Caught in the act: Challenging Tunisian society’s homophobia through theatre



Yousra Samir Imran
30 June, 2022

Pride Month: LGBTQI+ NGO Mawjoudin speaks to The New Arab about how it uses art to raise awareness and confront homophobia in the North African country today.

For the LGBTQI+ community in North Africa and the Middle East, Pride Month is bittersweet.

While celebrating their love and existence within safe and private spaces, members of the queer community in many North African and Middle Eastern countries are painfully reminded on an almost daily basis of the prevailing homophobia that exists within their societies.

"Tunisia is often hailed as a shining example when it comes to advancements in gender justice in the region in the wake of the Arab Spring; however, there is still a lot of work to do"

Confronting the challenges that continue to exist for the community in Tunisia is NGO Mawjoudin, which means We Exist. It is one of the first officially registered NGOs in the country that openly works on issues pertaining to the LGBTQI+ community, as well as providing them with a range of support services.

In addition to this, Mawjoudin keeps a tab on human rights violations of LGBTQI+ individuals and runs panels, workshops, and awareness campaigns to provide education, promote greater understanding, and tackle homophobia.

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Mawjoudin was founded in 2015 by a small group of feminists and members of the LGBTQI+ community.

Karam, who joined in 2016, is their Communications and Artistic Project Officer. Speaking to The New Arab he explains how crucial it is to have an NGO that represents the queer community in Tunisia and North Africa. “It was difficult to have the whole community gathered in the same space at first but step by step we gained the confidence of the members of the [queer] community to come to our spaces and events and to feel safe, which is very important for the community.”

Most of the work Mawjoudin does is in Tunisia, helping members of the queer community by providing and connecting them with legal, psychological, digital security, and health services, including helping asylum seekers and immigrants from other Sub-Saharan and African countries.

"It was difficult to have the whole community gathered in the same space at first but step by step we gained the confidence of the members of the [queer] community to come to our spaces and events and to feel safe, which is very important for the community"

Karam explains that the demand for their support is great, and they are working hard on expanding and hopefully establishing branches in other countries in the future. But for now, they provide support and help to anyone who needs it in Tunisia.

“We also try to connect people from abroad asking for help, for example from Sudan, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey, and all these people from other countries are queer people who are finding themselves in very bad situations. We try to connect them to local networks of queer NGOs or even just human rights NGOs working in that country, to offer them the services they need.”

Tunisia is often hailed as a shining example when it comes to advancements in gender justice in the region in the wake of the Arab Spring; however, there is still a lot of work to do – for example, Article 230 still exists in their Penal Code, derived from French colonial law, which criminalises homosexuality, something Mawjoudin advocates for the abolishment of, and Tunisian President Kais Saied previously called gay people “deviants.” But nevertheless, the very fact that you can register yourself as an LGBTQI+ NGO is something.

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“After the revolution, the thing we gained was this freedom to discuss these topics, and the freedom of expression and of association, and to be able to register clearly as an association working on LGBTQI+ issues and topics,” says Karam. “This window of freedom gave the community the chance, the opportunity, and the confidence to talk and to be more visible, and to become more active when it comes to defending their rights.”

Art is an outlet and creative form that can promote greater awareness and understanding of any topic, and it is something that Mawjoudin has used since its inception to bring members of the community together and unite with allies.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, they held an annual Queer Film Festival, the first of its kind in North Africa and the Middle East, which Karam says Mawjoudin will be bringing back this autumn. During the last two years of the pandemic, they have worked hard to raise awareness via digital campaigns on their social media channels.




Each year for Pride Month, Mawjoudin likes to put something on. In the past, it has been drag shows, dance performances, and lip-syncing contests.

This Pride Month they have premiered their very first Queer play, Flagranti, or Caught in the Act, directed by Essia Jaibi.

What is special about Flagranti is not only has it got an all-queer cast, but Mawjoudin has opened it to members of the general public, nevertheless in a private and safe space.

Mawjoudin premiered their very first Queer play, Flagranti, directed by Essia Jaibi

Flagranti is the tale of six members of Tunisia’s LGBTQI+ community of varying ages who face violence and abuse at home, in the workplace, and in public, peppered with dark humour.

The scenes in the play are based on real-life scenarios and emotions that the community experiences on a daily basis – the corruption in the police forces and judiciary, police brutality, anal tests, and the toll it has on their mental health. For them, leaving Tunisia seems to be their only option.

"Reactions were mostly being very shocked and moved by the play, about this real situation that people are not aware of, neglecting a part of society that is living this reality and this fear each day, and being able to see which kind of messages and support the community needs"

“We know that art is a soft way to raise awareness without being very confrontational or aggressive – although it can be sometimes – and this year with a play it is another level to confront the audience, with a direct speech to the audience [in order] to be aware of the queer situation, to feel empathy, and to be more aware of our community’s situation when it comes to the legal framework, social discrimination, and homophobia,” Karam tells The New Arab.

“It is also great to give the chance and space to young queer artists and to integrate allies of the community from the artistic field through these projects. The audience was mainly people from the queer community and our allies, but also people who are new to this world and to be in a totally immersive situation.

"Reactions were mostly being very shocked and moved by the play, about this real situation that people are not aware of, neglecting a part of society that is living this reality and this fear each day, and being able to see which kind of messages and support the community needs.”

Flagranti is the tale of six members of Tunisia’s LGBTQI+ community who face violence and abuse at home, in the workplace, and in public

The scenes in the play are based on real-life scenarios

Right now, Mawjoudin is busy at work organising their upcoming Queer Film Festival, a four-day event of film screenings, workshops, and dance performances that they are planning to run in September.

They have been trying to get popular Tunisian actors, actresses, and artists on board to collaborate, hoping that the presence of well-respected figures will aid them in connecting to a wider audience and result in even greater awareness and understanding.

“It is another opportunity for the queer community to gather, not only from Tunisia but from other countries and countries from the region, from Africa too, and for the diaspora. It is going to really be a chance for the queer community to meet up and celebrate. It is our own Pride in a way. It’s a way to celebrate it safely, and it is always a great moment to share.”

