Arab Tyrant Manual Podcast

On Friday, November 23nd, Raed Fares was assassinated in northern Syria by masked gunmen suspected of being affiliated with al-Qaeda. This episode features an interview we recorded with him at the Oslo Freedom Forum in 2017, in which he told us what the Syrian revolution meant to him, and why he would not give up hope. Raed will be remembered forever as a visionary, and this interview shows why. You can find a video version of the interview on our website, with a transcript (coming soon) in English and Arabic: https://arabtyrantmanual.com/videos/interview-with-raed-fares-the-man-who-built-a-civil-society-in-a-warzone%E2%80%8B/ Raed Fares' Oslo Freedom Forum speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlWt-kI7_LQ You can also read Iyad's obituary of Raed in the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/11/27/remembering-raed-fares-who-believed-that-syria-would-be-saved-by-its-people/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.befa532c3304 Support this podcast

In Togo, protests are gathering steam against the 50-year rule of the Gnassingbé family. In this episode, Farida Nabourema, a blogger and human rights activist who has been a fearless critic of corruption, dictatorship and colonialism, tells Iyad and Ahmed about the Fauré Must Go movement. We may call this the Arab Tyrant Manual, but that certainly doesn't limit it to Arabs as this episode shows. Follow Farida on Twitter @Farida_N, and find us there too - @gatnash and @iyad_elbaghdadi. Join the discussion on #ArabTyrantManual and support us by sharing this episode, or contributing to our Patreon: www.patreon.com/kawaakibi Support this podcast

Ahmed and Iyad do a roundup of major news from 2018, and discuss the outlook for the world in 2019. Where were we vindicated over the last year? Which countries will have popular uprisings this year? Why are Arab countries normalising relations with Assad again after 8 years of brutality? What are the big corruption scandals we're anticipating? And is there a light at the end of the tunnel after repression? Mentioned in this episode: - Iyad's Oslo Freedom Forum speech https://youtu.be/a2cIm-a_sfc - The crazy animation of Saudi Arabia attacking Iran, disseminated by accounts linked to the government https://youtu.be/9selhGBPdek Get access to bonus recordings, exclusive updates on our work and more by supporting us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kawaakibi Support this podcast

Sudan is in the middle of an uprising. That alone is notable, but Sudan is also one of the most fascinating and under-studied countries in the region, and has had more successful uprisings than any other country in the MENA region. In this episode, Ahmed @gatnash and @Anas_Abdalla take a historical dive into all the steps that have led to this juncture, from the lightest to the dark - from independence and through the coups, uprisings and civil wars. Ahmed's follow recommendations on Twitter: @YousraElbagir @BSonblast @MujtabaaMusaa (Arabic @NesrineMalik @khalidalbaih @idris_razan @ReemWrites Hashtags: #SudanUprising, #Sudan_revolts Hatim al-Tai's comprehensive timeline on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sudan/comments/a86v88/revolution_of_the_hungry%D8%AB%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%B9_news_and/ Support our podcast, and get access to over an hour of deleted material from this discussion: https://www.patreon.com/kawaakibi Support this podcast

In this very special episode, we go through the history of our project from the early days of the Arab Spring through to the present. Our project is a child of the Arab spring, and if you're interested in the evolution of resistance, this is a must listen. On this New Year's Eve we're also taking a big step forward in launching our Patreon, which we hope will allow us to scale up, institutionalise, expand our team and become more regular. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kawaakibi Transcript: https://kawaakibi.org/ourstory/ Support this podcast

Ahmed and Iyad discuss the aftermath of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and current narratives around authoritarianism in the Middle East. Has Mohammed Bin Salman won? Is the Arab spring over? Is the current state of repression in the Arab world a sustainable "new normal"? Mentioned in the episode: The Arab Winter is Coming - Hassan Hassan https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/11/where-us-middle-east/574747/ The Next Arab Uprising - Marwan Muasher https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2018-10-15/next-arab-uprising The Final Speech from The Great Dictator - Charlie Chaplin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7GY1Xg6X20&vl=en Support this podcast

