and orphaned from fighting during the nearly three years that Sunni Muslim militants had dominated the town. But they worried that the women would miss out on important information conveyed at the men’s meetings.

The chairwoman was ready with a solution. Her husband would attend in her place and relay what happened. At the next town council, he was there, diligently scribbling notes on a yellow manila pad — the only representative who bothered to record the proceedings.

— Alexandra Zavis in Hawr Rajab, Iraq

Photo: Iraqi women line up to buy rationed cooking oil on Feb. 9 in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq. Credit: AP Photo/Loay Hameed

SAUDI ARABIA: Coffee and a strip search?

A businesswoman discussing issues over a cup of coffee with her male colleague in a Starbucks sounds like a cliché anywhere in the world. Well, not exactly in Saudi Arabia, where women are banned from mixing with men who are not related to them by blood or marriage. Recently, a 40 year-old Saudi executive on a business trip in the capital, Riyadh, was detained for several hours and strip-searched by the religious police for daring to have coffee alone with her male colleague in public, according to local media.

This is a small illustration of how complicated it remains for women to be active members in the ultra-conservative Saudi society today. The most flagrant restrictions include prohibiting women from driving cars or from traveling without permission from their male guardians. The incident comes as a U.N. human rights officer makes an unprecedented official visit to the kingdom to assess violence against women.

Saudi Arabia has come month under fire in the last month for its gender equality record. Recently, the world was outraged by the story of a Saudi victim of a gang-rape who was convicted following the assault — for being alone in a car with a man unrelated to her.

— Raed Rafei in Beirut

IRAN: Zanan, a voice of women, silenced

More bad news for press freedom in Iran.

On Tuesday word emerged that Iran's leading women's magazine has been ordered to close.

Zanan Magazine, a reform-minded feminist magazine has been active in promoting women's rights for the last 16 years. Authorities revoked its license and folks in Tehran say there's no hope for appeal.

Managing director Shahla Sherkat was once a hard-line supporter of the Iranian government but became disillusioned after the Iran-Iraq war. Zanan managed to survive previous crackdowns by cautiously avoiding general politics and focusing on women's issues.

But that didn't work, apparently.

According to preliminary reports it was banned for allegedly portraying a negative image of women in Iran, but no official word has emerged yet.

The Iranian Journalists Assn. condemned the closure. In the last two years, 40 periodicals, including Zanan, have been banned across the country by the Press Supervision Board, which is controlled by hard-liners.

The closure inspired cynical commentary from Iranian bloggers. "I think the average life of a magazine is no longer than the time required for getting the 'publishing licence,' wrote Jadi, a blogger at Inside Iran:

Zanan (means women) used to be a "moderate" magazine. It never wrote anything extreme to prevent its closing. But now, after 16 years the only Persian women's magazine is closed.

—  Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran

Photo: A recent cover of the Iranian women's magazine, Zanan, which was ordered to close by authorities. Credit: Zanan magazine

EGYPT: Much ado about a movie

A new film portraying the inhumane living conditions in Cairo slums has stirred a huge controversy in Egypt. The movie, "Heena Maysara," (An Arabic expression widely used to mean "when things improve") zooms into the social dynamics that govern the slum areas where thousands of Cairenes struggle amid poverty and ignorance, drawing very little attention from the ruling elites. The movie tackled prostitution, street children, incest, drug smuggling, homosexuality and religious extremism as examples of deviant practices that are widespread among Cairo's marginalized communities.

All this is highlighted through the stories of two main characters: "Adel Hashisha" and "Nahed." Adel Hashisha, a young unemployed man, supports his mother and the children of his brother who left  for Iraq in the 1990s. To feed his family, Hashisha turns to drug smuggling and ultimately becomes one of his neighborhood's top thugs. In the meantime, Hashisha also serves as a police informant spying on Islamist cells that have been growing in his neighborhood. However, after the police raids his house, tortures him and his mother to extract confessions from them about his brother who has allegedly joined Al Qaeda in Iraq, Hashisha decides to have his revenge by helping Islamist militants against the police.

Nahed is another significant character. The beautiful young woman runs away from her mother's house as her step-father has been consistently harassing her sexually. She meets Hashisha, sleeps with him and gets pregnant by him. Given his terrible economic conditions, Hashisha refuses to marry Nahed or to raise the child, which forces the latter to abandon the infant. In her quest for a living, Nahed is exposed to different forms of sexual abuse. A scene in which another woman tries to seduce Nahed has caused a huge uproar.

One prominent Islamic scholar has called for prosecuting the two actresses who played that scene on charges of promoting lesbianism and fomenting vice. Another scholar was quoted by the media as saying: "There are no lesbians in Egypt and we will never have any in the future." However, one of the actresses involved replied: "The scene was neither explicit nor immoral; on the contrary, it was very realistic and relevant to the context of the movie."

— Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

YEMEN: Writer gets online flogging

An article advocating physical violence against women in Yemen’s main English-language newspaper understandably has sparked quite an uproar across the blogosphere.

