Dinosaurs and women in Egypt

During this past week, there was something called "The Day of Women in Science," or something like that.

So the BBC Arabic got in on the act, too, and they interviewed in several different programs Egyptian women who discovered a dinosaur out in the Sahara. They discovered it, then they did the research to unearth all the bones and write up their results.

Here's the model of the dinosaur they found.

And here's one of the women scientists involved:

Her name was Sarah [Didn't catch the last name]. She says that since she was little, she wanted to know how mountains were formed. She loves fossils. A teacher inspired her to study further in this field.

She and other researchers were out in the desert when they found the dinosaur bones. They didn't know for sure it was a dinosaur; but they called for back-up, and eventually it was confirmed that it was a dinosaur.

Here they are out at the sight, organizing their materials.

Later, they talked to Sanaa El-Sayed via Skype:

She was getting her master's degree at this university in Egypt and she became part of the dinosaur research team. She spent weeks out in the desert. She says it was fun, and one thing she really liked about it was how careful, how particular, how meticulous the work required her to be.

She described the process a little bit, because the interviewer from the BBC pointed out that the dinosaur bones had been found four or five years ago; yet the news was only spreading now. Why?

So Sanaa explained: people won't pay attention to your scientific discoveries until you've carefully done all the work and published it. It took them a whole year to dig the bones up. Then they had to go around to all the museums in Europe and the US, to see if similar bones had ever been found before, and to compare. They had to make sure this dinosaur was indeed a completely new species. Then they had to write up the paper, and that also took a very long time! They had to follow all the rules about how to structure and write the paper from the different journals.

Also, this university apparently has the only department in the whole Arab world that does this kind of work. Sanaa says: if we had some more capacity and resources, then we might be able to work a little faster, and do more. But we're still proud of what we did.

And in the meantime, Dr. Sarah is hard at work training the next generation of archeologists. Here she is teaching the next group of women scientists!

Do Arab women vote?

England has been celebrating the 100-year anniversary of when some British women got the right to vote.

So the BBC Arabic took the issue to Arab women. I think most Arab women have the right to vote, but not all exercise that right. Why not?

This lady says: I don't think I've voted for three years; no one deserves my vote.


This next lady was speaking from Iraq:

She says: yes, I voted, but then the results came back saying that 99% of people had voted for the president (did I hear that wrong??) so where was my vote? But I still vote. I have a right to give my opinion as a women and as a citizen, and I'll never let go of that right.

This girl said: I hope when people vote, that they vote for what's good for future generations.

A women-run mosque in Denmark

This is also from August 2016.

It was a Danish girl with parents - one Finnish, one Syrian - and she started a mosque with a woman in charge. Her name was Ahlaam. That means 'dreams' in Arabic!

They interviewed her on the BBC Arabic.

She described how people say: you don't live in Arab countries, it's because you've lived in foreign places that you think the women-run mosque is okay.

This is partly true, she conceded. "The Ahlaam of today is not the same Ahlaam of 30 years ago. I lived in Switzerland, and I saw things I wasn't used to in Arab countries. I had to ask myself, why can't I find these things in my religion? I had opportunities and possibilities to think this way.

"But then again, right now, I'm living in Qatar, and I have traveled all over the Muslim world. What I found in Switzerland can also be found in Malaysia, Kashmir - it can already be found among Muslims.

"And I see the youth today looking for a way to live their religion in the world of today."

Young women discuss the Arab police during protests

The BBC Arabic hosted a discussion with some earnest young women from Iraq, Egypt, and Lebanon, talking about police treatment during protests. These are not necessarily the Arab Spring protests asking for an overthrow of the government, but rather protests asking for things as simple as a proper trash pick up service.

The lady on the left is Iraqi, the one in the center is Lebanese but studying in France, and the lady on the right is Egyptian.

The Egyptian lady started by saying: the police doesn't understand their role. They don't understand that they serve people. They just want to take advantage of the weapons they carry.

The moderator asked: well, you know, Egypt has outlawed protests. So what are the police supposed to do when they see protesters?