Jamal Khashoggi, the veteran Saudi journalist and former royal advisor, is missing and presumed kidnapped. He was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. In this episode we replay a conversation Jamal had with Ahmed, Iyad and Nasser at the Oslo Freedom Forum earlier this year to understand more about Jamal and why this might be happening. More information from the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/where-is-jamal-khashoggi/2018/10/04/2681e000-c7f7-11e8-9b1c-a90f1daae309_story.html?utm_term=.4f7df6f64fcb A link to the UpFront episode with Mehdi Hasan from the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGRak6QvDp8 Support this podcast

Where in the world could you find out that your deceased grandfather voted in a constitutional referendum 3 years after he died? In this episode, Ahmed and Nasser discuss the recent elections in Mauritania, in which an empowered opposition threaten to undo President Ould Abdelaziz' hopes for a constitutional amendment to allow himself third turn. Nasser's (extremely long) Twitter thread, on which this episode was based, makes for good side-reading: https://twitter.com/weddady/status/1035887360913956864 Tweet your thoughts to us on #ArabTyrantManual, or @gatnash and @weddady Music for this episode is from the album Moorish Music From Mauritania by Khalifa Ould Eide & Dimi Mint Abba(1990) Thumbnail image: ballot boxes from a voting bureau in Mauritania's vast interior being transported, a reminder to those who have the luxury of a functioning democracy not to take their votes for granted. Photo credit: unknown. Errata: There are 184 seats of parliament, not 147 as stated. Support this podcast

How do you get one of the world's most beloved ex-footballers to speak out about an innocent political prisoner in Iran? In this episode (part 2 of a 2-part show), Iyad El-Baghdadi and Maryam Nayeb Yazdi talk about a campaign they ran for Arash Sadeghi, and what activists can learn from it. Maryam can be found on Twitter at @MaryamNayebYazd. Iyad and Ahmed can be found at @iyad_elbaghdadi and @gatnash. Tweet us, or join the conversation on #ArabTyrantMan. Support this podcast

In this episode (part 1 of another 2-part show), Iyad El-Baghdadi (Twitter: @iyad_elbaghdadi) interviews Maryam Nayeb Yazdi (Twitter: @MaryamNayebYazd), a Canadian-Iranian human rights activist, about her journey into activism, and she tells us more about the country since 2009. Maryam has joined the team of HRANA, who publicise human rights news from Iran, and you should follow them too - their Twitter account is @HRANA_English Stay tuned for part 2 in the next few days. Support this podcast

A discussion between Belabbes Benkredda, Founding Director of the Munathara Initiative, and Iyad El-Baghdadi, Nasser Weddady and Ahmed Gatnash, on the public sphere, what teaching young people to debate can do for the world, and how to normalise civilised exchange of ideas and evaluation of them on their merits. Belabbes is currently Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School's Information Society Project, and can be found on Twitter (@AbuLavinia). The Munathara Initiative (@Munathara) can be found at http://www.munathara.com/ Support this podcast

Part 2 of the conversation with Buzzfeed News' Megha Rajagopalan, continuing the discussion on China but also touching on the effects of Facebook on various South Asian countries like Cambodia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, including amplifying communal violence, and inadvertently empowering autocrats. The BBC video mentioned near the end of the episode: www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1HdCIW2Xtk You can find Megha on Twitter (@Meghara), and you should also check out her reporting on the issues mentioned at Buzzfeed: www.buzzfeed.com/meghara Listen to her Oslo Freedom Forum talk here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=V03v0jc88Qo Support this podcast