In his Yemen Times piece, "There must be violence against women," writer Maged Thabet Al-Kholidy argues that it's better for a man to use violence to control his disobedient wife, sister or daughter than for the alleged indiscretion to slide. He takes unnamed human rights groups to task for arguing that women should report such violence to authorities:

In some cases, violence is necessary, but there must be limits. Those “good human rights organizations” don’t make any exceptions in their solutions because their aim is to serve society. Will it be a better society once we see wives, mothers, sisters and daughters going from one police station and one court to another, complaining against their husbands, fathers, brothers and even sons?

ISRAEL: Age of marriage

The average age of marriage in Israel is 27 for men, 25 for women. But in certain groups — among both Jews and Arabs — marrying much younger is a cultural or religious norm. Girls may be "married off" to relieve a family's financial burden, or to protect their "good name" — synonomous with that of the family's.

In Israel, 2,000 girls younger than 17 are wed every year. Between 2000-2005, 10,000 girls under 18 were married; 90% of them were 17, and 10% even younger. Rights activists are concerned that the actual numbers are higher, with marriages being performed by religious figures but registered with state authorities only when couples have come of age. Some are even believed to send their daughters out of the country to be married. Wedding minors outside the present constraints of the law is a criminal offense and punishable by two years in jail, or a fine. Religious courts are instructed to report underage marriages to the authorities but compliance is questionable.

WEST BANK: Ramallah's finest

Along with throngs of pre-holiday shoppers in downtown Ramallah is a new sight: the first female police officers in the West Bank.

The freshly minted cops, wearing navy pants, light blue shirts, and, in some case, Muslim headscarves under their police caps, are directing traffic in Ramallah’s central shopping district after completing their academy training.

On a recent day, about 10 of the rookie officers were trying to untangle the knot of cars and pedestrians around Manara Square, a rotary that is especially clogged with shoppers ahead of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, starting Wednesday, and Christmas. Alongside male counterparts, the female officers sought to keep cars moving and to persuade pedestrians to use the official crosswalks.

Policing is a new role for Palestinian women, who tend to enjoy more rights in the workplace and public life than those in many Arab societies. Palestinian women hold public office and run businesses though the overall society remains traditional in many respects.

One of the new officers said she enjoys the work, even though “people do not seem to listen to orders from the women in blue.” In fact, at Manara Square, it often seemed as if the women would not have been heeded if not for the accompanying male officers. The women are starting with traffic duty, but plans also call for them to help during arrest raids in cases where women are inside the homes in question.

The female officer, who didn’t want to give her name, said people will get used to taking orders from women cops. Some pedestrians seemed to like the idea of female cops. Hasan Abdul Salam, 38, an employee at the social-affairs ministry, said he was on board. “I think it is a healthy and civilized sign to see women doing police work as well,” he said. “Besides, the women may be nicer than the men in dealing with people.”

— Maher Abukhater in Ramallah

SAUDI ARABIA: A beguiling case of rape

Even in a Saudi Arabia, where evildoers are beheaded and the hands of pick-pockets are amputated, the case of the young woman from Qatif was viewed by many as a startling injustice and disturbing reminder of how little rights women have in the kingdom.

IRAQ: Pomegranate season

Cool mountain breezes grace the golden hilltops of Kurdistan, bending the dry blades of grass. Across rocky mountain slopes studded with pine trees, upon yellowed high desert plains strewn with boulders, in grassy valleys along foaming rivers, a hundred wedding celebrations bloom.

With the threats of a Turkish invasion receding, Kurds have resumed the joys of life. They tend to celebrate weddings outdoors. The men get gussied up in traditional baggy trousers and cummerbunds. The women slide into glittery emerald dresses and shawls as red as the ubiquitous pomegranates now in season and sold from makeshift stalls along country roads.

EGYPT: Women need not apply

By recently calling for a ban on non-Muslims and women from running for the Egyptian presidency, the Muslim Brotherhood has reignited a debate over how genuine their espousal of democratic values is.

The 79-year-old Egyptian organization has been striving to project a democratic image for years. Yet, this new platform, circulated among intellectuals for the last few months, has shattered this image by arguing that women and Coptic Christians and other non-Muslims are incapable of meeting the religious requirements that would qualify them to assume Egypt's highest political office.

Besides the stir this ban has caused, the platform has exposed the internal rift between the doves and hawks in the nation's largest Islamic group. The former have expressed their endorsement of women's and Copts' full political rights on several occasions. However, the platform is a blow to their moderate discourse showing that hard-liners have a strong grip over the group.

— Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

EGYPT: Star-gazing in Cairo

By Borzou Daragahi in Cairo

Cairo’s teeming, smog-choked streets cloak all in anonymity. Even blond-haired, blue-eyed foreign visitors don’t draw too much attention.

But I've never experienced anything quite like walking out of the Café Arabica in downtown Cairo with the famous actress Hind Sabri while reporting my story on the Egyptian movie industry.

All of a sudden, the calloused eyes of Cairo street vendors, police officers and passersby lit up with delight, swarming toward her. A few asked for autographs, but most just greeted her politely.

I felt like a bigshot, as if I were hangin’ with Julia Roberts.

“Madame Hind! Madame Hind!” the teenage boys called out, bowing as they approached her.