Find out more at www.mawjoudin.org and follow Mawjoudin on Instagram @mawjoudin_we_exist and Twitter @mawjoudin

Yousra Samir Imran is a British Egyptian writer and author who is based in Yorkshire. She is the author of Hijab and Red Lipstick, being published by Hashtag Press in the UK in October 2020

Follow her on Twitter: @UNDERYOURABAYA

TURKEY INVADES KURDISTAN IN ETHNIC CLEANSING
Turkey claims it killed 20 YPG members in Syria, amid reports of new military operation

Turkey's defence ministry on Wednesday issued a statement said 20 'terrorists' from the 'PKK/YPG' organisation were killed in northern Syria.

Turkey's army could soon launch a new operation in northern Syria [Getty-file photo]

Turkey on Wednesday said it had killed 20 members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as a new Turkish military operation in Syria appears to be drawing near.

The Turkish defence ministry issued a statement saying 20 "terrorists" belonging to the "PKK/YPG" organisation were killed in northern Syria.

The YPG is a Kurdish militia group which is the main component of the SDF, a coalition of Arab and Kurdish militias operating in notheastern Syria.

Ankara alleges that the YPG is the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a group that has been fighting fan insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.

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Turkey's defence ministry said the "neutralisation" operations took place in the Operation Euphrates Shield and Operation Olive Branch areas.

These are areas of Syria that have been controlled by the Turkish military and its Syrian allies since two separate offensives in Aleppo province in 2016 and 2018.

There have recently been suggestions that a new Turkish operation in northern Syria, which will focus on the towns of Tel Rifaat and Manbij, is imminent.

A correspondent for The New Arab's Arabic-language service reported that fighting broke out between the SDF and the Turkish allied "Syrian National Army" in the village of Al-Mahsanli, north of Manbij.

The correspondent added that Turkish warplanes were seen in the border area on Wednesday evening.

He also said further Turkish military convoys arrived in the area through the Al-Rai border crossing on Wednesday.

The convoy included tanks, armoured vehicles and mine-clearing vehicles, and was headed towards the city of Al-Bab, northeast of Aleppo city.

Turkey has been saying it will launch a new military operation in Syria since late May.

Idlib's female journalists battle against the regime, the patriarchy and misogynistic interpretations of Islam



Hadia Al Mansour
01 July, 2022

States of Journalism series: Female journalists in Idlib remain steadfast in face of myriad challenges; from regime bombing to oppressive measures imposed by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, to the deeply patriarchal society which rejects women working.

This article is part of The New Arab’s States of Journalism series, a sustained exploration of freedom, repression, and accountability in MENA and global media landscapes. Read more of the series’ articles here.

Female journalists in Idlib continue to face colossal challenges when it comes to doing their job, whether collecting information, contacting sources, or filming in public spaces.

Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) has banned the latter under threat of arrest, as the hardline Islamist group and de facto authority in Idlib continues to consolidate its suffocating policies towards journalists in Idlib, silencing those who speak out against its violations against civilians.

But HTS's oppressive security apparatus and strict monitoring of female journalists are not all they face.

Even worse is the stance of their own community, which sees women subjected to intimidation whenever they try to cover events, and their every movement scrutinised. They are fully aware that one misstep could endanger not only their professional life but quite possibly their actual one.

Added to these barriers are the issues faced by all across the war-ravaged region – the repeated bombardment of the opposition-held areas by the brutal regime of Assad, and the intentional targeting of journalists; in addition to logistical issues like electricity and internet blackouts as well as a lack of materials.

"Female journalists in Idlib face colossal challenges when it comes to doing their job, whether collecting information, contacting sources, or filming in public spaces"

About why she chose to become a journalist, ex-teacher Hana al-Mohammed (39) says: "I always felt things were unjust – like when I observed how everyone at the teacher training college for girls in Kafranbel was guaranteed secure employment and I wasn’t – instead I was forced to move from school to school […] barred from a fixed job, just because I didn’t have any connections in the ruling Baath party."

None of the certificates she obtained, the training courses she did or the experience she gained was enough to secure Hana a full-time teaching post. It was all "useless without the right connections – the most influential factor within a corrupt system which had long plundered our rights, dreams and aspirations," she says.

When the spark of rebellion ignited in Deraa and spread across the country, feelings that many women in Idlib had long repressed surfaced. On 27 April 2012, Hana marched for the first time with other women from her town, Kafranbel, brandishing a banner that read: "death over humiliation".

Female journalists in Idlib face added challenges during their work from Idlib's conservative society as well as from HTS [Hadia Al Mansour]


She wore a face veil, fearful of being recognised and seized afterwards by Assad's henchmen, who carried out arrests after every demonstration.

Soldiers and security services would raid people's homes, having received detailed reports about those participating in the protests from spies and informants. They would uproot the demonstrators from the arms of their families like "the soul is plucked from the body," in Hana's words.

Hana chose to quit teaching and become a journalist in 2015, to document what was happening in Kafranbel, which experienced repeated acts of terrorism at the hands of the regime and its Russian ally, and later extremist Islamist factions including the Islamic State group (IS).

"As a journalist, I focused on women, children, and other vulnerable groups and the challenges they faced in such a complex situation, whether health-related, economic or to do with the security situation," says Hana.

"Hana chose to quit teaching and become a journalist in 2015, to document what was happening in Kafranbel, which experienced repeated acts of terrorism at the hands of the regime and its Russian ally, and later extremist Islamist factions including IS"

"I had to contribute to the victory of our orphaned revolution in my own way, using my pen to transmit the hardships and pain of those grieving at a time when there was a huge amount of media misinformation penning alternative names for the revolution which bore no relation to the truth: betrayal became 'coexistence' and 'civic loyalty', the revolution 'a crisis', the revolutionary, an 'armed terrorist', the liberation of the land from tyrants, a 'war'," she further explains.

