Where Is He? Eight months later, Dr. Nasser bin Ghaith is still disappeared

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[…]

Panama Papers: GCC Leaders Implicated

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,[…]

Mohammed Hassan Jawad and the Unseen in Bahrain

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[…]

Backtracking on Women’s Rights: Discriminatory Citizenship Law in Bahrain

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[…]

Kuwait Raises Free Speech Restrictions to Parliamentary Level

The public prosecution in Kuwait recently issued a directive to all exit borders for the arrest of Kuwaiti Member of Parliament (MP) Abdul Hamid Dashti upon his attempted return to the country. Dashti is still abroad and said that such a measure is unprecedented, claiming it will be a “disaster for civil liberties in Kuwait.”[…]