Saudi System Alerts Males When Woman Leaves Country

A new system has been set up in Saudi Arabia which can electronically monitor the movements of a woman through her cell phone and sends a warning via text or email to her “wali”, a form of patron who is a man (usually her husband, father, or brother) responsible for monitoring her movements and who she associates with. 

The messages are able to be sent in the event that the woman enters an airport or border crossing station and is meant to stop her from leaving the Kingdom. The system has been available since 2010, but the government only provided movement information after registration to the service.

Many women’s rights activists are naturally very upset with the implementation of this program going so far as to decry it as ‘shameful’. The activists themselves are worried even more for their freedoms since they suffer heavily already because of their activism being excluded from employment and not allowed to relocate within the country, for example.

Some proponents say the system is a positive because it enforces family structure which is the ‘foundation of society’.

An Israeli Law ِAccused of Splitting Palestinian Families

A report from Al-Jazeera says the Arab Foundation for Human Rights in Nazareth is exposing a law in Israel which by nature separates Palestinian families for “security and preserving Jewishness of our state”.


(Lana Khateeb and her family, image Al-Jazeera, not mine)

Rise in number of Iraqi refugees suffering from trauma

Egyptian doctors who work with Iraqi refugees say that an increasing number of these refugees are suffering from psychological shock and other diseases.

Algerian government accepts help in finding missing citizens.

The nineties were a time of great unrest and civil war in Algeria with armed religious rebel groups and the national army fighting each other. Amid the fighting thousands of citizens disappeared. The Algerian government now recognizes the importance in accepting outside assistance in locating the missing.

Tunisia bans public gatherings

The Ministry of The Interior declared a state of emergency and banned public gatherings today (Friday, September 21st) to protect the “safety of citizens and general security” due to calls on social networks for acts of violent protest to occur on this day.

Egyptian Christian imprisoned for 6 years on charges of “Contempt of Islam.”

This was paired with charges of insulting President Mursi, both statements allegedly posted on Facebook. (Read)



 (Image: al-Jazeera)

Attacks on North Darfur Villages

This is old news, from March 18, but I feel like any news about what is happening in Darfur is relevant because of the extreme abuses present in combination with the fact that we just don’t hear reports of this on American news.

The government of Darfur is accused of violently bombing villages and water sources in the North of the state using aircraft.


(Image courtesy Ifham Darfur)