November 2011
New Civil Society Zine Up and Ready!
In the second issue of Arseh Sevom’s Civil Society Magazine, called David and Goliath, we asked contributors to tell us what comes after all the unity, after the giant is slain, after the monster is gone? What comes next? It was clearly a difficult question; o
Letter to an Iranian Friend (complete text)
by Amal Hamidallah-van Hees Dear friend, you who came from so far; this long way, just to remember your beloved one – your country, your culture, […]
Letter from the Editor
The term “Arab Spring” has always felt ominous to me. After all, we all know what happened after the short-lived Prague Spring of 1968, which was brutally squashed. As I write this, we read that more than 32 people have been killed in clashes in Cairo’s Tahir
From Monitoring to Building: Questions for South African Peace-Worker Jasmin Nordien
Arseh Sevom spoke with South African activist Jasmin Nordien about her experiences working in civil society organizations. In this post, we focus on her experiences throughout the 1980s, when she worked with the Network of Independent Monitors reporting on sta
A letter from an Arab woman to her Iranian friend
In this text given as a speech at The twenty second international conference of the Iranian Women’s Studies Foundation (IWSF), Amal Hamidallah-van Hees addresses the fears and hopes of Arab and Islamic women watching the changes in their region. “We are watchi
How to Organize a Community
In this piece, activist Lissnup gives some pointers on building a neighborhood organization. A good issue, the author tells us, will “be a real improvement in people’s lives; be non-divisive, and develop a sense of power for the group.”
Rock the Casbah
Davi Baker, who blogs for the San Francisco Examiner as the SF Muslim, goes back to the ninth century to speculate on the roots of change in the Arab world. In the work of scholar Patricia Crone, he uncovers political thinkers speculating on the best way to or
UN Calls for Access for Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran
Originally published by United4Iran. The UN General Assembly’s Third Committee today adopted a resolution (PDF) calling on the Iranian Government to allow unfettered access to the country by the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, Dr.
“One Has to Do All One Can for Human Rights”
Antonia Bertschinger tells us of her work at the Swiss section of Amnesty International. She tells us how she came to be involved with human rights work. Bertschinger came to the work via her interest in Afghanistan. She studied Persian in university and worke