I'm sure the Egyptian lady gave a very competent answer, but I didn't understand it.

Then it was the Iraqi lady's turn. She said: Iraq has weekly demonstrations about politics (did you know that?) But there's not as much police violence during them as there used to be. Today, there's some collaboration, let's not say very strong, between the police and civil society. That doesn't mean everything is perfect. But yes, the violence against protesters has decreased. It was much worse in 2011 (I think that's the year she mentioned.)

When it was the turn of the girl from Lebanon, she showed us the spots on her elbow where she'd been hit by police in her home country. And actually, it was women police. She had been part of a protest that has something to do with the fact that the trash in Beirut has apparently not been picked up for months, and it's just sitting in the streets. I can't really figure out why, but the politicians need to agree on something, but they won't.

And they were also protesting that the government is trying to negotiate without getting the input of regular people. So how did they end up getting beaten up? I didn't understand that part! The Lebanese girl said something about how one of their members was a hemophiliac, and either they were trying to get him out of the protest so he wouldn't get hurt, or they were trying to explain his condition to the police, and somehow that led to the violence.

Besides the violence, the Lebanese girl explained that actually a few dozen human rights activists have been recently imprisoned, and that's also a strategy for frightening people out of protesting. And she said something, although I didn't really follow, about how the police had followed her home and they were asking questions.

The BBC Arabic moderator asked her: aren't you scared that you'll be arrested, too?

And the Lebanese girl gave some heroic answer about how she wasn't scared, and none of her friends were scared, and that the police couldn't stop them.

The Iraqi lady echoed that. She said that in the Iraqi province of Babel, protesters have been beaten by security forces, but the protesters keep coming out, it encourages them.

Again, the conversation was about harassment and whether protesting was a wise decision, and the Iraqi lady got fed up and said: You know, really, the protesters are protesting for simple things, just for human rights, stability. It's very similar to what the Lebanese and the Egyptians are asking for. We're not asking for anything complicated, we're tired of what's been happening.

A Swedish man on the BBC Arabic

There's a Swedish man called Staffan de Mistura who is a diplomat and tries to help make peace. Well, he has Italian ancestry, too, but that's okay.

He was on the BBC Arabic a few weeks ago:

He was condemning really dangerous bombs that everyone in Syrian is dropping on everyone else. The Syrian government, if I remember correctly, was complaining because they claim they aren't the worst actors and why should they be singled out; but the Swedish diplomat was condemning everyone.

The lady at the BBC Arabic who was anchoring the news that evening is right here:

Do you see the glow on her face because she is speaking about a Swedish person? Well, she is the first hijabi anchor on the BBC Arabic. At first, I only saw on her special occasions, like the summer Olympics, or during holidays (last Christmas). Now they've put her on in the middle of the night, too.

A women's-only mosque in the US

The BBC Arabic visited the first women's-only mosque in the United States.

The mosque is in a building that used to be a synagogue! And, from the looks of it, I think the building has also been used as a church. Now it's a mosque, and just for women.

The mosque is in a section of Los Angeles called Pico Union, or something like that. They are just now having their second Friday prayers. And this is the lady who called out the "Call to prayer", or the ithaan:

In her normal life, Ms. Springer is a stand-up comedian. She is also a convert to Islam:

Then, the BBC Arabic visited another mosque in Los Angeles...

 and they were not very happy with the proceedings. This man says: would we have a men-only mosque? No, so we shouldn't have a women's-only mosque. We need to have the proper places for women in the common mosques.

I say, good riddance to the men, they are all so disgusting and bratty. 

We came back from the report to the man who was acting BBC Arabic newscaster at the time. He looked quite tickled:

Hillary Clinton on the Arabic news

Hillary Clinton has declared her candidacy for presidency, so she showed up on the BBC Arabic:

I think that picture is from the announcement video.

Here she is at a rally:

And even Bill Clinton showed up in the report:

And some guy called Harkin who is apparently running for US Senate. 

Arabic news during the winter holidays

I've been watching the BBC Arabic on and off.

