By all standards, 2011 was quite an exceptional year for men and women in the Arab world. It was a year of dramatic transitions marked by the so-called Arab Spring of political democratization and social emancipation. It all started in Tunisia, going through Egypt and Libya in the West, and continuing to drag on in […]

“Can a Syrian woman run for the post of the President of Syria? Yes she can.” This interrogative statement and answer captured my attention as I was watching The Light in Her Eyes, a film that premiered at the 8th edition of the Dubai International Film Festival this December. The film, which documents the story […]

Women in Afghanistan tend to be depicted as enigmatic objects that defy human comprehension. Media sensationalism and selective reporting bear some of the blame. But thanks to projects like an Afghanistan-based Community Supported Film workshop that trained men and women on how to tell the stories on film, Afghan women are now also using media […]

Ramadan is over, and this is normally the time for loads of critical commentaries on soap operas featured on Arab television during the holy month. Several Ramadan dramas like “Al Hassan Wal Hussein” (on the roots of Sunni-Shi’ite tensions) and “In the Presence of the Absence” (on the late renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish) have […]

Until the early 1990s, Egypt’s domination of the Arab film and television industry had won it the title  of “Hollywood of the Arab East”.   In significant ways, Egyptian drama productions, featured on television screens and in movie theatres, were believed to have been quite vital in promoting traditional Arab and Egyptian-specific lifestyles and experiences. In […]

I was following with interest media commentaries on the recent experts meeting on women’s media empowerment convened by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia in Beirut (ESCWA). It was clear that independent communication campaigns to promote women’s causes and concerns are gaining a lot of ground in the Arab World. New digital […]

After 90 episodes, ‘Men Wanted’, the Syrian Arabic soap opera, has concluded its season for this year on Saudi-owned television channel MBC 4. For those who do not know ‘Men Wanted,’ the Venezuelan-style soap opera is adapted to an Arab environment, with its actions taking place in Dubai. ‘Men Wanted’ tells the story of Hala, […]

So the whole thing turned out to be a hoax. Throughout the last few weeks, I have been a regular reader of the blog “A Gay Girl in Damascus,” especially during the current unrest in Syria. As Sara wrote in her post, “A Gay Girl in Damascus Tells It Like It Is,” the presumed author […]

On June 17th, women in Saudi Arabia plan to take to the streets—they’re going to get behind the wheel to protest a religious edict forbidding them to drive. As Eman wrote in a post about the Women2Drive campaign yesterday, Manal Al-Sharif posted a Youtube video of herself calling on all women to drive their automobiles […]

There was something quite exciting about this year’s Arab Media Forum (AMF), which recently concluded in Dubai and was attended by over 2,000 media leaders from around the region. This year marked the tenth anniversary of the forum, which has served as an annual platform for debating Arab media issues and concerns for the past […]