“There’s hidden sweetness in the stomach’s emptiness. We are lutes. No more, no less. If the soundbox is stuffed full of anything… no music. If the brain and belly are burning clean with fasting, every moment a new song comes out of the fire. – Jelaluddin Rumi (1207 – 1273)

Mark Glaser recently interviewed our friend Ramsey from 7iber, which was quite an honor I think. However, the piece got me thinking about the state of citizen journalism in Jordan; both in terms of its successes and failures. In the comments section of Marks’ post, Ethan Zuckerman co-founder of Global Voices, noted that 7iber is [...]

It seems Ramadan is on Thursday! So, to all the readers of The Black Iris, Ramadan Mubarak to you and your families! May Allah (swt) accept your fasting! I have a few interesting posts on Ramadan coming out both on this blog and on 7iber, so watch out for them this month! p.s. easy on [...]

Elections just got a bit more interesting… Jordan’s first woman MP to run in November vote AMMAN — Jordan’s first woman MP said Sunday she would stand in November’s parliamentary election, five years after a military court sentenced her to jail for accusing officials of corruption. Tujan Faisal, 58, who served in parliament from 1993 [...]

It’s strange. The whole world marks 9/11 like an international day of tragedy. For me, every year, 9/11 has come to mean a feeling of sympathy for the 3,000 innocent lives that were lost on that day. But as the years pass on, that feeling has been eroded, if not almost entirely replaced, with the [...]

Global Voices: It’s September. The weather is still wonderfully warm, while the cool air moves swiftly between trees that are preparing to shed their leaves. Ramadan is just around the corner and there’s a lot to talk about on the Jordanian blogosphere. However, it’s only right to start with the biggest story; the one that [...]

It’s a complex formula, but nevertheless, it has constantly come up in various political debates on the social level. Let me pose it in the form of a question: with all that’s happening in the Arab world, why don’t the Gulf countries do something with all that oil money they have? From Palestinians under occupation [...]

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