Posts tagged politics

WMC’s Women Under Siege is calling on women and men from Syria and those working with Syrian refugees to provide us with reports of Sexualized violence as the crisis unfolds. We are relying on you to help us discover whether rape and sexual assault are widespread - such evidence can be used to aid the international community in grasping the urgency of what is happening in Syria, and can provide the base for potential future prosecutions. Our goal is to make these atrocities visible, and to gather evidence so that one day justice may be served.

We collaborate with epidemiologists at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, as well as multiple Syrian activists and journalists. 

The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings End of an Old Order?

Edited by: Bassam Haddad, Rosie Bsheer, Ziad Abu-Rish, Foreword by: Roger Owen

The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings sheds light on the historical background and initial impact of the mass uprisings which have shaken the Arab world since December 2010. The book brings together the best writers from the online journal Jadaliyya, which has established itself as an unparalleled source of information and critical analysis on the Middle East.

The authors, many of whom live in the countries affected, provide unique understanding and first-hand accounts of events that have received superficial and partial coverage in Western and Arab media alike. While the book focuses on those states that have been most affected by the uprisings it also covers the impact on Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq.

The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings covers the full range of issues involved in these historic events, from political economy and the role of social media, to international politics, gender, labour and the impact on culture, making this the ideal one-stop introduction to the events for the novice and specialist alike.

fastcompany:

How Skype Is Helping Topple A Dictator In Syria

This article from Mashable gives us another reason to love technology.

Skype is the go-to social network for communication between rebels, anti-government activists, journalists and officials inside and outside of Syria.

Why? Skype uses wiretapping-resistant Voice over IP (VoIP) technology, making it safer for transmitting messages while under the watchful eyes and ears of government censors. It’s free to download and easy to use, both positives for cash-strapped rebels and activists. Its video-based chatting makes it easier to identify the person on the other line, important when verifying information as legit amidst the fog of war. And it provides an easy way for Syrians to gather electronically in areas where assembling in person poses too great a security risk.

[Image:via Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images]

A new photographic work created by Ayyam Gallery artist Tammam Azzam has captured the imaginations of the world, going viral and being shared across social media as a symbol of the power of love and human spirit in times of war. The Syrian artist has superimposed Gustav Klimt’s iconic work, The Kiss (1907 – 1908), over the walls of a war-torn building in his native country in a powerful juxtaposition of beauty and devastation. The image has been ‘liked’ by over 20,000 people and shared 14,000 times in only 5 hours.

The new work follows on from Azzam’s recent series Syrian Museum, which was exhibited at Ayyam Gallery Al Quoz, Dubai, 2 months ago, Dec 2012. Azzam merges instantly recognisable masterpieces into images from Syria’s war zones, working in various digital mediums to address the ongoing political and social upheaval in Syria, and the cycles of violence and destruction tearing his country apart.

(Image Credit: TAP77 Tammam Azzam “Freedom Graffiti” Ayyam Gallery)

A groundbreaking document published by the Open Society Foundation, on Tuesday shows that 54 countries, a quarter of the world’s nations, cooperated with the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme.

(Image Credit: Huffington Post)

Auction on January 21, 2013 at 19pm at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris of works by painters, sculptors, photographers and videographers from the Arab world and diasporas.

Soldiers, Spies and Statesmen: Egypt’s Road to Revolt by Hazem Kandil

Gripping analysis of Egypt’s transformation from military regime to police state, on the road to revolution. Revolutions are difficult to understand and almost impossible to predict. Egypt’s 2011 revolt was no exception. The military’s abandonment of Mubarak—a turning point for the revolt—confounded many observers, who assumed that the leader and the generals stood or fell together. The officers, it was thought, ruled from behind the scenes and simply swapped the figures in the spotlight to preserve the status quo.

In a challenge to this conventional view, Hazem Kandil presents the revolution as the latest episode in an ongoing power struggle between the three components of Egypt’s authoritarian regime: the military, the security services, and the political apparatus. A detailed study of the interactions within this invidious triangle over six decades of war, conspiracy, and sociopolitical transformation, Soldiers, Spies, and Statesmen is the first systematic analysis of how Egypt metamorphosed from a military into a police state—and what that means for the future of its revolution.

Emmy Award for ”Crisis Guide: Iran”

The Council on Foreign Relations has won an Emmy Award in the category of “New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming: Current News Coverage” for its “Crisis Guide: Iran”, an interactive learning tool with timelines, maps, analysis and other resources.

Afghanistan’s Transition in the Making - Perceptions and Policy Strategies of Women Parliamentarians

TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR 2012

Runner-Up: Malala Yousafzai, the Fighter

“This is Malala, I understand that what happened was tragic, but you need to stay strong. You cannot give up.” 

(Photo Credit: ASIM HAFEEZ)

** UPDATE: BASSEL HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED FROM A CIVILIAN (ADRA) TO A MILITARY FIELD COURT, WHICH DENIES HIM A LAWYER AND WITNESSES. THIS IS BAD. PLEASE ACT NOW. **

From Al Jazeera:

Friends and colleagues of Bassel Khartabil, a Palestinian-Syrian, say they fear he is in imminent danger of a quick military trial and possible execution. A coalition of his friends and supporters said on Monday that he was transferred from a civil prison to a military prison and denied a lawyer.

Khartabil was named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of 2012’s top 100 thinkers for “fostering an open-source community in a country long on the margins of the internet’s youth culture”.