January 07, 2008

Laila and Nur; Rami

So I see Laila el-Haddad has announced her baby's birth now. She has fabulous pics there of adorable little Nur (= "Light"... very Quaker!) alone, and of Nur with her...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 07:50 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

November 24, 2007

Lives and livelihoods in two ME blogs

My able tech assistant (and son) put Google Reader onto my computer as well as the Analytics last week. He said it's the best RSS reader he knows, and showed...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:18 AM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

October 22, 2007

Laila el-Haddad expecting...

See what happens when I go on vacation? Lots of interesting things! Laila's post there contains the most adorable sonogram of her future daughter. May Laila and her family all...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:42 AM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

Riverbend's back...

She has a new post today, here. (I'll be back soon, too, with a new post. Still basking in having had a real vacation.) Riv and her family are in...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:31 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

September 05, 2007

Riverbend, posting again!

Riverbend has posted again. Hat-tip to D. Mathews. She's safe (apparently) and has been in Syria since June (I think.) This post is her usual blend of the wryly intimate...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:55 PM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

May 29, 2007

Read Faiza's latest post-- read it NOW

Faiza al-Arji is a compassionate, very smart and percipient Iraqi engineer (and the mother of three talented, hard-working young adults.) Faiza has been in Amman for around a year now,...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:57 AM | Fulltext link (15 comments)

March 23, 2007

Faiza: The story of Husaam

Faiza al-Araji is a courageous, talented Iraqi civil engineer of about my age (mid-50s), also with three grown-up children. Hers are all male; two of mine are daughters. When I...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:35 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

June 07, 2006

Laila El-Haddad in NYC

The talented, engaging, and very knowledgeable Gaza blogger Ms. Laila El-Haddad will be speaking in NYC tomorrow evening (Thursday). The schedule and details are here. She's apparently doing that speaking...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 08:53 PM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

September 09, 2005

War-ravaged lives: Baghdad, Michigan

Riverbend is back today with a small serving of her trademark wonderful prose from Baghdad. She writes: The dryness and heat are a stark contrast to the images we see...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:27 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

August 14, 2005

Imshin on disengagement

Imshin, the author of the "Not a fish" blog from Israel, has been posting some interesting reflections on the Israeli disengagement from Gaza. In this Aug 12 post she expresses...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:15 PM | Fulltext link (10 comments)

June 14, 2005

With Faiza in Boston

My life has been fairly crazy. I flew up to Boston for the weekend so I could both meet Iraqi blog queen Faiza (who's been at this training course...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:01 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

May 19, 2005

Secrets

Imshin, the Israeli author of Not a Fish made a big deal two weeks or so on the blog about how she "had a secret that would be revealed soon."...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:54 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

May 01, 2005

Missing Marine's Girl

With everything that's going on in the world these days, I miss the always compassionate, always passionately anti-war voice of Marine's Girl. Her great blog "Acoss the River" got hacked...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 07:23 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

March 23, 2005

Yes, some worthwhile respect here

I see that today Juan Cole did refer to my work warning about the dangers of delay in forming the Transitional Government in Iraq. Nice that someone gives public attribution...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:31 AM | Fulltext link (9 comments)

March 11, 2005

Marine's Girl deals with real life

I was pretty upset a couple of weeks ago when I tried to go to Marine's Girl's lovely blog and found it had been hijacked... Maybe by the same nasty...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:58 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

February 26, 2005

Marine's Girl URL hijacked??

My friend Judy alerted me yesterday to the fact that Marine's Girl's blog seemed to be down. Today, there is something there at her customary URL, acrossriver.blogspot.com, but it ain't...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 08:57 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

January 10, 2005

Read MG

Marine's Girl has a new post up. Read it. In case you haven't been reading her before now, just know that she's one heck of a feisty woman who lives...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:53 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

October 15, 2004

Faiza on US-style democracy

Faiza, of "A Family in Baghdad" is participating in an interesting exchange on the "Open democracy" site. In addition, her blog now carries the English-language version of a long post...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:07 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

August 10, 2004

Fear and HIV/AIDS

I am not resistant to HIV infection, are you? That is the haunting question with which Yvette Lopez of A Taste of Africa ends this amazing post, that tells...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:02 AM | Fulltext link (20 comments)

August 03, 2004

Women in Somaliland

Continuing on the theme of the role of women in reform efforts in Muslim countries, Yvette Lopez, the talented, inspirational author of the Taste of Africa blog, has a great...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:43 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

August 01, 2004

The River bends again

She's back! Riverbend, that is. Read her latest post about the "insurmountable combination of heat and family issues " that's kept her from blogging recently. Including, the death of "an...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:14 PM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

June 02, 2004

Riverbend's new post

Riverbend has a great new post up on her blog. She says she hasn't felt much like blogging recently. The new post is a great little reflection on cleaning the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:27 PM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

May 19, 2004

U.S. Congress getting 'SMART'?

There is so much bad news from the US Congress-- the long history of rolling over to the administration on the whole war-mobilization effort; trade barriers that hurt low-income nations;...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:45 AM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

March 21, 2004

Riverbend on the anniversary

Riverbend (from Baghdad) hasn't been posting a lot recently on her blog. But when she writes, it is always so well and so movingly done that it's worth waiting for....
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:19 PM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

January 15, 2004

Riverbend-- go there!

Iraq's Queen of all Bloggers Riverbend has two great new posts on her blog today. Go there immediately!...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:00 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

December 31, 2003

Iranian VP's interesting new blog

I've been having Iran on my mind. Thinking of "survivors" of the terrible earth-quake in Bam who have lost so much-- sometimes ALL the other members of their families as...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:17 AM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

November 28, 2003

Imshin's blues

Imshin, the Israeli author of "Not a Fish", has been in reflective mode on the one-year anniversary of the death of her mother. My condolences, Imshin. Losing a mother is...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:02 PM | Fulltext link (10 comments)

November 26, 2003

Marine's Girl : new format

She's back! If you've missed Marine's Girl and her wonderful, fresh writing; and if you followed her harrowing story of how some random and mean-spirited old cyber-harrasser guy intimidated her...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:24 AM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

October 31, 2003

Thoughts/prayers for Yvette

Much attention has been focused on the decisions that international humanitarian-aid workers in Iraq have been facing in recent weeks. But friends, we also need to give thoughts and prayers...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:38 AM | Fulltext link (5 comments)

October 29, 2003

"Today in Iraq", RiverSbend, etc

Yesterday evening I discovered a great new blog called Today in Iraq. It's written by a guy calling himself "yankeedoodle" who used to be a warrant officer in either the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:50 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

September 12, 2003

Juan Cole-- more user-friendly than ever!

Juan Cole's Informed Comment blog, which is the world's best English-language read on Iraq, is more user-friendly than ever. Now, he's posting his items separately, and they have headlines. So...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:16 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

September 05, 2003

Not irritating, not provincial

So I guess the word got out to Imshin of Not a Fish! that I had been describing her on the Main Page of JWN as a "sassy (if sometimes...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:31 PM | Fulltext link (11 comments)

August 22, 2003

Riverbend arrives

Another great blog from a strong, authentic Iraqi voice. Riverbend describes herself as a 24-year-old Iraqi female who survived the war. She's been writing for about a week and has...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:04 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

June 22, 2003

Yvette, Iraniangirl, etc

I just wanted to draw people's attention (again?) to the blogs I link to here. Which are not many. There's a phenomenon called 'Blogrolling' which means, I think, something like...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:07 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)