the middle east Archives

May 6, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

GOOD NEWS FROM IRAQ – Via Buzzfeed: When Zeinab Mohamed was a teenager, she was barred from going out after dark, even in her own neighborhood. Plagued with bombings, shootings, …

Politics

May 4, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

NOT FLYING HIGH IN AFGHANISTAN – It will take a long time for those sorts of attitudes to change: Afghanistan’s first female pilot has been granted asylum in the US after …

Politics

May 1, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

IRAN LIED, NO ONE DIED (YET) – Perhaps more interesting than the content of the treasure trove of secret nuclear documents from Iran is how the Israeli intelligence managed to …

Politics

April 26, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

OLIVER STONE GOES TO TEHRAN, CALLS TRUMP BEELZEBUB – An American tourist in Iran conforms to the mullahs that the Great Satan is led by the Great Satan: Oliver Stone …

Politics

April 14, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

“GOOD SOULS WILL NOT BE HUMILIATED”– So tweets Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad after the United States, Great Britain and France started dropping some heavy ordinance in and around Damascus. Though …

Politics

Syria: There is no happy endings

April 12, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

The world stands poised on the edge of an abyss, just a few wrong moves away from another world war, all over a large and unattractive expanse of sand on …

Politics

April 11, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

THIS IS NO LAUGHING GAS – From the people who brought you Saudi Arabia as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council: Despite accusations that it perpetrated yet …

Politics

April 5, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

WE NEED MORE MUSLIM SEX CULTS – Just kidding; no, we don’t. All cults are either weird or dangerous or both. But do yourself a favour and read this investigative piece …

Politics

April 3, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

THE SAUDI SPRING – I haven’t blogged much about Saudi Arabia’s next king, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, because I don’t want to get too excited just yet. The proof will …

Politics

Borders. They exist. They matter.

April 1, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

No matter how much I try I can’t get my head around the common leftist (and libertarian) delusion that national borders should be abolished and completely free movement of people …

Politics

March 27, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

IS THIS CRITICISM OR COMPLIMENT? – Turkish pro-government newspaper compares Angela Merkel to Hitler: The Yeni Akit daily, known for its hardline views on Turkish foreign policy, printed a photo-shopped …

Politics

March 20, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

IT’S TOUGH BEING BABY DONALD TRUMP IN AFGHANISTAN – A kinda touching story actually, of a Afghani Shia teacher who named his son Donald Trump after reading one of Don’s …

Politics

March 8, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

AXIS IS SO LAST SEASON, CHECK OUT THE TRIANGLE – Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has described Turkey as part of a “triangle of evil” along with …

Politics

March 8, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

UNHAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY – Problems bigger than microaggression: Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency on Wednesday quoted prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying the unidentified woman took off her headscarf …

Politics

February 27, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

PROFESSOR ACCUSED OF SEMITISM, DEFENDS HERSELF – The tragi-comedy in the letters section of the London Review of Books: There, the feminist American legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon can be found …

Politics

Ottoman Empire 2.0

February 27, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

The Turkish President Recep Erdogan has made the international news again, this time for a bizarre case of psychological child abuse: The Turkish president has appeared in a bizarre video in which …

Politics

February 24, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

THE GREAT SATAN’S MIRACULOUS HEALING POWERS – He curses but he partakes: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas appeared on local television Friday to downplay concerns over his health after undergoing what …

Politics

February 20, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

“THE ALLY” – Not: Turkish authorities on Monday renamed a street where the U.S. Embassy is located with the name of Turkey’s military offensive in Syria that had led to …

Politics

February 19, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

ONE SMALL STEP – Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman continues to sheikh things up: Women in Saudi Arabia can now open their own businesses without the consent of a husband or …

Politics

February 12, 2018 - by Arthur Chrenkoff

INTERNATIONAL IRONY ALERT – Mr De Niro goes to the Emirates: Hollywood star Robert De Niro took aim at the Trump administration’s stance on climate change, telling a packed audience …