Articles

Tunisian women, their NGOs and their protection afforded by legislation have always been considered an example to follow inside the Arab world. Female adult illiteracy has dropped by 27% since 1980, but at 42% remains significant. Nevertheless, this figure is expected to drop as nearly 100% of girls were enrolled in primary school by 1998. Women currently make up approximately 31% of the workforce....

Iran now has a 'Cyber-army' to fight revolutionaries who sow seeds of dissent as well as to combat Iranian exiles who wish to introduce democracy and human rights in Iran. The Iranian regime supports 'liberation movements' which are viewed by European democracies as terrorist groups. Iran claims that its support for these groups is, of course, "moral."...

The BBC's Persian-language website has published articles by several Iranian men and women living in exile. Their arguments, which are repeated in summary in the following article, highlight the systematic oppression of Iran's women by the country's authorities....

Hussein Taeb is a cleric holding the religious rank of a Hokatuislam. He is also the Director of the Secret Service Department of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Holding a gloomy view of Iran's future, he believes that in around one year the American government wants to stage a "Velvet Revolution," Iranian state media outlet Farsnews reported on 2nd March 2011....

Whilst Human Rights Organisations complain of extensive human rights abuses in Iran, the country's rulers think they have successfully defeated the uprisings....

In October 2010, EFD Senior Fellow Wahied Wahdat-Hagh contributed to the Foreign Policy Centre's inaugural Iran Human Rights Review, focusing on the issue of religion. Edited by Tahirih Danesh and Adam Hug, the Review aims to contribute to creating "the main building blocks of a true democracy: a new culture of harmony and trust within Iranian society."...

For the past few weeks, we've been hearing that the "wall of fear" in Egypt has collapsed. Not to rain on anyone's revolutionary parade, but I beg to differ. What's changed in Egypt is the politics of the state. A big deal, to be sure. Yet a culture of democracy will require piercing something more: the politics of the family. That's where fear begins in much of Arab society. Brian Whitaker, former Middle East editor of The Guardian newspaper...

Monday's demonstrations in Tehran have been nipped in the bud. The police did not allow the tens of thousands of protesters to gather even once. The demonstration was ended before it had really begun....

Iranian News agencies are celebrating the Egyptian revolution, hoping that Iran's Islamic revolution could also be successfully repeated in Egypt. Iranian leaders are citing Khomeini, who called the 1979 revolution "an explosion of beams of light."...

Kamal Al-Halbavi, a high-ranking member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, is harbouring the hope that one day Egypt will have a President who is as good as Ahmadinejad....

Have you had enough analysis of Hosni Mubarak's mistakes? Then read on. Because this column is about looking forward and proving that the Middle East really can be governed with a new, freedom-hungry, generation in mind....

The Iranian rulers see in the new mass protests in Arabic states the reawakening of Islam and speak of the "new axis of Islam in the middle East." They think that the Islamic revolution of 1979 was the beginning of the protests against the western and "Zionist" supremacy....

Some of the Iranian clerics like ayatollah Kashani speak the Iranian position out without any diplomatic caution. He said, that the western countries have to learn from their mistakes. Iran would not change its policy, even not under the pressure of sanctions....

Several Afghan newspapers reported about the deterioration of the economic relationships between Afghanistan and Iran. There are a lot of demonstrations in different Afghan cities against the political and economic Iranian policies towards Afghanistan. Iran builds barriers for the rapid transport of gasoline to Afghanistan. Notwithstanding that Iran is committed by international law to let the gasoline tankers to cross the border to Afghanistan....

Iran doesn't care if Israel is concerned about the economic relationships between Iran and Germany. Kayhan is happy, because Germany is increasing its exports to Iran. Kayhan thinks that Israel will suffer from a better Iranian-German relationship....

On the 8th January 2011, speaking on Iranian News Agency ISNA, High Ayatollah Makarem Shirasi issued a Fatwa: "The wearing of crosses during the "Namas" (daily prayer) and elsewhere is "haram". And in case wearing of crosses constitutes a problem for prayer."...

For two weeks, Afghans have been protesting in front of the Iranian embassy in Kabul. They are demonstrating against the closure of petrol transit routes to Afghanistan. The Afghan centre of commerce has even threatened to cut off trade links with Iran completely....

For Arabs and Jews living in Iran, National Socialism constitutes a particularly threatening body of thought. The Iranian Ministry for Education and Islamic law withdrew a ban on a Iranian National Socialist, anti-Arab and anti-Jewish website....

The Interior Minister's dramatic terror alert leaves many questions unanswered. Has the threat level really only recently increased? Heavily armed police officers patrol Hamburg's main station - even shortly after De Maizières' terror alert....

In the coming year Iranian workers will continue to have to live below the subsistence level. In addition, hardly any growth is forecast for Iran's economy despite the country's high oil revenues....

During a visit to Isfahan, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad commented on his messianic ideas, his hostility toward the West and the Iranian nuclear program. Meanwhile, the massive oppression of civil society continues....

In response to a recently issued decree the Revolutionary Guards have founded their own bank. For years they have controlled the gas and oil trade, telecommunications, the stock markets, dam construction and hundreds of other projects....

Forced confessions are a particularly perfidious method of oppressing dissent. The power monopolists in Iran are now even calling those loyal to Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution "monafeqin" or "hypocrites". The regime's ideologists decide on who is a "true" Moslem and who is not....

Saeed Hajjarian, a former intelligence officer, Islamic reformer and political strategist, has been taken before an Iranian court and forced to make a confession. He has been accused of being jointly responsible for an attempted "velvet revolution."...

Iranian politicians and media blame the United States for the mass protests of recent weeks. The Iranian media doesn't give much of a chance to dialog with Washington. All signs point toward confrontational politics....

In the past year, a stream of thinkers across the West - from Australian writer Antony Loewenstein to US academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt - has punctured the usual parameters of debate about Israel. I, for one, welcome any effort to prevent ideas from calcifying into ideologies. As a Muslim refusenik, that's what I do by defying the conventional prejudices of my fellow Muslims. Why would I resent refuseniks of a different kind?...

Tomorrow, President George W. Bush will deliver his State of the Union address. The speech is widely viewed as his last chance to get it right....

In the below article, EFD Senior Fellow Valentina Colombo points out that, in order to adequately fight Islamic terrorism, the “real culprits” should be identified. The very same Islamic religious leaders condemning terrorist attacks are often those who also issue fatwas against the Western and liberal Muslims. Therefore, “it is necessary to identify and distinguish between the real condemnation of terrorism, coming from the liberal Mos...