Hana wasn't afraid of taking on a new profession, even one that would invariably invite condemnation from Idlib's society, which clings to a stereotypical view of women and places them into a one-size-fits-all template that cannot be altered. However, Hana has broken the mould and continues reporting reality as she sees it in defiance of her circumstances.

Journalist Mariam al-Mustafa (40), for her part, faced continuous threats from anonymous figures who used bogus WhatsApp numbers, warning that she "would pay" for her attacks on HTS after she wrote a report documenting their repression against women in Idlib and their interventions to stop women working by claiming it violated sharia law and religion.

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"The threats made me more cautious – I started using borrowed names and changing houses periodically. This has destroyed any sense of safety and stability for me and my family."

However, she keeps working. Despite seeing her brother arrested by the regime early on, then seeing him in the Ceasar photographs of the regime's torture victims, to the repeated destruction of her home under bombing raids – from which her and her children survived by sheer chance – to the suffocating oppression of the current de facto rulers, she has remained steadfast in her mission to continue writing and reporting, regardless of the risk.

"Heavily armed fighters from Jabhat Al Nusra, the group in control of the area at the time, stormed the women's workplace. They trashed the office and expelled the women, threatening to arrest them if they returned, accusing them of immodesty, being infidels"

Journalist Rawaa Al Bakour (39) tells a different story – one of the shocking responses of the local community to the launch of the Mazaya magazine (an organisation working to empower women in Idlib).

She and three other female journalists started the magazine in 2015; it was the first media experiment of its kind in the region. The four volunteers hoped the magazine would be a success, and chose article topics relating to women's issues – women's rights, lives, success stories, ambitions, and challenges. The magazine was printed and issued on a monthly basis.

The project had been going for less than a month when heavily armed fighters from Jabhat Al Nusra, the group in control of the area at the time, stormed the women's workplace. They trashed the office and expelled the women, threatening to arrest them if they returned, accusing them of immodesty, being infidels, and yelling obscenities, according to Rawaa.

After the Syrian uprising began in 2011, increasing numbers of women took training courses in journalism to document the crimes of the regime as well as the extremist groups which later appeared [Hadia Al Mansour]

"They deserved it, what do they want doing these things, they should feel ashamed, why aren't they at home looking after their husbands and children, by God, they've reaped what they sowed!"

These were the gloating words muttered by the men of Kafranbel who amassed outside the Mazaya's offices as they gleefully followed the course of events, words that still echo in Rawaa's memory.

"The men’s reaction revealed their deep-seated hatred and rejection of any activity women undertake in our society. A logical response would have been to feel proud of our work and what we were doing, and to reject such a blatant assault on our right to free expression."

"I, as a woman living in a traditional, patriarchal and conservative society, am not a 'lesser rib' – an idea that gets drummed into us! Actually, I am capable of a lot, of breaking the stereotypes, exiting the cage of custom and tradition and of fulfilling my potential"

Rawaa says journalism has changed the way she understands her life: "That I, as a woman living in a traditional, patriarchal and conservative society, am not a 'lesser rib' – an idea that gets drummed into us! Actually, I am capable of a lot, of breaking the stereotypes, exiting the cage of custom and tradition and of fulfilling my potential."

Jabhat Al Nusra's attempts to intimidate Rawaa and her colleagues didn't succeed. The journalists regrouped the following day, and a number of local women came to offer their solidarity. They reopened the office, cleaned up the mess and got back to work.

Rawaa continued with the magazine until late 2018 when the regime unleashed a violent military campaign across south Idlib, and she was forced to flee. But she hasn’t stopped working – currently submitting her articles to numerous media outlets as a freelance journalist.

Sahir al-Idlibi (30), works in electronic journalism and has trained many women in journalistic skills. She was deeply influenced by the burgeoning movement of individual social awareness, which reshaped her perspective on the demand for freedom, justice and democracy in a country where these ideals had long been absent during the Assad family's rule.

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She says: "I came to feel my role was no longer just to record events, instead I felt I'd become a cog in the machinery shaping these events – an essential partner in the creation of a new phase of Syria's history."

According to Reporters Without Borders, there are 60 female journalists working in Idlib province, and The Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression ranked Syria 174th out of 180 countries for press freedom in 2019.

The Syrian Centre for Journalistic Freedom (SCJF) said in its last annual report that "restrictions on press freedom alongside threats violating the safety and security of media workers and the freedom of the press, formed direct causes for the majority of documented violations during February 2022".

Hadia Al Mansour is a freelance journalist from Syria who has written for Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Monitor, SyriaUntold and Rising for Freedom Magazine.

Article translated from Arabic by Rose Chacko

Twitter bots will not silence us Palestinians exposing Israel's crimes

Nooran Alhamdan
01 Jul, 2022

The use of bots to troll Palestinians online is part of a systematic targeting campaign. But all the harassment and intimidation will not deter activists, who are committed to revealing the truth that Israel fears, writes Nooran Hamdan.


Thousands of fake Twitter accounts began following Palestinian activists online in a targeted harassment campaign. [Getty]

One night, at the height of my final semester of graduate school, I was having a sleepless night. I don’t remember why I was tossing and turning, but I remember after an hour of frustrated attempts to sleep, I found myself mindlessly scrolling Twitter. Through squinted eyes, I noticed that my Twitter notifications were lighting up consistently, the blue signal indicating that I had over twenty notifications every few minutes.

I clicked my notifications tab and jolted up. I had row upon row of updates about new followers. I was perplexed. Had I tweeted something that had gone viral? How were so many people finding my account? I clicked one of the accounts that had followed me, and noticed their account was created that month. They had zero followers, what seemed to be a random photo as their profile picture, and they only followed Palestinian or pro-Palestine solidarity accounts.

The rest of my night remained sleepless. I browsed the hundreds of accounts that followed me and they all shared similar traits; newly created, only following Palestinian accounts, and obviously fake. At one point, I had to make my account private in order to be able to catch up with blocking the bot accounts without getting followed by a new batch of them.

"Being a Palestinian woman on Twitter, where I engage in digital advocacy and utilise the platform for my academic work, has never been easy business"

I wasn’t alone. Other Palestinian Twitter users were dealing with the same thing. Marc Owen Jones, an expert on disinformation and digital authoritarianism in the Middle East, analysed the suspicious activity and concluded our worst fears.