The biggest stories have been shelling in Syria, lots of killing in Daesh-stan, and other harsh happenings.

On Christmas Day, the celebrations in Bethlehem were the fourth or fifth headline, and they showed the Christian leaders looking very happy and kissing the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Today, they had a re-broadcast of a call-in show. It was Iraqis who had fled Mosul and surrounding areas because of Da-esh (ISIS). One man was explaining how he hadn't been able to back to his home in Mosul. The BBC Arabic moderator asked him: do you want to go abroad?

No, no, said the man. We want to go back to our homes.

The last caller was a man saying that: Da-esh killed all my sisters!

But the BBC Arabic moderator was not impressed. "Thank you, thank you," he said. "Program's over, we're going to have to leave it here."

After that program, for the first time I can remember, they had a hijabed woman giving the news. Usually, the BBC Arabic women given the news are not hijabed, and but I guess they are all on break this week.

I remember this lady because she was in charge of giving the Olympic updates during the 2012 London Olympics.

She's great, they should have her on even when the office is not empty.

The Mosque in Washington DC

On my way to the Swedish Embassy, we happened to pass the mosque in DC! So in we went. 

 First glimpse of the minaret as you walk along the fancy street in DC towards the mosque

The mosque has a large courtyard out front, and what feels like several lodges spread out to greet you first. It's like those old manors from the English aristocracy, where you first pass the porter's lodge, and the gatekeepers, and the barns and what not, but now I'm getting a bit too fanciful! There's not big lawns and winding paths, but just office space and a bookstore. You walk into the courtyard enclosed within them and that is where you get to the entrance of the mosque. 

When we got there, a bunch of little kids were sitting on the floor. The buses outside said St. Stephen's and St. Agnes' School. Some of the kids looked serious, others looked impish. They were all clustered around the mosque representative who was talking to them about Islam.

Then, while the little kids were still seated, a group of high schoolers walked in, also clearly on a field-trip. All the girls were wearing scarves on their hair, though most managed to have the tips of their hair pouring fashionably out out the back. The little kids left to get back on their buses, and I remembered how Claudia and Jamie from "The mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" had joined school tours in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, just by pretending that they belonged. I decided to do the same here. I caught the whole interaction between the mosque imam and the high school kids. 

The mosque representative, who I think turned out to be the Imam himself, was a very kind-looking old man. He has an accent and when he talks he kind of drones on and on. 

First thing, he told the high-schoolers that Islam means submission to God, and that we believe in all the Prophets starting with Abraham. 

Then he said that every year for one month, we fast from "food, drink and bad things", and that this is supposed to remind us of people who have nothing to eat and drink. 

Then he said Islam teaches that we all have pre-planned lives. "Every Muslim in the world believes this," said the Imam. I personally hate it when a Muslim says, "every Muslim thinks this" or "every Muslim thinks that." No, actually, we probably don't. 

Then the Imam said that it's mandatory to give money to "eliminate or reduce poverty," and that this brings intimacy between people, and that money should be donated discreetly. 

FInally, the Imam rounded things off, Muslims go to Mecca. Why? Because Islam is an old religion and Mecca was built by Abraham. 

Then it was the question-and-answer time. And since I actually am Muslim, I of course had many of them. 

I asked: how can we have a pre-planned life, and still have the free will to choose between doing good and evil? 

The Imam said, oh, that's a beautiful question, thank you for that beautiful question. But then he just kind of preached aimlessly about something, I got lost, and I don't think he answered. 

A high school boy asked: why can't you depict Mohamed?

Imam: What?

High school boy: why can't you depict Mohamed?

Imam: What?

So the boy repeated himself yet again, and I think on the third try the Imam finally understood. The Imam said:

Oh, God bless you, that is a beautiful question!

And so it went on. I didn't write down all the answers and questions, so let me describe what the mosque looks like from the inside. 

It's small. It's a rectangular room, but you can't see all of it all at once because columns and pillars rise like a forest. When I say small, I still mean that it held about 100 students tucked onto the floor all at the same time, and could have held many more. But still, it's kind of small. 