Part 1 of a meandering conversation between Ahmed and Megha Rajagopalan, BuzzFeed News' China bureau chief and Asia correspondent, about surveillance and censorship in China - the high-tech police state they've built, WeChat and other tech companies, Chinese memes, the effect it's having on other south Asian countries, as well as comparisons and contrasts to Arab states. You can find Megha on Twitter @Meghara: https://twitter.com/meghara And you should also check out her reporting on the issues mentioned at Buzzfeed: https://www.buzzfeed.com/meghara Listen to her Oslo Freedom Forum talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V03v0jc88Qo AP News article mentioned on Uighur fighting in Syria: https://apnews.com/79d6a427b26f4eeab226571956dd256e BBC on facial recognition https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-china-42248056/in-your-face-china-s-all-seeing-state Economist profile: https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/05/31/china-has-turned-xinjiang-into-a-police-state-like-no-other Support this podcast

We attended the Oslo Freedom Forum last month. Ahmed (@Gatnash) sat down with Alex Gladstein (@Gladstein) to get an introduction to the forum, and speak about their goals and some of their achievements, as well as some of Alex's research on dictatorships use of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and other development statistics. You can follow Alex on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gladstein Some of his writings on the UN SDGs and other development statistics: https://qz.com/1299149/how-the-uns-sustainable-development-goals-undermine-democracy/ https://newrepublic.com/article/148133/dictators-love-development-statistics Check out talks from the Oslo Freedom Forum here: https://oslofreedomforum.com Support this podcast

In this conversation, Ahmed and Nasser discuss the Catch-22 of economic reform in the Arab World - the conflicting pressures on regional governments from established business interests and burgeoning youth populations create a true 'rock and a hard place' and allow us to understand much better the situation in Jordan, as well as the economic reforms in Saudi Arabia and possibly even predict what's going to happen in other countries. Support this podcast

An emergency episode about the 9 women's rights activists arrested in Saudi Arabia in the last week. They are: Dr Eman al-Nafjan, Loujain al-Hathloul, Dr Aisha al-Mana', Dr Madeha Al-Ajroush, Professor Aziza Al-Yousef, Dr. Ibrahim Al-Modaimeegh, Mohammad Al-Rabea and Abdulaziz Al-Mesha’al. You can find out more about them here, courtesy of Al-Qst, the Saudi human rights abuses monitoring organisation: https://alqst.org/eng/top-names-in-saudi-human-rights-movement/ Find out more about the Saudi "reforms" and what they mean for activism here: https://soundcloud.com/arabtyrantmanual/episode-001 Thanks to Sahar al-Faifi for joining us at short notice, and the activists who helped behind the scenes because they couldn't publicly. Follow us on Twitter for updates: @iyad_elbaghdadi, @gatnash, @ArabTyrantMan Support this podcast

In this experimental episode format, Iyad gives his take on the dynamics of the UAE-Saudi alliance and the possibility of fractures appearing. Let us know your thoughts, and join the conversation on #ArabTyrantManual Support this podcast

A wide-ranging conversation in which Ahmed Gatnash and guest Nasser Weddady, touching on American air strikes on Syria, coup-proofing, Syrian regime relations with Nazis, emergent models of digital surveillance in China and the gulf, the Arab league, the perks of allying with authoritarian regimes and the long-term prospects of the Arab world. Find us on twitter at @Gatnash and @Weddady, and join the conversation on #ArabTyrantManual Support this podcast

Iyad El-Baghdadi and Ahmed Gatnash discuss nonviolent resistance to oppression - realistic mechanism of change or idealistic and ineffective? What is it, and how does it apply to different struggles today? Got any thoughts or questions? Tweet us @iyad_elbaghdadi, @gatnash. #ArabTyrantManual Support this podcast

Ahmed and Iyad talk about #globalpeace17 and Muslim scholars who legitimise and support tyrants. Why they do so, and what does this mean both for the Muslim world and for Islam? People mentioned in this episode: Womens rights activists Loujain alhathloul and Masyaa Al Amoudi (@LoujainHathloul and @maysaaX), Salman al-Odah (@salman_alodah), Hassan Farhan al-Maliki (@HsnFrhanALmalki), Mustafa Akyol (@AkyolinEnglish) and Emad Effat. Join the discussion on Twitter #ArabTyrantManual or tweet us @iyad_elbaghdadi, @gatnash. Support this podcast