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For those of you who could not attend the conference or would like to see again what was discussed in the conference, these are the videos that Teresa Sánchez and Estrella Sendra filmed during the …

The 15th London Palestine Film Festival organizes experimental, documentary and drama pre-festival events at three venues across London.

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Omar Sirri, Amir Sadafi, Ellen Berry and Carolyn Barnett, all of them students of MSc in Middle East Politics in SOAS, organized a 1-day conference that gathered a variety of academics, journalists and activists last …

Attempting to counter the stifled ability to express, Arabs.com interestingly points out that we must admit that we are ‘oppressed’ in order to actually combat that oppression. In his ‘message’, the founder of the website states his support for the freedom of choice and expression as well as the need for platforms without bias or guardianship.

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So the joke goes that Mubarak dies and meets Nasser and Sadat in the afterlife. They ask him, “were you poisoned or shot?” Mubarak shrugs and answers “Facebook!”  Actually, an Egyptian family did recently name …

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On March 30th, the frontline club and in association with BBC Arabic hosted a special panel titled: Protest, Technology and the End of Fear. The event hosted Alaa Abdul Fattah, famous Egyptian blogger and political …

I saw somewhere that George Orwell once said, “every joke is a tiny revolution.” In the last week of this current wave of up rise throughout the Arab world, it has been the humour in social protest that has fascinated, and perhaps even confused, me. What role do these comedic characters play?

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As I sit here breathless in London, flicking channels between Al Jazeera English, BBC, CNN and France 24, in anxiety and excitement to see what Hosni Mubarak will announce within the hour, I look back …

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The current situation in Egypt is indeed provoking many discussions about the role of media in the coverage, and some could argue the ignition of its events, which began on the 25 January 2011. The …

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London Protests
29 Jan 2011
On the streets of Cairo, Egyptians are re-drawing the map of the Middle East, and arguably the world. In a couple of hours it would be almost a week since the protests …

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What has happened during only a span of four weeks in Tunisia is mind-boggling and unprecedented in the modern day history of the Middle East; that a dictator who has had a stronghold in Tunisia …

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Any form of speech used for pulling communities together to criticize a government or ruling group’s action has historically met with tightening of laws, suppression of freedom and unjust actions at the hands …

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Lucky enough to attend the Dubai International Film Festival for the second time, my interest was, once again, in the Arab films. I saw mostly shorts, and most of them were great: creative writing, intense acting, …

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‘Blogfather’ and SOAS student Hossein ‘Hoder’ Derakhshan has been temporarily released from Iran’s notorious Evin Prison on bail totaling $1.5 million. Hossein, who was arrested in late 2008 and has spent the last two years …

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To Document has been one of man’s prime ambitions, some people argue early cavemen paintings were based on such inferences. If they were true or not we simply cannot say. With the introduction of …

An Interesting and Financially Rewarding Essay Contest

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The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, and Bernard Kouchner, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of France, made the following statement on 20 October 2010 concerning Canadian-Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, who …

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Hossein Derakhshan is a journalist, Internet activist, blogger and SOAS student, nicknamed the Blogfather for spawning Iran’s spectacular blogging revolution. Since the mid-1990s, he has been advocating the use of the Internet as a means …

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It has been over a year since my first contribution to the Carousel. Back then my take on media was very SOAS-inspired. But today, almost a year post-M.A., paradigms have shifted, perspectives developed, and interests …

A map showing the topics being discussed in Iranian blogs. No conservative poetry is being written.