The floor is spread with many, many Persian rugs. 

The pillars: I think there were 16 pillars spaced out evenly. Some were pale green marble with a lantern-like lamp posted onto them. Others had garish tiles plastered on them. 

The walls of the mosque were constructed of the same garish tiles. These can be describe as displaying flowery, scrolling designs: dark blue, light blue, green, orange-brown scrolls and blooms on a white background. Each tile has only a small part of the entire design, so you have to see a whole wall of tiles. But really, there's not a bigger image to see. It's just variation after variation of flowery scrolls. 

One of the high schoolers asked: why don't you believe that Jesus was the son of Mary?

The Imam said: we believe that Jesus was a spirit that God conceived in Mary, but not his son. 

While all this was happening, four too-cool-for-this boys sitting in the back were on their cell phones. One boy's boxer shorts were poking out. This particular boy kept lying down, and the girl in front of him kept slapping his knee when he did so. 

Someone asked: how does Islam view other religions?

Imam: we consider Christians and Jews to be 'People of the Book'. 

The pillars rise up, and near the ceiling they all get connected with archways - arches that are very reminiscent of Islamic architecture. They look like this:

Finally, these archways rise higher and become the ceiling. There are insets up there with Arabic words. First, there's a green inset border, then a yellow one, then dark red, and finally white; and a blue background behind everything. The Arabic words are written in white with a red outline, and the same words are written again, just behind the white, but in light green this time. 

The arches and the ceiling are all connected with triangles coming together, and finally, way way up, there's small church-like windows of stained glass - this is the part where the dome is. 

Then, we got to the questions about women. 

High-school kid: Why do men and women separate when praying?
Imam: Because of how we kneel down. We have to only be thinking about God. 

High-school student: Why do women cover their hair?
Imam: Women spend hundreds of dollars on their hair! Why? We need to limit attraction so that no one becomes interested in you. Besides that, after a women gets married, she has to focus on her family. (as an afterthought, the Imam remembered to say: and so does the husband.)

And then someone asked: what is up between Sunnis and Shias?
And this is where it became very apparent just how sunny, united, and brotherly this Imam really is!
The Imam said: Sunni means that we follow the teachings of Mohamed. The Shia is a sect that grew out after 30 years. They believed that Mohamed's son-in-law should take power. They became a political sect. So to summarize, the Sunni follow the law of Mohamed, and the other one came up with a political system. 

I told someone about how the Imam answered that question, and we both agreed, wouldn't it have been better for him to say: you know what, we're all Muslim, we all believe in the same basic things, and this Sunni-Shia fighting happening today is really stupid and juvenile. But clearly, that's not happening. 

Finally, a girl asked about Arabic and how it is spoken. 
The Imam obliged and asked her, "keef al haal", or كيف الحال, or how are you doing? Really, the girl's whole reason for asking the question was so that she could say: I know how to say Asalam Alaykum! So she did that and the Imam gave her a pleased smile, and that was the end. 

The Imam said: it was a great pleasure to have you all here today, with which the student responded by clapping strongly. 

It was time to leave. The assistant Imam walked up and gave instructions. He asked the young ladies to leave and get their shoes first (everyone leaves their shoes by the doorway before entering the mosque.) The Imam said: oh-ho!

So the girls piled out into the courtyard first, and the boys followed. Groups of friends took pictures together, and then everyone took a big class picture. One or two girls unveiled their hair immediately, but most were still wearing their scarves during the picture-taking and everyone seeming very pleased, and I thought they all looked good. 

 It appears the mosque is across from the Spanish embassy!

And finally, they went back to their buses, and one blonde teacher kept her scarf on the whole time. 

Now I just need to finish describing what the walls look like. I said that they have the same garish tiles plastered on, but that's just the lower part of the wall. Above the garish tiles it's just bare white. Above the white, there are the same sort of Islamic-looking arches, except they are laid right into the walls. The insides of the arches are brownish-looking cement, but stars and clouds have been cut into the brown, with yellow panes of glass inserted, and the sunrays come through that. The clouds all have seven lobes, the stars all have eight points. 