These bots were part of a systematic targeting campaign. The goal of these bots is to mass follow accounts and report them, until the account they are targeting is suspended. Owens even argues that the tactic acts as a “tool of surveillance and intimidation.”

Analysing the accounts following me in particular, Owens found that the 1156 bot accounts were being produced at a rate of 180 accounts every 3 minutes, a feat that is impossible without automation. 1090 of the 1156 accounts were suspended by Twitter.

Since I first experienced bot manipulation in late April, I have found that it has continued, although more sporadically and in fewer numbers. In this past week, I have noticed the activity emerging again, and I was quick to block the accounts.

Being a Palestinian woman on Twitter, where I engage in digital advocacy and utilise the platform for my academic work, has never been easy business. I have experienced a range of harassment and trolling over the years. And despite my large following, I know that I have it relatively easy compared to other Palestinians, who have been smeared by online blacklist websites that have the explicit goal of making the professional lives of Palestinian-Americans extremely difficult.

While I am thankful to have avoided more libellous and bad faith internet attacks, I cannot pretend that I am not uncomfortable being targeted. There is something especially eerie about the artificial bots that follow me. They are a reminder that someone always has their eyes on me; on my account and on the work that I do. What is most unsettling is not knowing exactly who is behind them.

While Israel and its cyberarm are likely a safe bet, I still wonder who would be so concerned about my account that they feel compelled to surveil me in this way. I am a 24 year old student. I engage in organising for the Palestinian cause in my own ways offline, which I do not advertise in any way whatsoever on my account. Most of my tweets are my unfiltered thoughts, informed by my family’s experience as Palestinian refugees and my understanding of politics given that I am deeply embedded in academic and advocacy spaces.

Despite the risks posed by being visibly Palestinian on Twitter and in other digital spaces, I will continue to persist. While I am honest in my discomfort at the feeling of being watched, I will always be committed to Palestinian liberation. Tweeting and speaking out about the genocide and settler-colonialism occuring in Palestine will always be what I consider to be the bare minimum that I can do as a Palestinian in the diaspora.

But more importantly, I ground myself in the reality that Israel is so intimidated by the work that I and other activists do, that mere tweets warrant the response that we have received in the latest form of bot manipulation. And this only motivates me.

"While I am honest in my discomfort at the feeling of being watched, I will always be committed to Palestinian liberation"

The truth scares Israel. Whether spoken in Palestine, in the United States, or in digital spaces. And that should only empower us all further; to keep speaking about Palestine, to keep Gaza Masafer Yatta and Sheikh Jarrah trending on Twitter, to keep posting about Ahmad Manasra, to keep the momentum of digital global solidarity with Palestinians.

They blacklist us, troll us, smear us, and send armies of bots to watch us because they fear the truth.

Nooran Alhamdan recently received her Masters degree in Arab Studies from Georgetown University.
Follow her on Twitter: @nooranhamdan

Algeria’s revolutionary history is tarnished by its regime

Algeria’s independence from France was globally celebrated, but the 60th anniversary will likely be overshadowed by decades-long corruption, backdoor deals with the former coloniser, and political repression by the regime, writes Abdelkader Cheref.

Algeria proclaimed its independence after the signing of 

the Evian Accords on March 18, 1962. [GETTY]

Abdelkader Cheref
04 Jul, 2022

On July 5, 2022, Algeria celebrates the 60th anniversary of its independence from France.

Sixty years have elapsed since the Algerian War of Independence (1954 – 1962) triumphed. And the victory remains a jubilatory episode in modern Arab history.

The Algerian Revolution was a national armed struggle whose ultimate objective was to bring down the French settler colonial rule which prevailed for more than a century (1830-1962).

Not only it was a major event in the MENA region and worldwide, but it also impacted the decoloniSation movement in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Many historians believe that the “savage war of peace” claimed the lives of some 1.5 million Algerians.

Yet, the after-effects of the Revolution continue to raise questions regarding the current political and socio-economic situation in Algeria.


''Sixty years after a hard-won independence, scores of analysts have a hard time accepting that Algeria - an oil-wealthy country – is struggling with poor infrastructure, high unemployment, limited civil liberties, cronyism, hundreds of political prisoners, and a muzzled opposition.''

Despite the fact that the country was “the Mecca for revolutionaries,” the post-independence leaders were more concerned with power grab than alleviating the miserable conditions of the Algerian people. And fixing the devastation caused by the eight-year war of independence was the least of their worries.

A case in point is former ousted president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who many analysts view as a putschist and one of the architects of the Algerian authoritarian regime.

The man was a key player in dissolving the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA), and in organiSing the June 1965 coup d’état. A coup which deposed Ahmed Ben Bella, Algeria’s first civilian elected President, and instated Colonel Houari Boumediene as a de facto president.

That coup not only allowed the military top brass to dominate the political scene, but it has also enabled a bunch of National Liberation Front (FLN) apparatchiks to confiscate power and impose an authoritarian corrupt regime with a democratic façade.

And when the October 1988 riots occurred, the powers that be were compelled to draft a new constitution and allowed the emergence of a relatively free press. They also permitted the legal existence of secularist and Islamist political parties.

But when the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) was poised to win the first free parliamentary elections in December 1991, the military stepped in, cancelled the elections, stopped the democratic process, jailed thousands of Algerians in concentration camps in the Sahara desert, and triggered a dirty civil war which pinned Islamist militants against the Algerian military.

The civil war claimed the lives of more than 200,000 Algerians and foreign nationals.

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It should be mentioned that despite Algeria’s vast oil wealth, the various post-independence governments have all exercised power in a tribal fashion, based on systemic corruption, nepotism, embezzlement, cronyism, and resistance to change.

By some estimates, more than a trillion US dollars of oil revenues were either stolen or misspent during former president Bouteflika’s 20-year reign.

