On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia executed Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan maid convicted of killing the infant she was caring for in 2005. Nafeek was 17 when the incident occurred, and she was tried and sentenced. She spoke no Arabic but ...

In his contribution to Foreign Policy's "10 Problems Obama Could Solve Right Now," Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, suggests that a number of governments the U.S. has been closely allied with " shown the ...

To mark the 2nd anniversary of the Arab Spring, the Woodrow Wilson Center released a report, titled "Has the Arab Spring Lived up to Expectations?" The report features opinions from 39 experts from the Middle East, North Africa, ...

Barack Obama won a second term presidential term on November 6, defeating Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi congratulated Obama, stressing the importance of reinforcing bilateral relations between the two nations. However, Amena Bakr highlighted that many in the Middle East ...

International watchdog groups and governments criticized a string of new laws that restrict speech, media independence and free assembly in several Gulf states in recent days. In Qatar, a new media law would criminalize articles that "abuse the ...

On 21 October, the Bahraini Government announced the arrest of seven individuals alleged to have been linked to the recent bombing attack which killed 19 year-old police officer Imran Mohammed Ahmed, and wounded one other. According to the ...

Toby Jones, in a featured article for the Middle East Research and Information Report, discussed how opposition movements in the Gulf countries are affecting the United States. Jones argues the key task for the U.S. "is to aid ...

Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh, head of Saudi Arabia's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, said he hoped to implement a recruitment drive aimed at adding women to the force. The religious police, known as the ...

The British Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee opened a review of the U.K.'s relationships with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, following its report on the Arab Spring's democracy movement. The inquiry explores how the U.K. balances various interests in defense, trade, security, ...

The Financial Times released a special report entitled "Arab World: Banking and Finance," with key articles on Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar. Simeon Kerr wrote on Bahrain, noting the country ...

On Tuesday (10/2), the Wilson Center hosted two panel discussion in their series entitled; "Women after the Arab Awakening." The first panel, "Today's View from the Ground", featured Dalia Ziada, Executive Director of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies ...

At least three activists were killed in the Eastern Saudi governorate of Qatif on September 26, sparking large protests over the weekend among the majority Shi'a population there. The unrest came on the heels of separate protests and ...

Despite the illegality of demonstrations in Saudi Arabia, sporadic protests have occurred during the last week. On September 23 a sizable rally took place at Tafiya Prison outside Riyadh to protest the imprisonment of alleged Islamic extremists, resulting in the arrest of ...

The Project on Middle East Democracy hosted a panel discussion Wednesday, titled "Will the Monarchs Reform? Challenges to Democracy in the Gulf." The panel included Maryam al-Khawaja, Acting President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and Deputy Director of ...

Kuwait's top civilian court today rejected a government bid to alter voting boundaries.  The decision forces the ruling family to move ahead with parliamentary elections using a voting district map that appears to favor the opposition. Disagreement between the ruling ...