Follow Us
From the Editors
Jadaliyya Launches DARS Page: Daily Acts of Resistance and Subversion
Tadween Publishing Blog is here! Check it out
Jadaliyya's first book is now available! Click here.
Want to find out about new books? Visit our expanding NEWTON page. Click here.
Interested in writing a Review for Jadaliyya? Visit our Call for Reviews here.
الآن . . . القسم العربي بحلة جديدة
Jadaliyya Launches Photography Page (click here!)
Call for Photos: Become a Contributing Photographer at Jadaliyya
Law
Will Civil Marriage End Lebanon’s Confessional System?
![[Chart showing confessional allotment of parliamentary seats in Lebanon. Image from anigalla.net]](/content_images/3/sm_eliascivmar.jpg "[Chart showing confessional allotment of parliamentary seats in Lebanon. Image from anigalla.net]")
In tying the matrimonial knot last week, Kholoud Succariyeh and Nidal Darwish sliced through a cultural, legal, sectarian knot of Gordian proportions. The pair became the first couple in history to be wed in a civil marriage on Lebanese soil. Until last week, Lebanese citizens (or, only those who can afford it) have generally traveled to Cyprus to get hitched. The only way to do the deed inside Lebanon requires a contract issued by religious personal status authorities, with all the legal implications and bureaucratic entanglements that such a requirement presents. The civil society group that facilitated the union—al-Markaz al-Madani li-al-Mubadara al-Wataniyya (The ...
Keep Reading »Kuwaiti MPs Propose a New Bedoon Law
![[Kuwaiti Parliament. Image from flickr/Kuwaitelections2012]](/content_images/3/sm_KuwaitParrliament.jpg "[Kuwaiti Parliament. Image from flickr/Kuwaitelections2012]")
[The following report was originally issued by BedoonRights.org on 19 January 2012.] On Sunday, 20 January, a new proposal will be made in the parliament regarding the Bedoon issue. According to MP Khaled AlShlaimi, the law will include 17 articles. The law will define a Bedoon as a person who is registered in the Central Agency for Illegal Residents and lives in Kuwait. He also stated that the law, if passed, will give IDs valid for five years to Bedoon designating their nationality as "undefined." Those IDs would be approved to be used in official places and courts in Kuwait. AlShlaimi added that the law would grant Bedoon ...
Keep Reading »Personal Status Litigation for Palestinians in Israel: A Controversial Issue (Jadal Issue 16, December 2012)
![[Mada al-Carmel logo]](/content_images/3/sm_Madaal-Carmellogoweb.jpg "[Mada al-Carmel logo]")
[The following is the Table of Contents of the latest issue of Jadal, a quarterly journal published by Mada al-Carmel.] Jadal Issue 16, December 2012 Personal Status Litigation for Palestinians in Israel: A Controversial Issue Editorial Areen Hawari Analytical Papers Personal Status in Civil Versus Religious Courts: A Controversial Issue Areen Hawari Viewpoints Eleven Years Since the Amendment to the Family Rights Law: Achievements and Challenges Heba Yazbek Family Rights Act: Certainty of Equity and Suspicion of Unfairness Hamza Ahmad Hamza Towards Amending Personal Status Law in Sharia Courts Naifeh Sarrissi Christian Courts: A Feminist ...
Keep Reading »Imagining Justice Beyond the ICC
![[The building of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. Image from Wikimedia Commons.]](/content_images/3/sm_Building_of_the_International_Criminal_Court_in_The_Hague.jpg "[The building of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. Image from Wikimedia Commons.]")
The International Criminal Court’s acquittal of Congolese militia leader Mathieu Ngudjolo on 18 December did not exactly make headlines in Palestine. Ngudjolo was accused of commanding fighters who raped and hacked to death approximately two hundred people, including children, in a single day in February 2003. Arguing that witness statements were unreliable, ICC judges determined that the Court did not have sufficient evidence to prove Ngudjolo’s complicity in these crimes. Not surprisingly, the Court’s verdict dealt a massive blow to the aspirations of thousands of Congolese who had rested their hopes for justice in the ICC. Though it is not often that Palestinian ...
Keep Reading »Letter Concerning Imprisonment and Maltreatment of Omid Kokabee
![[CAF logo. Image from MESA website]](/content_images/3/sm_CAFMESAlogoweb.jpg "[CAF logo. Image from MESA website]")
[The following letter was issued by the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA).] 3 January 2013 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran c/o H.E. Mohammad Khazaee Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations 662 Third Avenue New York, NY 10017 Your Excellency, I write to you on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) to express our grave concern regarding the imprisonment and maltreatment of Omid Kokabee, ...
