Are Ruby's critics an obstacle to her stardom, or does the controversy over her secular style eclipse the star herself? The music videos that established Ruby's fame feature pelvic-thrust dance moves and revealing costumes, which infuriate a growing number of Middle Easterners. But compared to the gyrations and attire of …

20 November 2004, Cairo Ahmad al-Farrag is one of the pioneers of religious television broadcasting in the Arab world. His long-running program Nur ala Nur, or "Light Upon Light" was the first of its kind in Egypt and a model for future religious talk shows. It also was the first …

Reprinted from Al Hayat, 7 November, 2004, p.21, with permission. This year's Ramadan brings in its train, as usual, hundreds of serialized dramas, talk shows, and other standard format programs of the sort that increase year after year as a result of the burgeoning number of Arab satellite channels. What is …

In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, renewed fears about the threat of "Islamic Fundamentalism" conjured images of bearded and turbaned zealots spoiling for holy war against the West. More than three years later, such stereotypes seem confirmed in the grim reality of the morning's headlines, as …

A professor at Mohamed V University in Rabat (Morocco), Fatema Mernissi is currently a full-time researcher at the IURS (Institut Universitaire de Recherche Scientifique) where she splits her time between animating writing workshops for civic actors seeking to influence public opinion through publications and conducting her own field-work based analysis …

CAIRO, Nov. 1 (Aswat Masriya) - Journalist Ahmed Naje who is on trial for publishing an article containing "obscene sexual content" told Aswat Masriya on Sunday that the decision does not surprise him given the permanent "hostility" that prosecutors display towards the press.  Naje and the editor-in-chief of weekly literary magazine Akhbar …

CAIRO, Nov. 2 (Aswat Masriya) – The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) affirmed Monday that reforming the legislative and regulatory structure of the press and the media in Egypt is the only way to avoid cases where breaches of privacy rights conflict with freedom of expression and …