Culture
I say you want a revolution, Egypt
July 2010 - Activists in Egypt should look to the hippy movement of the 1960s for a successful model in bringing about long-term social change.
July 2010 - Advocates of banning the face veil want to take away the only choice some women have – the choice to conform.
Seeing the world through new tongues
June 2010 - Being monolingual can be limiting, so why not learn another language and get a new perspective on the world?
Miss USA 2010 and an Islamic cover-up
May 2010 - Rima Fakih's Miss USA win is welcomed by many Arab-Americans, but some neocons denounce it as a sinister Islamic plot.
May 2010 - Following the lead of Islamists, Egyptian Christians are trying to ban an award-winning novel because it 'insults' Christianity.
April 2010 - In multicultural families, deciding on where to raise your child is no easy matter and has profound implications for the future.
February 2010 - For a new generation of young Egyptian artists, music is not just about love.
Diagnosing the Middle East's ills
January 2010 - Author and journalist Brian Whitaker diagnoses the Arab world’s problems.
January 2010 - A Saudi journalist is demanding that women be given the right to four husbands. Should equality mean monogamy or polygamy for all?
December 2009 - The British are famously reserved, but so are the Belgians. Let's break the ice and make the public sphere more friendly.
November 2009 - Much as we’d like our children to hold the same things dear as we do, we should have enough faith in them to let them choose their own belief system.
November 2009 - Are Saudi Arabian beauty shows for goats as weird and outlandish as they seem?
Language: the food of understanding
November 2009 - Learning Arabic is tough but it can open you up to a whole new world of cultural experiences and opportunities, not to mention build understanding.
Algeria and Egypt play political football
November 2009 - Preparations for a World Cup showdown are getting heated, but does the animosity between Algeria and Egypt run deeper?
November 2009 - As the singer prepares to visit Egypt, Christian and Muslim fundamentalists agree: Beyoncé is the root of all evil.
October 2009 - Egyptians are slowly overcoming their fear of authority, but old habits die hard.
October 2009 - New attempts to address the divide between Egypt's Muslims and Christians must be supported, not undermined, by the state.
October 2009 - For many Egyptians, tip-based and street jobs are their only means of survival.
September 2009 - The 'Chinese hymen' may make pre-marital sex safer in a patriarchal society but a woman's honour should not lie between her legs.
September 2009 - From fashion tips to adult breastfeeding – rulings by some clerics range from the eccentric to the downright bizarre.
September 2009 - Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosny's bid to be the chief of the UN's cultural wing has aroused suspicion among liberals and conservatives alike.
July 2009 - Egyptian outrage at the brutal murder of Marwa Sherbini, the ‘hijab martyr’ is understandable. But If Egyptians want better justice for Muslims in Europe, then they should demand more justice for non-Muslims at home.
July 2009 - Wacky conspiracy theories cause damage by drawing attention away from the real plots being hatched by our governments.
What's love got to do with it?
June 2009 - For Egyptian marriage offices, the search for profit has replaced the search for a perfect union.
June 2009 - Rather than encouraging people to make moral choices, religious groups in Egypt are imposing their values by law.
April 2009 - A new book lifts the veil off Israel’s Arab face and shows how, like the Palestinians, Middle Eastern Jews fell victim to political forces beyond their control.
April 2009 - Although the Israeli-Palestinian media battlefield is bitter and deeply entrenched, journalists have a responsibility to venture into the no man’s land between the two sides, even if it means getting caught in the crossfire.
رغم أن ساحة الحرب الإعلامية الإسرائيلية الفلسطينية تشوبها المرارة وهي متحصنة جيداً، إلا أن على الصحفيين مسؤولية المغامرة في الأرض الحرام بين الجانبين، حتى لو عنى ذلك الوقوع في خط مرمى النار
The Middle East media frontline
March 2009 - Pro-Israelis and pro-Palestinian need to join forces and find common ground in the no-man’s-land of the media battlefield. Read talk
April 2009 - An outward appearance of Islamism disguises the increasingly secular reality of some Arab and Muslim societies.
March 2009 - Rumours of deadly SMS messages are symptoms of a worrying trend in Egypt – the unstoppable rise of superstition.
December 2008 - In Egypt, getting married has young people all tied up in knots.
December 2008 - An Iraqi journalist expressed his contempt for President Bush in a manner familiar in the Arab world: by throwing his shoes.
September 2008 - Egyptian women have broken their silence on sexual harassment and are demanding the right to go out in public unpestered.
September 2008 - Belief in the sacredness of the holy land has long bedevilled the quest for peace. It’s time to challenge the ‘God veto’.
August 2008 - The world isn’t short on wacky theories about Egypt’s greatest monuments. The reality is less fun, but more illuminating.
