Middle East & North Africa
Poem: “The Center for the Intrepid”
(New $50M Rehab Center Opens on Fort Sam Houston, CBS News, Jan 2007) Wheeled onto the jet leaving my town, another soldier whose pruned body echoes earth liberating itself from gravity. Inside the cave of his grey -hooded shirt he sweats as might a ghost or cello. As in another war when a baptism and […]
Poem: “Three Gifts”
In Memory of Saeed One day my father called us and said: I have three gifts for you — A red heart, an hourglass, and… O God, I don’t remember the other one. Mehdy took the heart Opened its two halves And strummed the strings of its chambers. I took the hourglass And along its […]
Muslim Voices
A chaikhana is a Central Asian teahouse where poets and performers — men and (unveiled) women — sing verses and recite prose in a conversational atmosphere with fellow patrons. In New York, last month’s Muslim Voices festival recreated a chaikhana to showcase Urdu writers from Pakistan, performances of Lebanese zajal (dueling poetry with audience response and affirmation), and West African jaliya, an hereditary bardic tradition from Mali that has produced many world music stars.
Iraq: Nightmare or New Democracy?
Parliament members are afraid to attend meetings. Iraq’s nascent economy is deteriorating. Hundreds of armed militias are ready to fight for their own interests. This is Iraq today.
Would MLK Back Iran’s Protesters?
Combine Iran’s post-election turmoil with the controversy over the nation’s nuclear advances, and few Americans are likely to be unsympathetic toward the opposition movement there. Some bloggers have even suggested that the reformist-led protests are inspired by the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. Several commentators have referred to the wave of anti-theocracy rallies as Iran’s "civil rights movement, perhaps implying that the social conservatives who rule the country resemble Mississippi fundamentalists.
Democratic Shocks
Democracy is taking a beating. The Honduran military has sent its leftist president into exile. The Iranian government is suppressing the Green Revolution. China arrested prominent dissident Liu Xiaobo. And Governor Mark Sanford decided that he could best serve the interests of his South Carolinian constituents by hightailing it after his Argentinean mistress.
Iran’s Do-It-Yourself Revolution
Facing an unprecedented popular uprising against his autocratic rule and his apparently fraudulent re-election, Iran’s right-wing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has attempted to blame the United States. A surprising number of bloggers on the left have rushed to the defense of the right-wing fundamentalist leader. Citing presidential directives under the Bush administration, they argue that the uprising isn’t as much about a stolen election, the oppression of women, censorship, severe restrictions on political liberties, growing economic inequality, and other grievances, as it is about the result of U.S. interference.
Maintaining Distance from Iran
As the Islamic Republic of Iran veers closer to outright insurrection and the competing factions of Mir Hossain Mousavi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei engage in a game of high-stakes political brinksmanship, should the United States play a more active role in Iranian affairs? Those in power must chart a careful course, for the same thorny question toppled the legacy of another Democratic president 30 years ago.
60-Second Expert: Democracy in the Middle East
In Cairo last week, President Barack Obama addressed the Muslim world, calling for a "new beginning" in the search for peace and prosperity in the Middle East. What he failed to address in this widely anticipated speech, however, were the repressive and corrupt regimes in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. While eloquently promoting democracy, religious freedom, and women’s rights, Obama ignored the human rights abuses that have become routine under the 28-year dictatorship of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. Similarly, on his visit to Saudi Arabia, the president refrained from publicly criticizing King Abdullah’s brutal theocracy.