The ancient hymns brought tears to the eyes of Solomon Ayeli, as well as memories of his native Ethiopia which he left two decades ago for Israel a country he loves but where he often feels rejected. "There should be no differences between black Jews and white Jews," said Ayeli, 29, who was among 15,000 people who this week celebrated the Ethiopian-Jewish Sigd prostration festival in Jerusalem.

A young Iraqi woman died tonight in Arizona because her father believed she had become too Westernized. Noor Faleh Almaleki, the 20-year old pictured here, moved to the Phoenix area in the mid-90s with her family. Her father, Faleh Hassan Almaleki,...

Beirut's Saifi Market on Sunday was filled with the sounds of chopping, cheering and the sweet, grassy smell of tons of freshly cut parsley. Thousands of visitors showed up over the weekend to cheer on 250 sous chefs and 50 of their instructors ...

Good news (via Matt Yglesias): Women in Kuwait have been granted the right to travel without their husband's permission. The article abolished by the court dated back to Kuwait's 1962 passport law which required a husband's signature on ...

Activists are reviewing the Sudan policy review. They say it looks good on paper. The big lift, however, is building a broad multi-lateral coalition to implement the policy. Sudan activists John Prendergast of the Enough Project,...

A few weeks ago I asked a Pakistani diplomat what was, among the multiple threats facing the country, the single biggest challenge? It wasn’t al Qaeda or the Taliban, it wasn’t the United States as many Pakistanis believe. And it wasn’t even India, for long the existential threat the military and succeeding generations of politicians have invested blood and treasure to checkmate.

In Riyadh, the media company Rotana is shaking up Saudi society simply by being an openly gender-integrated workplace. Time magazine reports on the struggles and triumphs of working women battling against cultural norms. The article begins by explaining Rotana's policies, with an emphasis on their liberal application of the country's mandatory dress code and women in various positions of power.

The Swedish journalist who caused a controversy by accusing Israeli forces of stealing and selling Palestinian organs says he has been receiving death threats. * Donald Bostrom's article was published in Aftonbladet daily in August and caused a diplomatic row between Sweden and Israel. On Sunday, he told a press conference in Damascus, Syria, that he has been receiving threats on his life ever since.

U.S. General Stanley McChrystal in his assessment of the war in Afghanistan last month only briefly touched upon the growing role of India, but his words were blunt and unsettling for India. In the light of Thursday’s attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul that left 17 people dead, McChrsytal’s comments may yet turn out to be prescient.

While bleeding on the wedding night is still the proof of the bride's honor in Egypt and Middle Eastern countries, Radio Netherlands broadcasted an Arabic translation of the Chinese advertisement of the Artificial Virginity Hymen kit. Youm7 newsp...

Egypt said Wednesday its antiquities department severed ties with France's Louvre museum because it has refused to return what are described as stolen artifacts, one of the country's most aggressive attempts yet to reclaim relics from some of the world's leading Egyptology collections. The Louvre has said the museum is open to returning the artifacts demanded by Egypt, though the decision has to be taken by a special committee.

A giant sweet shop has opened in Dubai with more sweets and chocolate than you can shake a candy-cane at. Everything from M&Ms to nostalgic treats you haven't seen since the 80s are present in the 10,000 sq ft store store at the Dubai Mall. A huge chocolate tree embedded with colorful lollipops stands 10 meters wide in the centre of Candylicious -- along with the largest 'Pick and Mix' wall in the world!

We wrote about this last week, and The New York Times reported yesterday that Saudi Arabia is going to ask every haj pilgrim to Mecca to take the oral polio vaccine in front of Saudi health officials. This is excellent public health news, but it also...

After all, if successfully used, it could get in the way of some stonings in the Middle East, and some honor killings elsewhere. Members of the Egyptian parliament have called for its banning; it's that big a deal. Of course, there are two angles...

Aman Ali, a BoingBoing guest blogger, is the co-author of 30 Mosques, a Ramadan adventure taking him to a different mosque in New York City every day for a month. My last post generated an interesting discussion (268 comments and counting) on Muslim...

U.S. aircraft and Iraqi patrols combined in a massive manhunt Thursday after the escape of 16 prisoners — including five al-Qaida-linked inmates awaiting execution — who apparently crawled through a bathroom window in a makeshift jail on a former compound of Saddam Hussein. The jailbreak in Saddam's hometown Tikrit highlighted the struggles for Iraqi authorities to maintain control over an overcrowded prison system and absorb thousands of detainees turned over by U.S. forces as part of a broad security pact.

Israeli archaeologists say they have uncovered a ritual bath in Jerusalem that was likely used by Jewish pilgrims coming to the temple two millenia ago. The bath is located next to the Temple Mount, the compound in Jerusalem's Old City where two Biblical Temples stood. The second was destroyed by Roman legions in 70 A.D.

The holy month of Ramadan has brought out Egypt's cultural split personality, twisting Egyptians into knots over whether their society is secular, Muslim or a muddled mix. Two furious debates have been raging through the season in the Arab world's most populous nation. On one hand, rumors that police arrested Egyptians violating the daily Ramadan fast raised dire warnings from secularists that a Taliban-like rule by Islamic law is taking over.

Looking at title of Salon's "Homophobia on the Rise in the Muslim World," I felt a myself hesitating mid-click. Is this going to be an article on GLBTQI issues or veiled anti-Islam propogranda? Thankfully, the article is the former. After a gruesome lead that covers the story of Hisham, an Iraqi refugee now living in Beirut, the article goes on to explain:...

A suicide bomber wounded six people in the capital of Chechnya on Wednesday, officials said — the latest in a series of attacks undermining Kremlin claims that stability is returning to the southern Russian region. * Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov said the bomber was a woman — a fact that harkened back to the early 1990s, when female suicide bombers called "black widows" became a hallmark of the Chechen insurgency.