Region: Middle East & North Africa

Do you want your book to be published? Do you have a disruptive idea for a publishing start-up? Maybe it is a book idea that you believe readers all over the Middle East are waiting for? Or maybe it is a new app that allows for dynamic reading of Arabic eBooks? It could even be…

A strong appeal for women’s involvement in peace negotiations in Iraq and Syria was made to Dutch Foreign Minister Koenders by two Hivos partners from the region on February 17, 2015. Suzan Aref from the Iraqi Women Empowerment Organization, together with a leading member of the Syrian Women’s Initiative for Peace and Democracy, discussed the…

Detained Arbitrarily, and Tortured On the third anniversary of their arrest, Hivos joins 70 other human rights groups in urging the Syrian government to immediately free the prominent Syrian human rights defenders Mazen Darwish, Hani Al-Zitani and Hussein Gharir.  The three men have been arbitrarily deprived of their liberty on the basis of their human rights…

As the civil war in Syria rages on, millions of Syrians have lost their loved ones, home, income and security. In addition to these enormous challenges, many Syrian girls also face the danger of underage marriage. Many Syrian parents, often in a dire financial situation, feel forced to marry off their daughters, or see marriage…

Not too long ago, Hivos’ Mideast Creatives programme posted about the collaborative spaces challenge we worked on through our partner Zoomaal, the Arab crowdfunding platform, to support the creation and growth of such spaces in Arab countries. The challenge resulted in a very competitive battle. In the end, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria and Iraq qualified…

A year on, no information on the Douma Four The prominent Syrian human rights defenders Razan Zaitouneh, Samira Khalil, Wa’el Hamada and Nazem Hamadi – the Douma Four – remain missing a year after their abduction, 71 organizations** said today, including Hivos. The four were abducted in Douma, a city near Damascus under the control of…

The day before the Arab Internet Governance Forum (Arab IGF) held this year in Lebanon, 26-27 November 2014, Hivos, in cooperation with the UNESCO and the Maharat Foundation organized a workshop at the American University of Science & Technology (AUST) in Beirut. The event entitled, “Internet Freedom: Rights and Responsibilities” was an opportunity to pinpoint…

The 9th edition of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), held in Istanbul at the beginning of October, marks a significant turning point regarding how the global dialogue on Internet Governance (IG) has evolved since the forum was first launched in 2006. In these nine years, the forum has gone from a mere talk shop to a major…

Hivos, together with over 220 other women’s and human rights organisations, is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of seven female human rights activists from Egypt. They were arrested on June 21, 2014 during a public protest against the new Egyptian  Protest and Public Assembly Law. They are accused of breaking this repressive law and…

Disrupt/Media Tunis as it happened The Disrupt!/Media! ideathon co-organised by Hivos and the Tunisian coworking space Cogite from 17 to 18 October was an intense – but fun – experience for the 35 participants and everyone involved. This was the second event of the Disrupt Series set up by Hivos’ Mideast Creatives programme to support…