Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Rafiah Al Talei is the editor-in-chief for Sada in Carnegie’s Middle East Program.
Rafiah Al Talei is the editor in chief for Sada in Carnegie’s Middle East Program, where her research focuses on civil rights, women’s issues, and political developments in the Gulf. She has over twenty-five years of experience in Omani and international media networks, and most recently held the position of senior producer in the Public Liberties and Human Rights Center at Al Jazeera Media Network.
Al Talei also has held fellowships at Stanford University, Syracuse University, and the National Endowment for Democracy. She has conducted research on women’s issues with Freedom House and with the International Council for Research and Exchange (IREX). She is a former candidate for parliament in Oman (Majlis Al-Shura) and frequently speaks on media freedom and women’s empowerment in the Gulf.
Although the issue of women is prominent in the artwork of Arab women artists, the freedom that women artists enjoy is limited due to censorship, whether it is self-imposed or institutional.
Sada spoke to Arab youth about their hopes and wishes for the new year, which spanned everything from civil and political rights, to education, to arts and culture.
There is an urgent need in all Gulf countries for genuine constitutional reforms and new social contracts that guarantee people’s rights to political participation, decision making, and control of national wealth.
Creative writing fosters its own distinct climate and environment. The more localized the writing is, the more it acquires a certain specificity, but at the same time, it is also able to transcend borders and countries and turn into one global, shared language. The literature of Jokha Alharthi is a pertinent example of this.
The recent eruption of protests in Oman has highlighted the efficiency of dynamic citizen journalism, which utilized social media platforms to freely cover events and express opinions, in contrast to the shackled state-owned media, which appeared to be lagging and unable to provide accountable reporting of events.
As the Biden administration attempts to promote democracy and human rights in the Middle East, it will confront the deep-seated belief among Arabs that U.S. policies are unfair to their central causes and biased in favor of the ruling elite of their countries.
The Sultanate of Oman’s policies toward women are inconsistent, not particularly progressive, and do not enjoy strong government support.
The law of the Oman Council bolstered the government’s control not only in the unilateral decisionmaking process but also granting it the right to reject any proposed law submitted by the Council.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman says that the time has come to pressure Saudi Arabia and the UAE to withdraw from Yemen so that the country can resume to the peace process and restore a Yemeni state.
Sada is an online journal rooted in Carnegie’s Middle East Program that seeks to foster and enrich debate about key political, economic, and social issues in the Arab world and provides a venue for new and established voices to deliver reflective analysis on these issues.
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