Keep Reading »Statement Regarding the Saudi Ban on Migrant Organizations
![[Migrante International protest. Image from migranteinternational.org]](/content_images/3/sm_migrantinternational1221web.jpg "[Migrante International protest. Image from migranteinternational.org]")
[The following statement was issued by Migrante International on 11 December 2012.] Migrante Partylist today raised serious concern over a latest circular released by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to all Embassies and International Organizations prohibiting the establishment of organizations by migrants and expatriate nationals. The circular was dated October 17, 2012 and was released by the Philippine Embassy in Riyadh on December 10. The Saudi Ministry of Labor has then requested all diplomatic missions to comply and prevent the creation and/or registration of community organizations, and has requested all missions to immediately cancel the formation of organizations ...
Keep Reading »Bahrain13 Prisoner Group Meets with Delegation from OHCHR
![[Protests in Bahrain in February 2011. Image by Bahrain Viewbook via Wikimedia Commons]](/content_images/3/sm_bahrainprotest122112.jpg "[Protests in Bahrain in February 2011. Image by Bahrain Viewbook via Wikimedia Commons]")
[The following statement was issued by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights on 17 December 2012.] A delegation from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights visited "Jaw Prison" and met with the thirteen prisoners also known as "Bahrain13" which they last met in December 2011. During the trip, the delegation also met with other political prisoners. This came at the end of a six-day visit for the delegation to Bahrain from 2 December until 6 December 2012. In the short time allocated to the political and human rights activists "Bahrain13," who are accused in the case known as "Alliance for the Republic," the prisoners ...
Keep Reading »European Court of Human Rights Judgment: El-Masri v. The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
![[European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Image by CherryX via Wikimedia Commons]](/content_images/3/sm_European_Court_of_Human_Rightsweb.jpg "[European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Image by CherryX via Wikimedia Commons]")
[On 13 December 2012, the European Court of Human Rights issued a unanimous ruling in El-Masri v Macedonia, which condemns the role played by Macedonian officials in assisting the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" of German citizen Khaled el-Masri. He was detained while traveling through Macedonia on 31 December 2003, held incommunicado for twenty-three days at the Americans' request, then turned over to the CIA at the Skopje airport. Under the watch of Macedonian officials, el-Masri was severely beaten, sodomized with a tranquilizer, shackled, and hooded by a CIA rendition team. From there, he was transported to Afghanistan and imprisoned in the black site known ...
Keep Reading »Dismay at Convictions of Bahraini Medics in Criminal Court
![[Physicians for Human Rights logo. Image from physiciansforhumanrights.org]](/content_images/3/sm_PHRlogoweb.jpg "[Physicians for Human Rights logo. Image from physiciansforhumanrights.org]")
[The following statement was issued by Physicians for Human Rights on 21 November 2012.] PHR today expressed dismay at the decision by Bahrain’s Lower Criminal Court to sentence 23 health professionals to three months in prison on charges of illegally gathering during Arab spring protests in 2011. Five others were acquitted. “We are disappointed, though not surprised, that the Bahraini regime once again has decided to punish health professionals merely for expressing their right to peaceful assembly,” said Richard Sollom, deputy director of PHR. “Instead of punishing these dedicated professionals, the Government of Bahrain should focus on prosecuting the people ...
Keep Reading »Tradition and the Anti-Politics Machine: DAM Seduced by the “Honor Crime”
We write this piece as (disappointed) fans of the Palestinian hip hop group DAM at a time when the fierce attack on Gaza reminds us of grim realities that are the everyday stuff of life and death for Palestinian women and men. With songs like “Who’s the Terrorist?” and “Born Here,” DAM gave thrilling political voice to a new generation of Palestinians who were no longer silent about the racism of the Israeli state. They challenged the state violence that was devastating Palestinian lives and communities, whether in the ghettos of Israeli cities or the territories occupied, suffocated, and bombarded since 1967. This was political music; sharp, angry, born of ...
Keep Reading »Open Letter to Egyptian President Morsy from Mahmoud Salem, @SandMonkey
![[Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. Image by Egyptian Government via Wikimedia Commons]](/content_images/3/sm_morsiportraitweb.jpg "[Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. Image by Egyptian Government via Wikimedia Commons]")
[The following letter was published in Daily News Egypt on 5 November 2012.] Dear Morsy, Like many Egyptians, I was looking forward to your government’s attempt to implement its decision to close down shops at 10pm, out of the sheer comic value it would’ve presented. I set up an observation post in front of my building in Roxy Square, chairs, Shisha and all, to get a front row seat to the Tom & Jerry-style shenanigans that would take place the moment you tried to shut down the shops there. And then the news came in that your government backed down on its decision and would delay it for another week, which at first got me into a fit of laughter. To my ...
