Naseem Tarawnah

A young woman in front of a line of riot police during a demonstration against police repression and calling for the release of recently detained protesters, Tunis, Tunisia, 30 January 2021, Yassine Gaidi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

MENA’s Winter of Discontent: Old grievances, new suppression tactics

January 2021 in Middle East and North Africa: A free expression roundup produced by IFEX’s Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.

An Amnesty International action calling for the release of Saudi activist Loujain Al-Hathloul, on International Women's Day, Paris, France, 8 March 2020, Jeanne Menjoulet/Flickr, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Fear and loathing in MENA: Arrests, prison sentences, and surveillance

December in Middle East and North Africa: A free expression roundup produced by IFEX’s Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.

Image-laundering, shrinking spaces, and words that escape prison walls

November in Middle East and North Africa: A free expression roundup produced by IFEX’s Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.

Indefinite detainments, torture parades, and MENA’s unfinished revolutions

October in Middle East and North Africa: A free expression roundup produced by IFEX’s Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.

Vengeful crackdowns and MENA’s battle for access to information

September in Middle East and North Africa: A free expression roundup produced by IFEX’s Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.

Indecent repression: MENA governments target dissent, debauchery, and TikTok

August in Middle East and North Africa: A free expression roundup produced by IFEX’s Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.

In MENA: A summer of protest, COVID-19, and state repression

July in Middle East and North Africa: A free expression roundup produced by IFEX’s Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.

Egypt’s TikTok crackdown, Iran’s Orwellian tactics, and Nabeel Rajab goes free

June in Middle East and North Africa: A free expression roundup produced by IFEX’s Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.

MENA region battles the infodemic: From fake news to hashtag-washing in the region’s ongoing information wars

While the world grapples with a global health pandemic, in the MENA region the spread of misinformation and disinformation seems to be outpacing the spread of the actual disease. Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah looks at the nature of information disseminated online and civil society’s attempt to combat it.

Under lockdown: States of perpetual emergency, the death of satire, and the return of the Lebanon protests

May in Middle East and North Africa: A free expression roundup produced by IFEX’s Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.

How authorities in MENA are leveraging the COVID-19 pandemic to silence critical voices

April in Middle East and North Africa: A free expression roundup produced by IFEX’s Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.

Misinformation, censorship and the prisoners’ dilemma: COVID-19 takes its toll on free expression in MENA

March in Middle East and North Africa: A free expression roundup, based on member reports and news from the region.

Shrinking civic space in Lebanon, Facebook targets Palestinians, and Iran’s information control deepens Coronavirus crisis

February in Middle East and North Africa: A free expression roundup, based on member reports and news from the region.

Sextortion, harassment, and deepfakes: How digital weapons are being used to silence women

In his contribution to IFEX’s series marking International Women’s Day, Regional Editor Naseem Tarawnah paints a disturbing picture of the rise in digital attacks and the direct connection between online and offline violence against women in the region.

Saudi hacking and sportswashing, Egypt’s lethal prisons and Iraq’s deadly protests

January in Middle East and North Africa: A roundup of key free expression news, based on IFEX member reports.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince allegedly hacked Jeff Bezos to silence negative coverage

IFEX members raise press freedom concerns and call for an investigation into the hacking of Jeff Bezos’s phone by Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammad Bin Salman.