The intransigence of the system has been so full of twists and turns that Algeria has had multiple crises with the former coloniSer as well as neighbouring countries in the Maghreb.

Though Algeria and Morocco share a common historical and cultural heritage, the hostility vis-a-vis Morocco goes back to the 1963 border conflict, called the Sand War. That territorial dispute which took place less than a year after Algeria obtained its independence, claimed the lives of hundreds of people on both sides, and eventually defined the two sister countries' spiteful relationship.

Since the signing of the Evian Accords on March 18, 1962 – which ended the Algerian war and paved the way for independence from France, Algeria has had a craggy type of relationship with the former colonial power.

Though France was permitted to carry out 17 of its nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara Desert until 1966, and former French president de Gaulle managed to strike a secret deal with Boumediene and Bouteflika to authoriSe chemical weapons tests until 1978, the regime’s anti-French discourse has been primarily for domestic consumption.

For many observers, Paris has always had good relations with Algiers. The intelligence and military cooperation taking place without public knowledge has been remarkably fruitful. In January 2013, Algerian authorities allowed French military jets to use the country’s airspace to reach Mali when the French were battling Jihadists. Such proximity with the former colonial ruler did not go well among Algerians.

If for the former French ambassador to Algeria, Mr. Xavier Driencourt, whose recent book - The Algerian Puzzle, highlights the complex and complicated relation between Algeria and France, for Luis Martinez, a political scientist at Sciences Po university in Paris, “despite appearances and criticism, there has been a stable, very balanced relationship.”

However, this neo-colonial enterprise was rejected by the Hirak.

Protestors showed that the French establishment interfering in Algerian affairs has only been made possible by “hizb frança” (The Party of France) – those Algerian officials who spare no effort to defend French interests at the expense of Algeria’s.

Given the Algerian Revolution’s seismic effect on the post-colonial world, the current corrupt and authoritarian regime has tarnished Algeria’s standing.

Do the Algerians deserve to be in such an impasse? What happened to the Algerian fighting spirit? Did the glorious Revolution rise like a rocket only to fall like a stick? These questions are worth posing.

Sixty years after a hard-won independence, scores of analysts have a hard time accepting that Algeria - an oil-wealthy country – is struggling with poor infrastructure, high unemployment, limited civil liberties, cronyism, hundreds of political prisoners, and a muzzled opposition.

It should be mentioned that many view the Hirak as “a struggle for post-dictatorial independence after the struggle for postcolonial independence.”

Will the Hirak, as a continuation of the Algerian national movement, succeed in bringing down the regime which confiscated Algeria’s independence? Time will tell.

Dr. Abdelkader Cheref is an Algerian academic and a freelance journalist based in the US. As a former Fulbright scholar, he holds a PhD from the University of Exeter, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. His research interests are primarily politics in the MENA region, democratisation, Islam/Islamism, and political violence with a special focus on the Maghreb.

Follow him on Twitter @Abdel_Cheref

ISRAEL KILLED ONE TOO MANY PALESTINIANS

US Presbyterian Church declares Israel 'apartheid state', create Nakba remembrance day

The New Arab Staff
30 June, 2022

The US Presbyterian Church declared Israel an 'apartheid state' and voted to designate a Nakba remembrance day within their calendars at the church's 225th General Assembly.


The church also affirmed the “right of all people to live and worship peacefully” in Jerusalem [Getty]


The US Presbyterian Church voted on Tuesday at its 225th General Assembly to declare Israel an "apartheid state" and designate a Nakba Remembrance Day within their calendars.

The church claims over 1.7 million members.

Its Committee on International Engagement passed a resolution recognising that “Israel’s laws, policies and practices regarding the Palestinian people fulfil the international legal definition of apartheid”, according to a statement on the Presbyterian Church’s website.

The committee also called for an end to Israel's siege of Gaza and affirmed the “right of all people to live and worship peacefully” in Jerusalem.

Out of 31 voting members, 28 agreed with the resolution, which states that Israel was practicing apartheid by “establishing two sets of laws, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians, which give preferential treatment to Israeli Jews and oppressive treatment to Palestinians”.

A resolution designating 15 May as the Palestinian Nakba Remembrance – commemorating the tragedy whereby 750,000 Palestinians were expelled for the creation of Israel in 1948 - was also approved.

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This received 31 affirmative votes and no negative votes within the committee.

It was passed “for the purpose of lifting prayer for peace” and “giving solidarity for those suffering under occupation”.

The resolution also stated the remembrance should be annually included in the Presbyterian Planning Calendar.

This resolution specifically calls on the US government to “exhort the government of Israel immediately to cease and desist all hostile actions that are defined as “collective punishment” under international law… [and] end the siege of Gaza”.

The Presbyterian Church's resolutions echo human rights groups’ statements surrounding Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

Israel's continued occupation of Palestinian land and its persecution and violence against Palestinians have been defined as apartheid by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

The UN's Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories has also issued a report saying that Israel has imposed an 'apartheid reality’ on Palestinians.

Sea lion found in polluted Riachuelo River returned to sea

 

A sea lion has been returned to the ocean after finding itself in the ultra-polluted Riachuelo River in Argentina.

He was saved two weeks ago from one of Latin America's dirtiest rivers and has been being treated at an animal rescue centre.

Watch the moment the sea lion was allowed back into the wild.

Egyptians prevented from answering questions on democracy in Arab World Survey

THE RULING IDEAS ARE THE IDEAS OF THE RULING CLASS  

Major new survey finds declining faith in democracy, but critics say poll is 'skewed' and citizens of authoritarian countries not allowed to answer all questions

Egyptian pro-democracy protesters celebrate at Cairo's Tahrir Square 

after president Hosni Mubarak stepped down on 11 February 2011 (AFP)

By Rayhan Uddin
Published date: 7 July 2022

A major new survey has claimed that Arabs are losing faith in the effectiveness of democracy, despite respondents in autocratic Egypt being denied the chance to answer questions on that very topic.

Citizens of several authoritarian countries in the Middle East did not also participate.

The Arab World Survey, commissioned by BBC News Arabic and conducted by the Arab Barometer network based at Princeton University, interviewed 23,000 people across Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Palestine.