Keep Reading »Trial of Israeli Attack on Freedom Flotilla Begins on November 6
![[Protesters in Ramallah in May 2010. Image by karathepirate via Flickr]](/content_images/3/sm_israelflotillatrialweb.jpg "[Protesters in Ramallah in May 2010. Image by karathepirate via Flickr]")
[The following article was issued by IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation on 1 November 2012.] The first hearing of the trial concerning an Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla and Mavi Marmara ship will be held at an İstanbul court on Nov.6. IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, which is one of the organizers of the Freedom Flotilla, is carrying out significant work to bring this case to the world’s attention. Hundreds of lawyers will seek co-plaintiff status at the trial. The suspects of the trial include former Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, Naval Forces commander Vice Adm. Eliezer Marom, Israel's military ...
Keep Reading »Reporters Without Borders: Mourning Mothers Spokesperson to be Jailed for 6 Months
[The following statement was issued by Reporters Without Borders on 17 January 2013.] Reporters Without Borders is deeply concerned to learn that Mansoureh Behkish, a netizen and founder of the Mourning Mothers movement, has been told to report to the sentence application court at Tehran’s Evin prison on 29 January to begin serving a six-month jail sentence. “We urge the authorities not to jail Behkish,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The way she has been hounded for years is typical of the ...
Keep Reading »A New Revolt in Morocco?: An Interview with Mohamed El Marouani
[Mohamed El Marouani is the author of Abdessalam Yassine's funeral oration, who died on 13 December 2012. Sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for "conspiring against state security," El Marouani was released during the wake of the February 20 Movement. He is the founder of the Al Umma, which he hopes to transform into a political party, however, he has been barred from doing so. The following interview was orginally published in French on Salah Elayoubi's blog and translated to ...
Keep Reading »Visualizing Human Rights for Migrant Domestic Workers in Lebanon
[Text by Jeremy Menchik. Workshop organized by Joumana Ibrahim and Dima Saber. Graphics by designers listed below each graphic.] Five decades after the development of the kefala [sponsorship] system, Lebanon’s 200,000 migrant domestic workers continue to be denied their inalienable rights, including freedom of movement, just conditions of work, the right to marry and to found a family, the right to legal recognition, and freedom from inhuman or degrading treatment. In recognition of International ...
Keep Reading »New Texts Out Now: Lisa Hajjar, Torture: A Sociology of Violence and Human Rights
Lisa Hajjar, Torture: A Sociology of Violence and Human Rights. New York: Routledge, 2012 [“Framing Twenty-First Century Social Issues” series]. Jadaliyya (J): What inspired you to write this book? Lisa Hajjar (LH): Torture is my great and terrible obsession. I think, read, write, and talk about torture all the time, as anyone who knows me can attest. I was inspired to write this book in order to share my knowledge, my passion, and—to be blunt—my anger about torture with college students, although ...
Keep Reading »Bahraini Authorities Continue to Punish Opponents By Imprisoning Them
[The following is a report by the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) regarding today’s sentencing of Rola Al-Saffar and Ibrahim Al-Demistani.] The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights (BYSHR) expresses its great concern that the Court of Appeal upheld the sentence today against Mrs. Rola Al-Saffar– Head of Bahrain’s Nursing Society– and Mr. Ibrahim Al-Demistani–Secretary General– who is serving a one month prison sentence in a different case related to the protests of 14 February ...
Keep Reading »Honoring Solidarity During Contentious Debates. . . A Letter to DAM From Lila Abu-Lughod and Maya Mikdashi
Dear Tamer, Suhel, and Mahmood, If We Could Go Back in Time… we would have made even clearer that our reaction came from our deep admiration for you and our appreciation of your political and social influence. We are, as we said, fans. Lila has sent your songs to countless people around the world and has made statements about the importance of your art publicly. As the daughter of an exile from Jaffa who lived and worked for Palestine his whole life, she is particularly thrilled with ...
