On Wednesday, the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) at George Washington University hosted a panel discussion entitled "After Tunisia's Election" to assess the results of Tunisia's October 23 elections and their implications for the nation moving forward. Melani Cammett of Brown University, Chris Alexander of Davidson College, and John P. Entelis of Fordham University offered remarks. POMEPS Director Marc Lynch moderated the event. For full event notes, continue reading. ...

On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing to present Ambassador-designate to the Kingdom of Bahrain The Honorable Thomas C. Krajeski, Ambassador-designate to Luxembourg Robert A. Mandell, Ambassador-designate to the People's Republic of Bangladesh The Honorable Dan W. Mozena, and the nominee for Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Michael A. Hammer. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) presided over the hearing, and John Barrasso (R-WY) and James ...

The Revolutionary Youth Coalitions (RYC) plan to call on the ruling military council to step down at a mass protest planned in Tahrir Square on September 9 in an effort to show their frustration on the difficult road toward a "new Egypt."  The RYC plans to pressure the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in an effort to decease the number of civilians of being tried in military courts.  Additionally, ...

More detainees are joining a hunger strike to protest ongoing trials from the crackdown on the protests by the Shia majority.  The Bahrain Center for Human Rights released a statement highlighting the hunger strike, which now includes 20 doctors who are imprisoned and face anti-state charges linked to the protests against the Sunni dynasty.  The Bahrain Center for Human Rights also reported that at least two other activists, Abdul Jalil al-Singace ...

Three reformist political prisoners, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Ghorbanali Behzadannejad and Javad Emam, were granted three-day furloughs in Iran.  Tajzadeh was a senior member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front and was arrested for participating in protests during the 2009 presidential elections.  He was sentenced to six years in prison.  Behzadannejad was sentenced to five years in prison for aiding presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi.  Emam was sentenced to one year in prison for ...

After 800 men and women gathered in a park in Tehran several weeks ago for a water gun fight, security forces have been tracking participants through social media websites and arresting them.  Security forces have been using Facebook to find the organizers and participants of the water gun fight through their Facebook accounts.  The Facebook page for "Water Wars in Tehran" now has 19,000 members and 22 local chapters for ...

Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi announced that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will pardon 100 political prisoners in light of the end of the holy month of Ramadan.  Additionally, more than 30 inmates have been released over the past several days, including students and political activists arrested in the aftermath of the 2009 presidential election.  According to the Green Movement's news site Kaleme, in regards to the pardoned prisoners whose imprisonment ...

Egypt's cabinet approved the creation of a judicial committee that had been proposed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to start negotiations with Switzerland in an effort to reach a deal to restore Egypt's frozen assets. Additionally, police arrested one of Egypt's most wanted Islamist militants, Mohamed Shawqi el-Islambuli, as he arrived back into Egypt on Sunday after being ordered to leave Iran.  He had killed former President Anwar ...

Esraa Abdel Fatah, a political activist and the head of the Egyptian Democratic Academy, reported that Egypt's Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) summoned representatives for August 18 for interrogation.  The summoned representatives include staff members, Hossam Ali, Ahmed Ghoneim, Basem Samir and more.  According to Abdel Fatah, the subpoena did not specify why the representatives of the academy are under investigation, but she believes that it may be related ...

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran released an interview with Sahandej Sholeh Sadi, the wife of university professor and lawyer Ghassem Sholeh Sadi who has been in Evin prison and is suffering from dire health conditions.  Mrs. Sadi reported that after five months, she was able to visit her husband in prison last week where she learned that her husband has developed shingles and his left hand is ...

Protests restarted in Tunisia on Monday as several hundred lawyers demonstrated against "continuing corruption in the courts and too-lax verdicts against those in the regime of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali."  Police fired tear gas in an effort to disperse protesters as they threw stones and smashed storefronts. Samia Fitouri writes in the Guardian on the history of oppression faced by Tunisians until the Arab Spring.  Fitouri emphasizes that ...

In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal today, Ann Marlow writes on the "crippled Libyan educational system molded by Gadhafi's 42-year rule" that is being restructured by the Transitional National Council (TNC) to "build the principles of democracy"  by educating students on how to prepare for democracy.  According to the council's education minister, Suliman el Sahli, the Education Working Group are expecting a "soft re-opening" of primary and ...

Yesterday, the USAID director in Egypt abruptly and unexpectedly resigned and flew back to Washington, D.C. Reportedly, the director quit after less than a year on the job amid an ongoing dispute between "two longtime allies over American funding for prodemocracy groups." Obama's administration chastised Egyptian leaders for promoting anti-American sentiment in the months following the revolution. Jim Bever resigned the following day. Youth groups in Egypt are growing increasingly impatient over ...

National Press Club (NPC) President Mark Hamrick expressed outrage at reports of the recent imprisonment of Iranian Blogger Kouhyar Goudarzi and his mother.  Last year, the NPC awarded Goudarzi with the 2010 John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award after he "had been incarcerated for months for the 'crime' of speaking his mind."  A month later, Goudarzi had been released from prison. In an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in ...

Iranian Journalist, Ahmad Zeidabadi, who was arrested in June 2009 for participating in the protests following the disputed presidential elections, was granted a 48-hour furlough to see his family before having to return to Rejaishahr Prison on Monday.  Zeidabadi has been sentenced to six years in prison, exile to Gonabad and is prohibited from social and political activity for life. Thus far, 108 journalists have been arrested over the past two ...

Activists in Egypt called for a massive protest in Tahrir Square next Friday in an effort to denounce military assaults on protesters.  Additionally, activists released a statement condemning the use of  force against activists and protesters after military forces cleared the sit-ins in Tahrir Square on August 1.  According to the statement, activists had planned to suspend protests during Ramadan, however, after the use of force against protesters they called ...