A Response to Kristof   Recently, Nick Kristof wrote a piece on Iran entitled: In Iran, They Want Fun, Fun, Fun (link here). Here is a response where the tables are turned and the perspective is a Middle Eastern journalist visiting the US. ___________________________________________________________________________ In America, they want values, values, values […]

Colonialism exists  – it blinds and deafens. Watch TEDxFlanders – Olivia U. Rutazibwa – Decoloniser […]

By Comrade Sara Salem Yesterday I visited the Mesquita in Cordoba, Andalusia. For some historical background: The site was originally a pagan temple, then a Visigothic Christian church, before the Umayyad Moors converted the building into a mosque and then built a new mosque on the site. After the Spanish Reconquista, it became a Roman […]

By Comrade Hayoun In the midst of the euphoric hot mess that was North Africa in early 2011,Moroccanrap phenomenon El-Haqed — Arabic for the outraged – composed a song that became an anthem of the country’s democracy movement, entitled No More Silence. The song addresses the economic injustice and systematic humiliation of Morocco’s poor by […]

This is actually the photo chosen by El Tahawy to illustrate her article. The iconic image for the Blue Bra revolution By Comrade Ghomaria Since the publication of Mona Eltahawy’s article Why do They Hate Us, dozens of responses have been written, nearly all of which avoid the central issue: women suffering. Arguments focus on […]

By Comrade Sara Salem   I have always found it difficult, intellectually, to draw the line between resistance & independence. For example, if one argues that the rise of Islamism and conservatism in the Middle East is a reaction to colonialism, neo-colonialism, and westernization, does this take away all agency from Middle Eastern people to […]

By Comrade Massoud Hayoun Just last weekend, I randomly met an Algerian, roughly my parents’ age, in Washington DC’s DuPont Circle. We talked about the recent elections in Algeria and France, about colonialism and its vestiges, and about Warda Al-Jazairia, the most internationally acclaimed Algerian singer. Even at 73, she was as present in my […]

By Comrade Sara Salem Pinkwashing is “the attempt by a state or people to highlight its treatment of gays to show howprogressive it is, in turn covering up human rights violations from which it wishes to detract attention.” It has repeatedly been used by Western powers, for example, as a way to construct themselves as […]

By Comrade Ghomaria, Translated from the French by Ghomaria Moad Belghouat aka El Haked In his poem, The Revolution will not be televised, Gil Scott Heron describes how people who want change don’t necessarily act upon it. He meant that the revolution will not be brought by TV, or home-delivered. After the beginning of Arab Revolts in […]