Keep Reading »Egypt’s Draft Constitution in Focus: Labor Rights [Video]
[The following video is part of a series of clips produced by the Mosireen collective to promote greater awareness around the draft constitution currently under consideration in national referendum in Egypt. The full series can be accessed by clicking here.] In response to a government-sponsored campaign to promote the draft constitution currently under consideration in a national referendum, Fatma Ramadan, the Vice President of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and Ahmad Sayed Al-Naggar, ...
Keep Reading »New Texts Out Now: Laleh Khalili, Time in the Shadows: Confinement in Counterinsurgencies
Laleh Khalili, Time in the Shadows: Confinement in Counterinsurgencies. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2012. Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this book? Laleh Khalili (LK): In the course of completing my first book, I was performing some final interviews with Palestinian residents in Lebanon who had been detainees in Israel at various points over the last couple of decades. I was conducting these interviews when the news of Abu Ghraib tortures broke and pictures of detainees being held by ...
Keep Reading »Urgent Appeal: Political Prisoner Ali Radhi’s Health Rapidly Deteriorating on Fourth Day of Hunger Strike
[The following report was issued by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights on 4 December 2012.] Further to information published by the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) regarding the recent attack on prisoners at the Dry Dock prison, the BCHR has received following information regarding ill-treatment of prisoners. The twenty-three year-old political prisoner Ali Radhi from Al-Eker village is on the fourth day of a hunger strike to protest being placed in a solitary confinement for the last four ...
Keep Reading »Quelle justice transitionnelle pour la Tunisie ?
Au lendemain des premières élections démocratiques en Tunisie, et suite aux débats politiques houleux qui ont eu lieu au sein de l’Assemblée Nationale Constituante, a été promulguée la loi constituante numéro 2011-6 du 16 décembre 2011 portant sur l’organisation provisoire des pouvoirs publics. Cette loi fortement controversée[1], a pourtant posé les jalons de ce qui allait devenir une condition sine qua non à la réussite de la transition démocratique en Tunisie, ou du moins l’a-t-on présenté de la ...
Keep Reading »O.I.L. Monthly Archive on Jadaliyya (October 2012)
[This is a monthly archive of pieces written by Jadaliyya contributors and editors on the Occupations, Interventions,and Law (O.I.L.) Page. It also includes material published on other platforms that editors deemed pertinent to post as they provide diverse depictions of O.I.L.-related topics. The pieces reflect the level of critical analysis and diversity that Jadaliyya strives for, but the views are solely the ones of their authors. If you are interested in contributing to Jadaliyya, send us your post ...
Keep Reading »Is the Sky Falling? Press and Internet Censorship Rises in Jordan
Since January 2011, the Jordanian political scene has been significantly affected by the waves of change in the region collectively known as “the Arab Spring.” Emboldened by regional events, some fear that barriers have been broken in Jordan as political and labor activists throughout the country have taken to the streets demanding greater governmental accountability, an end to neoliberal economic policies, and economic corruption, and political representation. Jordanian labor activism expanded ...
Keep Reading »Hot on Facebook
The hybrid approach does not appear to be a formula for effective governance, but may instead be a structural defect that will continue to foster the kind of political chaos for which Kuwait is increasingly known.click | email | tweet
.jpg){kind=small}
From Jadaliyya Reports
Top Jadaliyya Tags
Jadalicious / جدلشس
Noteworthy
Twitter Updates
Jadaliyya Features
.jpg)
Latest Entries
View All Entries »- Arabian Peninsula Media Roundup (June 18)
- فرانكشتاين في بغداد
- O.I.L. Media Roundup (17 June)
- هل يمكن تطوير الجدل حول المثلية الجنسية؟
- Resisting Tear Gas Together
- معتقلو موريتانيا في غوانتانامو
- Last Week on Jadaliyya (June 10-16)
- Will the Presidential Elections “Cure the Pain” of the Iranian People?
- الانترنت والعولمة الثقافية
- #resistankara: Notes of a Woman Resisting
- It Is About the Park: A Struggle for Turkey’s Cities
- 'Ottomanalgia' and the Protests in Turkey
- إصلاح بروتوكول باريس في عامه العشرين: أسئلة وأجوبة لإرضاء الإصلاحي العنيد
- Report from Istanbul: Koray Caliskan on Democracy Now
- Syria Media Roundup (June 13)
- Maghreb Media Roundup (June 14)
- Debunking the Myth of the Zionist Left
- Iran’s Presidential Elections: The Live Embers of a Democratic Opposition Glow
- Sultan of Sultans
- On the Margins Roundup (June)
Pages/Sections
Archive
©2010-2013 by the Arab Studies Institute. All Rights Reserved. info@jadaliyya.com
site by concepcion design