Big chandeliers are hanging from the ceiling.

Gazi Camp in Jordan

Gazi camp for Palestinian refugees

This is a camp full of maybe 1,000 Palestinian refugees. I think millions of Palestinian refugees arrived in Jordan around 1950, and they were all given Jordanian citizenship. But the people in Gazi camp maybe came a few decades later, so they do not have Jordanian citizenship.

The camp is really poor. There's a lady called Sofia there who tries to coordinate relief efforts. She said that the people in the camp don't actually get running water except for once every 3 weeks, and even then, the water flow is weak, and the water is dirty and full of bugs. As far as I was able to gather, since Gazi camp is not comprised of Jordanian citizens, the Jordanian government doesn't necessarily take responsibility for providing a good water supply. To them, it is the responsibility of the UN. But I'll get the real reason (maybe) is that neither the UN nor the Jordanian government has money to drill a water system.

People in the camp have tanks that store the little water they get. Or, if a family has money, they can buy water from a private company and fill up their tank that way.

Well-to-do Jordanian families contact Sofia and ask: who are the orphans in the camp, or the kids with no father, and how can we help them?

Then, Sofia keeps a list of every time a family receives help, so that she is able to distribute things as fairly as she can. You can buy your adopted family lunch or dinner, or school clothes for the kids, or maybe even pay for them to fill their water tanks with clean water from the private companies. Or you can buy baby formula for their babies.

There's an UNRWA school at the camp that the children attend.

The camp is just outside of the city of Jerash, where you can find lots of archaeological ruins. It is less than an hour from the capital, Amman. Young people from Amman from time to time gather up money, especially during the holy month of Ramadan, and buy presents for kids at the camp, or cater a dinner for them. But the problem is that there's hundreds of kids at the camp, so it's hard to invite everyone.

One time, a group of young people from Amman hosted a Ramadan dinner for about 50 kids at the camp. The same group of young people came back a few weeks later, and in the desert heat, during a water-prohibited Ramadan day, cleaned out the camp school. The school was full of glass and trash that they swept out.

Just a few days after all that hot, sweaty work, a group of camp boys came and wrecked the school all over again. They went and broke glass everywhere. It is believed that those boys are amongst those who did not get to attend the Ramadan dinner, so they were mad about that.

A lot of the girls at the camp get married young, and then have baby after baby after baby - even in cases where the mother has no money, no income, no milk, no water even, to care for that baby. I think there is a lack of birth control at the camp, and also I think the girls believe they have to serve their husbands all the time, even the ones who are beating them up.

For example, there is a lady there whose husband beats her up. Then he abandons the family and all his kids. Then he comes back for a while. Then he abandons them again. Well, in the brief period of their reuniting, the wife becomes pregnant with child number 8. But the husband doesn't care. Word is that he has now supposedly left the family for good to go live with a new wife in Amman. Ewwww. What kind of stupid woman is his latest bride?

When the first wife delivered her eighth baby, her little seven-year-old son helped find the taxi and took her to the hospital!

And the oldest 13-year-old boy works at least during the summer.

I don't think that the newest baby girl (child number 8) has anything like diapers. She just lies in her leaking bundles and blankets.

Obey your husband

Back in March or April, the BBC Arabic had a show on obedience. That is, a wife obeying her saintly, oh-so-deserving, ugly slobby husband. They went to Lebanon and asked random people on the street what they thought:

This handsome stud says:

 A wife should do what's best for her family. Yes, she should be convinced of what I say.

If when a married couple differs, the man always thinks he's right. But if we can sit down and talk, maybe I'll find out I'm wrong. 

My husband is always telling me what to do. 

This man mumbled the whole time, so I've no idea what he said. 

Obedience will lead to violence.

Of course, religion tells us that ... didn't understand her accent.

I think someone else said:

The man is a friend of the woman, and they need to work together. The man should not be so dictatorial like so many Arab men are.

Child Rape in Sudan

Back in March or April, the BBC Arabic did a report on child rape in Sudan.