It was carried out between October 2021 and April 2022, and asked questions on a range of subjects including democracy, foreign leaders, religiosity, women’s rights and racism.

The survey, published on Wednesday, found that the vast majority of respondents believed that “under a democratic system, the country’s economic performance is weak”.

It also found that most people agree with the statements: “Democratic regimes are indecisive and full of problems,” “democratic systems are not effective at maintaining order and stability”, and “this country needs a leader who can bend the rules to get things done”.

 
Egypt and Mauritania evade questions

These statements on democracy were answered by people from nine of the participating ten states, with the notable exception of Egypt.

Egyptians also did not participate in questions on whether people prayed Fajr morning prayers on time, and whether they read the Quran daily.

A question asking respondents about their views on various world leaders’ foreign policy towards the Middle East and Africa region was also not answered in Egypt because “authorities would not allow these questions to be asked”.

Crossing the river: Black Mauritanians haunted by mass expulsion to Senegal

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Elsewhere, there are no results from Mauritania on the topic of racial discrimination because Mauritanian authorities asked for questions to be “modified or removed”.

The report notes that the country is going through a national dialogue to formally address racial issues.

Michael Robbins, director of Arab Barometer, told Middle East Eye that apart from Lebanon and Tunisia, the researchers needed some form of state approval to carry out questionnaires in the surveyed countries.

“Generally, locals have an idea of what is legal and what isn’t. We don’t want to put our teams in danger. I don’t think any survey is worth a human life or having someone jailed,” he said.

He said that authorities had sensitivities on certain topics, and did not usually provide a reason as to why some questions were not allowed to be answered by citizens.

“Egyptian authorities were very sensitive about international relations questions. That may be related to current negotiations with different powers.”
'Skewed and manipulative'

Analysts have expressed doubt over the findings, citing the omission of some countries and the framing of the questions.

“We have to interpret these results cautiously. A number of countries are excluded, the sampling methodology is imperfect, and some questions could not be asked in some of the surveyed countries,” Mohamad Elmasry, chair of the media studies programme at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Middle East Eye.

'[It was] engineered to elicit negative responses on democracy, while offering respondents no opportunity to give their opinions on the problems with undemocratic governance'

-Sarah Leah Whitson, Dawn

Elmasry said that it was fair to ask how democratic governments were likely to perform economically, particularly if the same questions are asked over time.

“However, I would prefer that mirroring questions be asked for other forms of government, most notably authoritarianism,” he noted.

“This is important, especially since authoritarianism is more common in the region.”

Asked by MEE why questions were not asked about the impact of authoritarianism, Robbins said it was something “we want to do and will do in future surveys”.

“It’s unfortunate that the Arab Barometer’s questions on governance were so skewed and manipulative,” Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), told Middle East Eye.

“[It was] engineered to elicit negative responses on democracy, while offering respondents no opportunity to give their opinions on the problems with undemocratic, unrepresentative governance.”

Whitson took issue with the wording of the questions, noting that only negative options were given in relation to democracy, with “nothing positive”.

“The survey provides a distorted image of Arab public opinion, entirely excluding respondents from some of the region’s most abusive governments, while omitting political questions in countries like Egypt,” she said.
Erdogan rated most popular leader

Gulf countries, which are among the most autocratic in the region, were not involved in the survey.

Robbins said that the Gulf was a “much more restrictive environment” than other parts of the Middle East, but that the Arab Barometer is trying to push for more access in those countries.

He added that the survey’s funding often fluctuated, and it currently only had funding to research 12 countries. The results for Kuwait and Algeria were received too late to be included in the study.

The Arab Barometer’s major funders include two US government agencies, the Middle East Partnership Initiative and the Agency for International Development. Among other funders are BBC Arabic, the National Endowment for Democracy, the UN Development Programme and Princeton and Michigan universities.

While the findings indicated a decline in faith in democracy to provide stability and economic strength, overall most respondents still believed it to be the best form of government.

Elsewhere in the survey, there was widespread acknowledgement of racial discrimination, except in Egypt, where only eight percent of people said it was a problem. Eighty-six percent of Egyptians said there was no racial discrimination “at all” against dark skinned individuals.


It found that a majority of people surveyed said that men are better at political leadership than women, though support for this view had declined since 2018.

Lebanon and Tunisia had seen the biggest decline in this view, where less than half of respondents believe men to be better leaders.

Egypt: 'We cannot surrender to dictatorship,' says rights group founder

Read More »

While the 2018 survey found that some in the region were turning their backs on religion, most countries have seen a decline in the number of people describing themselves as “not religious”.

The analysis on global leaders compared the popularity of the MENA policies of presidents in the US, China, Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Syria, as well as Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Six of the nine countries (Egypt did not partake) favoured Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s foreign policy the most, while Syria’s Bashar al-Assad was the least popular.

Comey And McCabe Just Happened To Get Same Rare Intensive IRS Audits Under Trump Appointee

Andrew McCabe and James Comey.

By Cristina Cabrera
July 7, 2022

The I.R.S. selected former FBI chiefs James Comey and Andrew McCabe, two of ex-President Donald Trump’s top foes during his presidency, for an incredibly rare exhaustive tax audit when the agency was led by a Trump appointee.

The New York Times obtained I.R.S. documents showing that Comey’s return filing for 2017 –- the same year Trump fired the then-FBI director for disloyalty –- was chosen for the rare, intensive audit, which is called the National Research Program. The Times noted that of the nearly 153 million individual returns filed that year, only 5,000 of them were selected for that specific audit.

The documents similarly showed that McCabe’s 2019 tax return filing –- the year after Trump also fired him –- was one of the mere 8,000 filings the I.R.S. picked for the same audit program in 2019.

Comey and McCabe were informed of the audits in 2019 and 2021, respectively, when Trump-appointed commissioner Charles P. Rettig oversaw the I.R.S. Rettig actually remains in that post until this coming November.

Throughout his presidency and even after, Trump repeatedly bashed Comey and McCabe in his ceaseless rage over their refusal to scuttle the Russia investigation at his demand.

