Tomorrow Marks the 16th anniversary of the Abu Salim Prison massacre in Libya when, on june 28th 1996, more than 1,200 prisoners were shot and killed. Malihe Razazan speaks with veteran british journalist Lindsy Hilsum about her reporting from Libya and her new book, Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution. Middle East Children Alliance‘s associate director Ziad Abbas talks about Israel’s plans to demolish the entire palestinian village of Susya in the West bank.
The Voices of the Middle East and North Africa show aired on Wednesday, April 25th 2012. Produced by Malihe Razazan.
Guests
Hossam El-Hamalawy – Egyptian journalist
Caveh zahedi – movie director “The sheik and I”
Iranian musician singer and song writer Mohsen Namjoo and Ensemble will be performing at the Wheeler Hall at UC Berkeley (location details here) on Saturday April 28th at 7:30pm.
Vomena Team
The SF film society will screen “This is not a film” from the prominent director Jafar Panahi. This coming friday (April 6th) to the 12th, you can watch the movie at the following adress 1746 Post Street (Webster/Buchanan)>
Zahra's Paradise is the fictional story of the search for Mehdi, a young Iranian protestor who has disappeared in the Islamic Republic’s gulags.
This week’s Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, we explore the escalation in violence in Yemen’s capital Sanaa persists as military forces loyal to president Ali Abdullah Saleh have continued their assaults on protestors for the past four days. We’ll speak with Atiaf al Wazir, a Yemeni-American blogger and activist based in the nation’s capital Sanaa.
We’ll also speak with University of Richmond political scientist Sheila Carapico about how external powers are attempting to shape Yemen’s future.
Later in the program, we’ll feature a new graphic novel about an Iranian family’s search for their 19-year-old son after he disappears during a protest in the aftermath of the rigged 2009 presidential election in Iran. We’ll speak with Amir, who’s the author of the graphic novel Zahra’s Paradise.
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Ilan Pappe
This week on Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, we talk about democracy in the MENA region; from Tunisia to Egypt, Syria to Iran, to Yemen and Bahrain and Libya. Does this concept extend to Israel and Palestine? Can democracy be reconciled with colonialism or is that a contradiction in terms? We speak with prominent Israeli scholar Dr. Ilan Pappe who in his latest book “Out of The Frame” examines this question in depth. He recounts his political evolution from staunch Zionist as a youngster to liberated humanist as an adult. Ilan Pappe is a long time activist and is a professor of history at the University of Exeter. He is the Co-Director of the Exeter Center for Ethno-Political Studies and director of the European Center for Palestine Studies Center. He is the author of the best selling “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine“, “A History of Modern Palestine“, and “The Israel Palestine Question.”
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Music featured on this week’s show: Anouar Brahem
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Syrian Protests (photo by Crethi Plethi)
This week on Voices of the Middle East and North Africa the revolutionary spirit continues in Egypt as thousands of protesters camped out in Tahrir Square for the sixth day in a row. We speak with leading Egyptian activist and journalist Hossam El Hamalawy about the current protests in Egypt and what the prospects are for the revolution to flourish and bring about real change. We will also talk to Bassam Haddad, co-founder of Jadaliyya online magazine and director of the Middle East Program at George Mason University for an update on the Syrian uprising that started in mid-March.
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Turkish Flag
This week on Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, we take an in-depth look at Turkey’s expanding role in the Middle East and North Africa. We will be speaking with Dr. Karem Oktem; a research fellow at the European Studies Center of Saint Anthony’s College; about Turkey’s assertive foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa. Later on in the program VOMENA producer Shuka Kalantari will speak with Iranian American author Firoozeh Kashani of Penn State University about her debut novel “Martydom Street.”
'Martydrom Street' book cover
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011
This week, we look at the youth uprising in the Middle East. As we witness the revolutionary tide sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, and as we follow the heroic struggles of people against authoritarian regimes and client states of Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Iran, Iraq and other countries in the region, a major social group, which has garnered a lot of attention is the youth.
The young between the ages of 15 and 29 make up more that 50% of the population in several countries of the Middle East and North Africa. What is the status of these young people in these neoliberal times? Can what is taking place in the Middle East and North Africa be considered a youth uprising? What are the shared values of this generation that have made them such an integral part of the political upheaval in Muslim majority countries?
These are some of the questions explored in a newly published book titled Being Young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global South And North, co-edited by Linda Herrera and Asef Bayat. Linda Herrera is Associate Professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Asef Bayat is Professor of Sociology and Middle East Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
This program can also be heard live on-line at KPFA.org. The Middle Eastern and North African Perspectives (MENAP) produces Voices of the Middle East and North Africa that is aired on KPFA 94.1 FM in Berkeley, KFCF 88.1 FM in Fresno every Wednesday at 7 PM (PST). This program is also aired on Tampa’ WMNF 88.5 HD3 every Thursday at 6PM (EST) To contact us, please call 510-848-6767 ext. 632, or send us e-mail to info@vomena.org
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
This week we give you a first-hand account of the Egyptian Revolution, in Tahrir Square. Tahrir, meaning peace.
http://archives.kpfa.org/data/20110202-Wed1900.mp3
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Voices of the Middle East and North Africa [KPFA 94.1 FM, Berkeley CA - kpfa.org]