The hard questions were asked by Malak Jaafar:

 Malak Jaafar

Malak spoke with two guests via telephone or video. The sound was blurry, or maybe I am unused to the Sudanese accent, so I only caught bits and pieces. 

One of the guests was called Mr. Suliman. He represented Sudan's government. The other guest was Ms. Amil. She is an activist for children's rights. 

Mr. Suliman started off by saying, in response to one of Malak's questions: No, we do not treat rape victims as adulterers. We are talking about a nine-year-old girl who's been raped. 

Then he mentioned a special law that protects kids. 

Malak turned next to Ms. Amil. 

Malak: if a child has been raped, what happens when the parents turn to the courts or try to find lawyers?

Ms. Amil: they face many problems. 

But I didn't catch the details. I only caught her saying that before the new law was passed in 2010, a rapist's punishment could not exceed a seven-year jail term, and a 14-year-old girl who had been raped was tried for adultery. 

Ms. Amil said that rapists were protected by societal norms, or something like that. 

Malak: but how can you claim society protects the rapists? Mr. Suliman said the law does not protect rape, nor does it allow girls to be tried for adultery. How does the law get twisted around from its original intent?

Whatever Ms. Amil said, I didn't understand. 

Then Malak turned back to Mr. Suliman. 

Malak: There have been 3000 cases of child rape recorded by the courts (I didn't catch the time period referenced.) Why is this number on the rise?

Suliman: Sound too blurry. I think he said: you can't trust those numbers, and we've taken many protective measures. 

Malak: so you doubt the numbers from your courts?

Suliman: no!

Malak: you know, Suliman, if there's hundreds of rape cases recorded, that means there's many more that go unrecorded because parents are afraid their daughters will get a bad reputation. This happens in conservative societies like Sudan. So what guarantees do parents get that they can go to the courts and be treated fairly?

Suliman: ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Domestic violence law in Lebanon

Back in March or April of 2014, Lebanon passed a law that I think put some more harsh penalties upon those who are convicted of domestic violence. It sounded like many activists, however, were unhappy with the law because it did not outlaw martial rape, and maybe even legalized martial rape.

The BBC Arabic did several call-in shows and discussion segments concerning the law.

For one of the shows, a lady with four kids called in. Several years ago, her husband caused her a new problem everyday. She says she never complained because people don't really care - there's no one to complain to. Finally, her husband started shooting at her with a gun. She said, khalas, that's enough. She went to the courts and requested a divorce. The courts subjected the ex-husband to some trivial formalities, but no real punishment.

The BBC Arabic moderator asked the lady what she thought of the new law. Did she think it would be beneficial to women who found themselves in the situation she once had? The lady said: no, I don't think the new law will work. I think it's all just play-acting. It's not a wrong step, it's a step forward; but I cannot put any faith or optimism in it.

Then, they talked to random people on the street around Beirut. I really don't understand the accent of the Lebanese, but here it goes:

This lady says that Lebanon is a patriarchal society and boys learn this from a young age. They carry on as they grow older.

This lady says that the new law is very good, and that the men will now be scared! (scared to be brutal I guess.)

Taking care of citizens in Jordan

The traffic is a little disorderly in Jordan, but there's people trying to help you out.

First, suppose you want to walk to your destination. It is actually very dangerous to try to cross a street, but at the busiest intersections - especially at the crazy traffic circles where you have twenty cars flying in different directions at any given time - there are police officers chaperoning the business. They stand in place in the absence of traffic signals. Just a police officer and a whistle. They are very brave, actually, because when it comes time to stop a certain road, they blow the whistle and just step right out in front of the braking cars. And that's when the pedestrians can cross. Some Jordanians are daring, and cross even when they shouldn't - even as twenty cars come flying from twenty different directions. But others do wait, including me, so it's nice to have the traffic police there.

But it is a little disappointing, because sometimes the cop directing the traffic decides, just as soon as I walk up, to go on break, sauntering over to the parked police car for a gabfest and leaving the traffic to its own devices.

