I was interested by the electricity in the air, the aggression and the disarray of those in power.
Much has happened in the Middle East in the last four years, but in Europe, the development of the state and of democracy took four centuries and many wars.
What the revolutionary class are experiencing in Egypt now is only the initiation of what thousands of children on our streets, boys and girls experience.
Arab Awakening's columnists offer their weekly perspective on what is happening on the ground in the Middle East. Leading the week, Syrian conflict transforms security regulations in Jordan.
Pressure on Europe as asylum-seekers in Libya risk everything to reach safety in Italy while the EU looks the other way.
Syria's recent election is significant not because of its predictable outcome or because it has anything to do with democracy. Instead, it reflects the regime's consolidation of legitimacy and confidence against an embattled opposition.
Despite restrictions on expression in Egypt, cultural trends like the spread of graffiti show that the marginalised have created a space for themselves in the public sphere.
Earlier last week, on 7 May, political activists affiliated to Bahraini opposition groups delivered a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon, calling for his office to take a stand against the Bahraini regime’s systematic targeting of the Shi’a community.
The plight of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon is not just a legal issue that can be solved by reforming the exploitative kafala or sponsorship law. It reflects deeper race and gender prejucides and must be addressed as a social and moral problem.
What makes a person a rebel? What drove millions in the Arab World to defy their oppressive states and face death, time and time again? And can this sense of rebellion ever be replaced by a sense of normality, in which one accepts the new status quo?
Yemen is battling sectarianism as its Shi'a face discriminiation. Making up 45 percent of the population, they find their religion conflated with radical extremism and foreign conspiracies.
As fighters join Al Nusra and ISIL at an alarming rate, the Jordanian government responds with new anti-terrorism measures.
