A Mezze: New Housewives of Egypt

This week on a special edition of Babel, Will Todman speaks with Jon Alterman, the creator of Babel and the show’s host since it began in 2019. They discuss Jon’s reflections on 22 years directing the CSIS Middle East Program, his analysis of how the Middle East policy ecosystem ... Show More

This week on Babel, Jon Alterman speaks with Dr. Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy director for research at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. Mohanad's latest paper for Carnegie investigates the rise of a new form of drug smuggling in Lebanon. Together, they discuss Hezbollah’s i ... Show More

On Tuesday, May 6, President Trump declared that the United States would immediately halt its bombing of Houthi targets, bringing an end to months of intensified U.S. strikes across Yemen. The president linked the policy reversal to what he described as the Iran-backed Houthis’ c ... Show More

Three years ago Bill Law travelled to Egypt for Crossing Continents to meet five extraordinary women who were fighting for human rights and equal pay for women in Egypt. For this programme, Bill returns to Egypt to tell the story of the unfolding revolution through the eyes of th ... Show More

Meet the women who are trying to be heard. Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy meets those who pushed through legislation enshrining gender equality in Tunisia - and asks what will it take to make the government repeal the law in Jordan that allows rapists to marry their victims. 

Mona Eltahawey visits her home country of Egypt where women, who stood side-by-side with men during the protests, now fear to walk the streets without being assaulted. Mona hears from the women who are taking matters into their own hands, standing up to sexual harassers and sayin ... Show More

A warning: This episode contains descriptions of sexual violence and assault.In the summer of 2020, a 22-year-old Egyptian woman made the difficult decision to publicly call out her harasser on social media. In a moment of rage, she picked up her phone and typed out a post that w ... Show More

In 2011 Egyptians took to the streets calling for the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, whose regime had been in power for nearly 30 years. Their uprising was part of a wave of pro-democracy protests in the Arab world aimed at ending autocratic rule. Women were at the forefro ... Show More

<p>A decade after the uprisings that changed the political landscape of many countries in North Africa and the Middle East, Kim Chakanetsa looks at what impact the Arab uprisings had on the lives of women in Egypt and Syria. </p><p>Mona Eltahawy is an Egyptian-American author and ... Show More

<p>On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe talks to the Egyptian writer Alaa Al Aswany about his latest novel which charts the country's social upheaval through the prism of Cairo's elite Automobile Club of Egypt. The foreign correspondent Wendell Steavenson looks back at the Egyptian re ... Show More

Women activists played a prominent role in Iran's recent parliamentary elections, campaigning on social media and urging women to come out and vote. Minou Khaleghi, one of 14 newly-elected women MPs, says her priority will be to push for for changes in the area of family law, mat ... Show More

With the downfall of the former Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, political change has already happened in Egypt. But how has such a revolution affected the mindset of ordinary people in the region?In this edition of Analysis, the writer, Christopher de Bellaigue, considers the ... Show More