[Published here on March 8, 2022]
BEIRUT, March 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Nathaly Daou zigzags through an underground fabric store in Beirut, pulling out bolts of neon Lycra and patterned polyester before settling on a roll of white cotton.
Continue reading[Produced with my colleague Avi Asher-Schapiro and published here on March 7, 2022]
BEIRUT/LOS ANGELES, March 7 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Before Omar leaves home in the morning, he carefully uninstalls the apps on his phone one by one – no WhatsApp, no Facebook, no Grindr.
Continue reading[Produced with my colleagues Tala Ramadan in Beirut and Menna Farouk in Cairo, and published here on February 28, 2022]
ADEN/CAIRO, Feb 28 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The war in Ukraine may be unfolding several thousand miles away, but 32-year-old Ilham fears her family will feel its consequences on their dinner table in Yemen.
Continue reading[Published here January 27, 2022]
Pilots at Qatar Airways say the state-owned airline is under-counting their work hours and ignoring complaints of fatigue – a safety breach that hurts staff health and risks passenger lives.
The testimony demonstrates how worker abuse extends even to the Gulf nation’s high-skill industries, as Qatar Airways (QA) tries to minimise crew downtime.
Continue reading[Published here December 14, 2021]
Global warming of 3 degrees Celsius could cost as much as $1.6 trillion each year in lost labour productivity as even the coolest hours of the day start posing major health risks to workers in parts of the world, researchers said on Tuesday.
Those most threatened will be outdoor workers in already-hot countries where temperatures and humidity are rising fast, possibly threatening the economic lifeline of South Asian migrants seeking jobs in Gulf nations.
Continue reading[Published here July 8, 2021]
Data rights groups are warning of privacy violations and risks to vulnerable communities after Abu Dhabi deployed scanners at border crossings, malls and other public locations that could detect COVID-19 in seconds.
Continue reading[Produced alongside Thomson Reuters Foundation’s digital correspondent Avi Asher-Schapiro and published here on June 3, 2021]
When he was growing up in a small Egyptian town outside Cairo, Omar began feeling sexually attracted to other men. Too afraid to talk to family or friends, he turned to Facebook for help, shielding his identity with a false name.
Scouring social media for information and advice is a common recourse for young men and women who think they may be gay and live in socially conservative Arab societies.
But it can lead them to therapists, spiritual leaders and influencers promising to “cure the affliction” of homosexuality through so-called conversion therapy – practices that aim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Continue reading[Published here May 21, 2021]
May 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Conflict broke out this month between Israel and the southern Gaza Strip – and big tech has not been spared.
Instagram and Twitter have blamed technical errors for deleting posts mentioning the possible eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, but data rights groups fear “discriminatory” algorithms are at work and want greater transparency.
Continue readingOn May 19, I took part in a panel hosted by the UCLA Center for Middle East Development titled, “Can the US Still Promote Democracy in the MENA Region?” I noted the varied approaches to democracy promotion that the US has adopted across the Middle East – with little success. Watch the full panel discussion here:
[Published here on May 10, 2021]
BEIRUT, May 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Instagram and Twitter have blamed technical errors for deleting posts mentioning the possible eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem, but data rights groups fear “discriminatory” algorithms are at work and want greater transparency.
Continue reading
MAYA GEBEILY 