“Maybe it’s a coincidence or maybe somebody misused the I.R.S. to get at a political enemy,” Comey told the Times on Wednesday. “Given the role Trump wants to continue to play in our country, we should know the answer to that question.”

The tax agency said in a statement to the Times that Rettig “has been committed to running the I.R.S. in an impartial, unbiased manner from top to bottom” and had nothing to do with Comey and McCabe’s audits.

“Commissioner Rettig is not involved in individual audits or taxpayer cases; those are handled by career civil servants,” the agency said. “As I.R.S. commissioner, he has never been in contact with the White House –- in either administration –- on I.R.S. enforcement or individual taxpayer matters.

It’s unknown how exactly Comey and McCabe were chosen or who made the decision to audit them. The I.R.S. does not publicly disclose its selection process for the intensive National Research Program and is prohibited from discussing specific cases. Comey gave the Times a privacy release so the I.R.S. could give the newspaper more information about the case.

Neither Comey nor McCabe knew they’d both been targeted until they were contacted by the Times reporter. McCabe called for an investigation into the matter during a CNN interview on Wednesday night.

“I think it should be investigated,” he said. “People need to be able to trust the institutions of government.”

Trump may have committed “serious federal crime” with “targeted” IRS audits of Comey, McCabe: expert

Comey and McCabe suspiciously both faced audits targeting just 1 in 30,000 people each year

By IGOR DERYSH

Deputy Politics Editor

SALON
PUBLISHED JULY 7, 2022 

James Comey (Getty/Carsten Koall)

Former FBI Director James Comey and his top deputy Andy McCabe faced rate, intensive IRS audits after investigating former President Donald Trump, according to The New York Times.

Comey, whom Trump fired in 2017 while he oversaw the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, and McCabe, who was similarly terminated after investigating Trump over the Coney firing, were selected for a "random" audit known as an "autopsy without the benefit of death," according to the report. Out of about 153 million individual tax returns filed in 2017, only about 5,000 people are selected for this type of invasive audit each year.

Comey and McCabe, along with their spouses, defied the odds, being selected for the audit after being fired. The two men were selected for an IRS research program that uses "compliance research examinations" to try to catch tax cheats. Unlike typical audits, these audits force individuals to produce bank records, copies of checks, receipts and letters effectively recreating their finances for the year in question. The process takes months and often costs thousands in accountant fees.

"Your federal income tax return for the year shown above was selected at random for a compliance research examination," the IRS said in letters to both men. "We must examine randomly selected tax returns to better understand tax compliance and improve fairness of the tax system. We'll give you the opportunity to explain any errors we may find during the examination."

The "minuscule chances" of the top two FBI officials being selected at random raised questions about whether Trump appointees in the government or at the IRS purposely targeted them, noted Times reported Michael Schmidt.

"Lightning strikes, and that's unusual, and that's what it's like being picked for one of these audits," former IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told the outlet. "The question is: Does lightning then strike again in the same area? Does it happen? Some people may see that in their lives, but most will not — so you don't need to be an anti-Trumper to look at this and think it's suspicious."

A Trump spokeswoman denied any knowledge of the audits.

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, a Trump appointee who remains on the job, declined an interview with the Times but said in a statement that he was not involved in any audit.

"Commissioner Rettig is not involved in individual audits or taxpayer cases; those are handled by career civil servants," the statement said. "As I.R.S. commissioner, he has never been in contact with the White House — in either administration — on I.R.S. enforcement or individual taxpayer matters. He has been committed to running the I.R.S. in an impartial, unbiased manner from top to bottom."

The IRS did not specifically comment on the cases but says it forwards any allegations of wrongdoing it receives to the Treasury Department for "further review."

It is illegal under federal law for nearly anyone in the executive branch to request an IRS audit of a specific individual's taxes.

Comey's audit, which lasted over a year, actually found that he and his wife overpaid their federal income taxes and they received a $347 refund, according to the Times.
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"I don't know whether anything improper happened, but after learning how unusual this audit was and how badly Trump wanted to hurt me during that time, it made sense to try to figure it out," Comey told the Times. "Maybe it's a coincidence or maybe somebody misused the I.R.S. to get at a political enemy. Given the role Trump wants to continue to play in our country, we should know the answer to that question."

McCabe said his audit found that he and his wife owed a small amount of money, which they paid.

"The revenue agent I dealt with was professional and responsive," McCabe told the outlet. "Nevertheless, I have significant questions about how or why I was selected for this."

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Months before McCabe's audit, Trump publicly questioned McCabe's finances, repeating a false claim about donations that his wife received when she ran for a Virginia state Senate seat.

"Was Andy McCabe ever forced to pay back the $700,000 illegally given to him and his wife, for his wife's political campaign, by Crooked Hillary Clinton while Hillary was under FBI investigation, and McCabe was the head of the FBI??? Just askin'?" Trump tweeted in September 2020.

McCabe was fired by Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2018, which cost him his pension shortly before he was set to retire. The Justice Department in October 2021, under new Attorney General Merrick Garland, reinstated his pension and cleansed his personnel record. He was informed his audit was completed last month.

McCabe claimed he was directly targeted for the audit.

"There was no penalties, there was no fines or anything like that, it was really pretty minimal thing in the end. But it's nerve-wracking, you know, it's really, it's really, kind of, you know – it's scary, really, to be … targeted like that," he told CNN. "I don't know what happened here. And like I said, I think they handled the business okay, you know, the person I dealt with was fine, but the question remains, how was I selected for this?"
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McCabe called for an investigation into the audits.

"It just defies logic to think that there wasn't some other factor involved," he said.

"No coincidence, for sure. Odds are 30,000 to 1," tweeted Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, warning that "this kind of political targeting is a serious federal crime."

Comey, McCabe, Objects Of Trump Ire, Were Subjects Of Rare IRS Audits Transcript

Rev › Blog › Transcripts › Andrew McCabe › Comey, McCabe, Objects Of Trump Ire, Were Subjects Of Rare IRS Audits Transcript


James Comey and Andrew McCabe, two people at the top of Donald Trump’s enemies list were both subject to uncommon, rigorous IRS audits. Read the transcript here.


