AP Photo – Jordanian children wait for their turn to have a ride on a wood traditional swing during the second day of Muslim’s Eid al-Adha, in Amman, Jordan, Saturday, Nov. 28, 2009. The thing about Eid is that it’s a time when people typically spend two full days visiting each other. In Amman, they [...]

For the second year in a row The Black Iris was nominated and managed to win the Brass Crescent award in the Middle East category. I actually had to look up last year’s post to make sure that I don’t repeat myself, but then I discovered that last year’s post really said everything I wanted [...]

Thought this Abu Mahjoob caricature was pretty uplifting for the (political) season! So Eid Mubarak to you all and I hope you have a great holiday. Stay safe, do something fun, enjoy your family time, and go some place warm!

This is an unusual “me” post, which, in the lifespan of this little blog, there have been few of (fortunately). But I thought I owed it to my readers (all 10 of you) to have some sort of where-have-I-been explanation. Besides, I feel like rambling. To start with, yes, as you can see from the [...]

Yes, it took a while. But after many sleepless nights the new 7iber is finally up. There’s still a lot to do, but we’ve moved in without rattling the neighbors. Suffice to say, Jordanian bloggers and techies were there to help out in the past few weeks. Wael Attili designed the new logo, the good [...]

This is just a short rant about something that’s been on my mind lately. Over the years I’ve been called on by numerous people to talk about the Jordanian blogosphere. Many of those people tend to be foreign journalists or graduate students who are researching the extent to which blogs in Jordan create political change. [...]

6:25am. Amman. Sun up. 6:53am. 7:58am.

Eid mubarak to everyone! One of the funniest things about Eid being declared by the government is the speech that the Minister of Islamic Affairs, Huliel, gets to give. It’s the only public time he gets so he takes full advantage of it, which for fasting Muslims translates to nothing more than excessive suspense. It [...]