At the traffic circle nearest where I am, there's a lady cop! I've seen her every morning for a whole week now, wearing a white hijab. And I see a few others on roads.

Female police officer in a white hijab behind the pole.

I had the idea that many women here would be submissive, quiet, and have low confidence. But wow, that's not true. The women and girls here walk around with attitude.

I have seen a few places where as a pedestrian, you can press a button that is supposed to stop traffic as soon as the little green walking man on the signal appears. To be sure, I waited at such a place for fifteen minutes one day, in increasing despair as cars continued flying past; the light never once turned green for me. Along came a daring Jordanian, eventually, and I crossed the whizzing cars on hairpins as he did.

Another time, I stood on the opposite side of the same street, and pressed the pedestrian crossing button on that side, just to test it out; this time, the little green walking man popped up and traffic stopped. But that happened on a weekend. Maybe they only allow the little green walking man to put in his two cents on days when it won't disrupt traffic too much.

Suppose it's too long a distance to walk and you want to take a taxi. You can do that pretty easily. The taxis have meters in them, so you just follow that. Very rarely, a taxi driver will offer you a 'great' deal, one for which he will go so far as to turn off his meter. Don't pay any attention to that, it is a ploy to rip you off. Other taxi drivers are the complete opposite. Today's taxi driver was supposed to take one dinar and a quarter from me, but instead he only took a single dinar, and then he offered to drive me and my friend to a city called Irbid, for free, because he lives there and drives back and forth to spend the weekends with his family. It's probably the kind of free that comes with a "Donations Accepted" sign, but still it is nice. And another taxi was supposed to take one dinar and 20 "pennies", but when I did not have enough change, he took 10 pennies (called qersh) with no complaining.

Once, out of hundreds/thousands of taxis that have passed, I saw a female driver.

Apparently over the past winter, someone was kidnapped by the taxi driver. There was a big outcry. So the Prime Minister and government immediately made the decision to switch the clocks and make it so that during the winter, it would not yet be dark when people are coming home in taxis from work. I don't know the full story about that. It was just something I heard in passing.

There's also buses. You can opt for privately-run buses, though I've heard this is not entirely the best or safest idea. Then there's government-run buses. They actually have an electronic scoreboard attached to the windshield above where the driver sits with the names of the stations scrolling across, and changing to new station names as the bus moves along. It's only helpful if you're a fast Arabic reader, but still. These buses are very cheap!

If you're driving, most of the roads do not have the white or yellow lines that signify the lanes. So the cars kind of make up their own lanes. One exception is the road that stretches from the airport to the capital. It is neatly painted with lane lines. And someone told me that sometimes other roads are also painted with lanes, but the  lines fade very quickly. They probably just need to buy a better brand of paint.

So that is the story of the Jordanian businesses and government looking out for their people, at least when it comes to traffic!

Alice

(March 25, 2014)

ABC Family, the American television company, wanted to run a show called 'Alice'. It was a show that was kind of stereotyping of Muslims. Alice goes with her family to live in Saudi Arabia and I guess the show was supposed to be about how she deals with life there. There was an outcry, and the show was canceled. The BBC Arabic with Fida Bassil took a look.

First, they showed clips of other ABC shows. Yes, Modern Family ended up on the Arabic news. Weird, right?

Then they had a special report by BBC correspondent Wafa Ishbay.

Here is Fida Bassil introducing the segment. I guess that is Alice sitting behind her.

Fida spoke with an analyst, asking: it's been almost thirteen years since September 11, why are Americans still so smitten by Muslim stereotypes that they would even think of producing such a show?

Well, I think thirteen years dotted with lots of other explosions (not necessarily in the US) might be part of the problem, but the analyst didn't say that. He said the reason stereotypes about Muslims persist is due to three factors:

1. Some people still think it's the time of the Crusades, and are locked into a west versus Islam vision of the world. 

2. The media and Hollywood go out of their way to reinforce stereotypes. I'm almost positive he said 'Jews in Hollywood', but with my Arabic skills, I wouldn't necessarily bet lots of money on that. 

