By Walid Al-Saqaf, Chair of ISOC-Yemen The economy is suffering, illiteracy levels are among the highest in the world, most of high school and university graduates struggle to find jobs, and most devastating of all, the security situation has turned to the worse with assassinations, kidnappings, and other violent activities continuing unabated. That is the.

By Hussein Alazaat   *This post first appeared on Alazaat Views on November 21, 2013. The post also appeared on BeAmman‘s website.   Unfortunately, many of Amman’s good old shop signs have been removed and lost. Here, I share with you my selection of the best existing signs, based on my personal taste. This does not mean.

By Lama Bashour, photo by Hussam Da’anah After Amman was the rated the third “Ugliest City in the World” and Beirut the 20th “Top City in the World“, using vague criteria such as “dirty, chaotic streets and ugly buildings looking like they’re crumbling on top of each other” (in reference to Amman not Beirut!), the polling community.

Digital Citizen is a monthly review of news, policy, and research on human rights and technology in the Arab World. Morocco Over the past few years, Morocco has made strides increasing Internet access for its citizens and scaling back online censorship. The Feb20 movement—Morocco’s answer to the Arab Spring—operated for the most part freely online..

Prepared by Doa Ali and Hussam D’ana Since March 2012, more than 140 political activists have been prosecuted by Jordan’s State Security Court for charges such as “illegal assembly”, “Lèse-majesté”, “undermining the regime”, and “working to change the constitution”. The maximum sentence for these charges runs the gamut from three years in jail to capital.

Prepared by Hussam Da’nah and Reem AlMasri  One of the United Nation Human Rights Council’s recommendations, which Jordan rejected after the comprehensive review session in Genève last month, undertook amendments to article 149 of the Penal Code, to prevent the article’s use in prosecuting political activists. The article states that: “Anyone who undertakes action that may lead to.

by Wafa Ben Hassine This post first appeared on IGMENA’s website on October 16th, 2013;  and then on  SMEX’s website on October 25, 2013. The second annual Arab Internet Governance Forum (IGF) held in Algiers represented hope and the opportunity to bring together stakeholders across the Arab region on the topic of Internet governance. While it.

by Reem Al Masri This was the title of the only session that meant to highlight Internet issues in the Arab world (out of 150 sessions) in the 2013 Internet Governance Forum. Held in Bali, Indonesia, this forum is the eighth UN-convened multi-stakeholder forum that brings together people from all sectors to discuss Internet policy.

by Mothanna Gharaibeh Not only did the technological revolution introduce products that make our lives easier, but it has also come with its share of jargon, coined phrases, and terminologies useful in discussing politics. In the case of some regimes that have survived the Arab Spring with shy and shallow reform measures such as Jordan, we.

Over 2000 blogs from 126 countries are taking part in Blog Action Day today, October 16th, and this year’s theme is Human Rights. Today, in Jordan, tens of activists face trial before State Security Court, a special court that flouts basic guaranteers of fair trial, one of them for views expressed over whatsapp. Thousands of.