Just before 5PM local time on August 11, 2012, two large earthquakes with respective magnitudes of 6.4 and 6.3 hit the northeastern region of Iran within eleven minutes, causing a continuous string of aftershocks and over 300 deaths. In response to the poor coverage of the tragedy by Iranian State-sponsored television, citizens and lawmakers swiftly organized search-and-rescue groups via...

On August 8th, Saudi dissident Faheed Saad al-Otaibi was arrested while leaving his home, soon after he published a YouTube video describing his personal experience in Saudi prisons. In the video, he addressed the families of Saudi detainees, encouraging them to fight for their rights. Al-Otaibi’s knowledge of Saudi prisons came after his arrest in an incident known as the “Camel Case.”...

The following article first appeared on The New York Times. To access, click HERE.   Thirty-six universities in Iran have banned women from 77 fields of study.   The ban, which was first reported Aug. 6 by Iran’s semiofficial Mehr News Agency, came as the results of university entrance exams for the coming academic year were being announced. The restrictions were not noted in...

On August 16, 2012, Bahraini human rights right activist, Nabeel Rajab, was sentenced to three years in prison for instigating and participating in “unauthorized” demonstrations that called for democracy in Bahrain, many view this as a contradiction of the Western-backed Gulf state’s promises to uphold human rights following the 2011 Arab uprising. Rajab is the president of Bahrain...

Egypt’s new post-revolutionary government, headed by President Mohamed Morsi, has banned Egyptian bookstores from importing the book "A History of the Modern Middle East",  by William L Cleveland and Martin Bunton. The reason the book was banned is unclear, since the administration released no official statement justifying its decree. It is likely that the Muslim Brotherhood...