3. Arabs in the US don't do enough to paint a different picture. 

They interviewed another Muslim-American who talked about how unfair it all was. He said something like: it's so unfair that Americans don't understand how much Arab culture respects women, and Arab-Americans should do more to demonstrate that. 

That's all good and well, but might I point out that the BBC Arabic runs an in-depth program practically every other week about how very disrespected women are in the Arab world? And now this guy wants to override all that?

Lyse Doucet and Iran

(March 10, 2014)

Lyse Doucet is a BBC reporter. I have liked her since I saw her reports in 2012 from Syria. She's really good! She belongs to the regular English BBC, and all her reports are in English.

Any case, she had a report about the visit of a European official to Iran, and the BBC Arabic dubbed the report into Arabic and broadcast it. So that is how Lyse Doucet ended up on the BBC Arabic:

This is the European official who was visiting. Her name is Catherine Ashton. If you have two daughters, you can name them Lyse and Catherine. That is a nice combination.

And here is Ms. Doucet asking a question at a press conference:

Anna Lindh and Arab Debates

(March 3, 2014)

Apparently, there's a whole array of spaces for young Arabs to debates. There's something called Young Arab Voices behind the movement, and the BBC Arabic supports them as well, as it often broadcasts these debates. And they even get a BBC Arabic presenter, Samir Farah, to moderate them.

The other day, I was watching on of these debates, and I was so happy because I noticed that the Anna Lindh Foundation is also supporting these debates:

The Anna Lindh Foundation is a Swedish organization named after Sweden's former foreign minister. Every time the camera focused on the guy in the photo above, who was one half of the debate, I saw Anna Lindh's name. It was very nice!

The debates are about all sorts of things. This debate took place amongst Tunisian college students. The first debate questioned: should Tunisian workers be allowed to strike or not?

One girl said: yes, because strikes are a democratic way for workers to have power.
The opposing guy said: no, because strikes disrupt the economy.

An audience was watching. At the end, the audience voted that the girl was far more eloquent in her presentation; but, as for the audience's convictions, it was split evenly between those who agreed that workers can strike, and those who disagreed.

The second debate question was: should there be a quota in the Tunisian Parliament for women. Here they are going at it:

A girl called Rania presented a case for the quota, and a guy called Hamza presented a case against.

Hamza said: there's already equality amongst Tunisian men and women, so the quota would be an unfair advantage for women, something they don't need. Women in Tunisia have all the rights and freedoms that men have.

Rania said: no, there's not yet equality.

Hamza said: you just finished telling us how Tunisian women are equal to men, and also, if you are so interested in the democratic process, then note that no other established democratic countries have quotas for women.

The girl choked on this. Then the moderator, Samir Farah, told her: you could have responded by saying: those more established countries used to have quotas, until women's rights had become more and more guaranteed by social norms and the laws.

In Tunisia, there's a law that says half the candidates on the election sheet must be women, and half must be men. So Hamza said: even with this special provision, still not nearly as many women were elected as men! I think he used that to show that people don't want to vote for women in the first place, so there ought not to be a quota.

But a girl from the audience said: yes, and when they made the election sheets, they put all the men's names at the top (!). We are in a eastern society, we have to acknowledge that there are obstacles fronting women that men don't face. So we have to have a quota.

Then another girl from the audience got up with her question:

She said to Rania: my valued madam, you said that Tunisian women have accomplished a lot. I agree with you whole-heartedly, and this is why I don't think a quota is to the advantage of women. Why? Because women are capable of reaching high positions based on their skills alone. When we have a quota, it gives the impression that women are weak and unable to compete on their own against men. It should be a fair competition between men and women, and whoever is more qualified should be the person chosen.

"My valued madam" Rania said: well, the current government only has three women ministers. That's not even a tenth. So where is the equality?

The girl from the audience said (I think): well, a quota is not going to help. It has to be a whole change in the society.

In this case, the audience voted at the end with a very slight majority in favor of not having a quota; and they also voted for Hamza being more eloquent in handling the debate than Rania, though in my opinion, he was all that good, either.