Speaker 1: (00:00)
How did two of President Trump’s top perceive enemies end up facing that kind of audit, the kind of audit that seems designed to dig up any possible dirt? How exactly does that happen? A spokesperson for President Trump said he had, “No knowledge of this”, but in a statement to The Times, Comey said, what we were all thinking, “Maybe it’s a coincidence, or maybe somebody misused the IRS to get at a political enemy. “Given the role Trump wants to continue to play in our country, we should know the answer to that question”. Well that we should. And part of the story that I really don’t think we should overlook is how we almost never learned about it. James Comey and Andrew McCabe had worked together for years and neither one knew that the other had been audited like this both after they were fired from the FBI, “Neither man knew that the other had been audited until they were told by a reporter for The Times”. That reporter was New York Times, Michael Schmidt.

Speaker 1: (00:59)
I don’t know if there are any other Trump enemies out there that underwent intensive random audits by the IRS. But if there are, and they’re listening, please email my next guest Michael Schmidt. Joining us now is Michael. He’s the reporter for The New York times who broke this story. Michael, thank you for joining us this evening. We mentioned this particular type of audit is exhaustive and exhausting, but can you just help us understand how much in an audit like this, the IRS asks for and how much work it is to provide all of the material that they need?

Michael Schmidt: (01:31)
So most audits that the IRS does are set off by an algorithm or a computer that catches something weird in your return. Someone claims a 500,000 square foot home office. There’s something weird, something odd that the computer says, Hey, and they send you a letter and they say, Hey, what’s going on with this home office? Can you help us clarify that? And you have to explain that individual issue. That’s what most audits look like. They’re annoying. People don’t like them. They see them as invasive, but they’re part of the process for the IRS to collect the money that it needs to run the government. A small percentage of audits are done to figure out what the tax gap is. And that’s the gap between what Americans do pay in taxes and what they should be paying in taxes. So this is sort of a survey of the country to figure out who isn’t paying their taxes and they go out and the IRS says that they randomly pick Americans for this.

Michael Schmidt: (02:36)
And because they don’t know what they’re looking for, right, they’ve randomly picked these Americans, they have to turn over everything in your financial life to recreate your financial year, to determine whether you understated or overstated everything on your taxes. So that means producing receipts. In the case of Comey, there was a question about a printer cartridge he had bought two years earlier that I believe he had taken a write off on and whether he could come up with that receipt, or if there was an Amex statement to back that up. As you were pointing out, Comey had claimed dependence. To show that those dependents existed, that his children actually existed, he had to present the family’s Christmas card to the IRS. It took the Comey’s 15 months to get through this audit. And it cost them $5,000 in accounting fees, because they had to have an accountant that was going back and forth with the IRS agent who was doing the audit.

Speaker 1: (03:43)
Yeah. And the interesting thing about these audits is you can’t sort of just say, Hey, you’re the IRS. You know I have kids. Why don’t you handle that? When they ask you for information, you actually have to provide it. The odds of getting selected for one of these random audits is about one in 30,000 and a little bit, according to your article. The odds that both of these men who held the same position back to back in the same administration, both seen as political enemies of the president in charge and the IRS headed by a man that president appointed just makes it seem less than random.

Michael Schmidt: (04:18)
So we actually don’t in the story, lay out what the odds are because we don’t know how the IRS actually randomly selects these people, whether it’s weighted in a way. All we know is that the IRS says they’re trying to get a full picture of what the country looks like. They’re trying to get people that are W-2 employees, people that may be making millions of dollars a year. People that may be at the lower end of the economic spectrum. What the numbers we had in the story showed was, is like one out of how many taxpayers was subjected to this. So here were the numbers. For 2017, the year that they looked at Comey’s return, there were 5,000 audits of these done on individual taxpayers. So that could be a husband and a wife or partners together.

Michael Schmidt: (05:11)
So it could be a little bit more than 5,000 people, but out of 150 million returns. So they’re randomly picking 5,000 people out of 150 million returns. In 2019, the year that McCabe was audited for, there were 8,000 returns that were selected by the IRS for this out of 153 or 154 million returns that were from that year. So these are very, very low numbers. And what former IRS people that we talked to said is just that, like what are the chances that the people a top of Trump’s enemy’s list,

Speaker 1: (05:51)
Yeah.

Michael Schmidt: (05:51)
People who had overseen some of the most controversial decisions in the FBI’s history. Remember a lot of people blame Comey for the election of Hillary Clinton. There’s a lot of people that look very negatively on the FBI from this period of time. And these two people were subjected to these audits.

Speaker 1: (06:11)
Or the defeat of Hillary Clinton. The current IRS commissioner, Charles Rettig, he was appointed to his post by Donald Trump in 2018. Ironically, he had written an oped in Forbes at one point saying that he didn’t think it was necessary for Donald Trump to have to provide his personal tax returns. That was before he was appointed. What do we know about him and any potential role that he may have had in the selection of these two men to be part of this random audit?

Michael Schmidt: (06:38)
Well, the IRS in response to questions from us say that the commissioner plays no role in the selection of this, that he had had no discussions with the White House, any White House about any particular type of audit or law enforcement matter. So they pretty forcefully came back and said that on the record to us and we included that in the story. We know that he is someone that advocated during the 2016 election, that Trump should not release his returns. He is an attorney who had dedicated much of his career to helping people that were fighting with the IRS, often wealthy people that were fighting with the IRS.

Michael Schmidt: (07:19)
And we do know that Biden allowed him to stay in his position. So when Biden came in, he could have replaced pretty much anyone that he wanted in the executive branch. But I think going along with trying to restore some of the norms, he allowed the FBI director to stay in his position, even though Trump had appointed them. And he allowed commissioner Rettig to stay in at the IRS. His term is schedule to expire at the end of this year, towards the end of this year in the fall. So Biden could have replaced him, but allowed him to stay.