Global Voices Online

UAE blogger e3ashig reflects on social life in the Middle East: “Social commitments are one of the biggest wastes of time and I can see why it is difficult to be dedicated to your work or be creative as there is always some social thing to interrupt you: a death to be mourned, a birth to be celebrated, an illness to be nursed, wedding parties, a formal majles gathering, etc.”

Recent Links also in Middle East & North Africa

Iranian students in Paris criticized Iranian government and its repression policy against Iranian students and opposition in a meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian president's advisor in Paris. Here are the films [fa].

Regine, at we make money not art, introduces us to photographs by Bas Princen of Cairo's Mokattam Ridge or Garbage City (Zabbaleen) - where a community of mainly Coptic Christians live and make a living out of collecting, sorting and disposing of Cairo's waste.

Iranian authorities released Mohammad Ali Abtahi,former vice president and blogger on a $700,000 bail one week ago after his lawyer said he had been sentenced to six years in prison. Human rights activists reported [fa] that a few days ago Sasan Aghayi, a blogger and journalist got arrested in Tehran.