“It’s complicated” responded President Obama after being pressed about the status of his friendship with Saudi Arabia, the repressive monarchy doing more harm than good in the Middle East. Today, Obama is set to meet with his counterpart in this complicated relationship at the GCC summit where Saudi leaders and other GCC heads of state[…]
18
Apr
Apr
On 18 August 2015, UAE security forces arrested Dr. Nasser bin Ghaith, an Emirati economics professor and prominent academic. They arrested him in relation to tweets he allegedly posted in which he criticized Egypt. Eight months later the government has still not revealed his whereabouts and nothing has been heard from him. This is not[…]
18
Apr
Apr
On Sunday 3rd of April, a massive leak of confidential documents from notorious Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca were made public. The 11.5 million documents were sent from an anonymous source to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, then analysed and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The leaked data covers nearly 40 years,[…]
15
Apr
Apr
In 2015, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei used Legos to create portraits of 176 political activists from around the world. Some of the names and faces of political exiles and prisoners of conscience were recognizable, such as Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning. Included were some lesser known names around the[…]
13
Apr
Apr
Although Bahraini authorities often boast about empowering women, the government has not taken any serious steps to change the laws that prohibit Bahraini women from passing on citizenship to their families. Even though Bahrain has acceded to the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) since 2002, women in Bahrain do[…]
