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Middle East & North Africa

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Latest stories about Middle East & North Africa

26 January 2012

The long awaited white visitor has arrived to Jordan, after a couple of dry cold fronts it came and quickly melted. It didn't even accumulate but it brought in lots of joy and happiness to people eager for it. Jordanian netizens report on the country's first snowfall this winter.

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25 January 2012

Africa: 2012 Cup of Nations Kicks Off!

Written by Francois-Xavier Ada-Affana · Translated by Dan Horlor · Tunisia, Morocco

The Africa Cup of Nations began in Bata, Equatorial Guinea this Saturday, January 21, kicking off three weeks of fierce competition. The Cup is the most important international football competition in Africa.

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23 January 2012

Iran: Sanctions Bite, and the Iranian Currency Falls

Written by Fred Petrossian · Iran

Iranians are facing a financial tsunami as the national currency (Rial) loses value day by day as sanctions against Iranian oil and the banking system get tougher.

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22 January 2012

Tunisia: ”Do Not Censor Pornographic Content”

Written by Afef Abrougui · Tunisia

In early February, the Tunisian Internet Agency will appeal to the Court of Cassation's verdict issued in May 2011 by a court in Tunis ordering the agency to block access to pornographic content on the web. For Tunisian netizens, and free speech activists, this kind of censorship is not a solution, but rather a threat to freedom of speech.

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Yemen: Saleh Gets Impunity After All

Written by Noon Arabia · Yemen

Yemen's parliament has endorsed the law granting outgoing Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh total immunity from any crimes committed during his rule, including the killing of protesters since the beginning of the popular uprising against his regime in February. Netizens react to the news.

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20 January 2012

Turkey: Post-Murder Trial, Thousands Remember Hrant Dink

Written by Onnik Krikorian · Armenia, Turkey

Thousands have marched in Turkey to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist and Agos newspaper editor Hrant Dink.

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Updates about Middle East & North Africa

19 January 2012

Freedom of Speech

Hanieh (Sharareh) Farshi Shotorban, an Iranian young woman who was arrested last year, reportedly, for her Facebook activities, celebrates birthday in Evin prison in prison. Hanieh is sentenced [fa] to seven years of imprisonment.

• Hadi Nili

Protest

“Repression and state violence is likely to continue to plague the Middle East and North Africa in 2012,” forecasts Amnesty International in an 80-page report. It documents the extreme violence deployed by MENA regimes when resisting the unprecedented calls for fundamental reform heard in the region in 2011, as well as the amazing resilience of the protest movements. The report adds, “The refusal of ordinary people across the region to be deterred from their struggle for dignity and justice is what gives us hope for 2012.”

• Asteris Masouras

Arts & Culture

Stella Tsolakidou of the Greek Reporter website writes about the recent publication of the Cretan literature masterpiece “Erotokritos” in Turkish. Erotokritos is a 17th century epic romance, and has been translated by Professor Hakki Bilgehan, a Turkish microbiology professor, and published by the Foundation of Lausanne Treaty Emigrants [Turkish].

• Veroniki Krikoni

18 January 2012

Women & Gender

A Texas Medical Center student and Iranian women activist was shot dead on Monday in Houston. Gelareh Bagherzadeh was driving her car when she was shot. Authorities said it is unknown what prompted the shooting. Iranians users are showing concerns over this murder in Balatarin, an Iranian link-sharing website.

• Hadi Nili

Freedom of Speech

Amsterdam based Iranian Arseh Sevom site is striking against SOPA and PIPA which seek to deploy online censorship and surveillance in the name of enforcing copyright, employing the same tools used by authoritarian regimes. Arseh Sevom promotes civil society in Iran.

• Fred Petrossian

Arts & Culture

Madame Le Figaro published a nude photo of Golshifteh Farahani, Iranian actress based in Paris, and there has been a huge interest and reactions to this quite rare photo on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. In a few hours the photo received more than thousands of comments and likes and reshares through one of her fan pages in Facebook. Some of the comments blaming her for “indecency” and some admiring her for “courage”.

• Hadi Nili

Freedom of Speech

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says [fa] Iran has arrested two web activists last week; Mohammad SoleimaniNia, who “hosts and manages websites of many Iranian civil society communities and intellectuals and manager of Persian literature website sokhan.com”, and Simin Nematollahi “Majzooban.org, the website of Iranian Gonabadi dervishes”.

• Hadi Nili

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