American arrested for parody video in the UAE

MINNEAPOLIS — An American man who works in the United Arab Emirates has been held in a maximum-security prison for months after posting a parody video about youth culture in Dubai, a rights group and family attorney said Wednesday.
Shezanne Cassim, 29, of Woodbury, Minn., was arrested in April and charged with violating a 2012 cybercrimes law that boosts penalties for allegedly challenging authorities, attorney Susan Burns said. He was moved to a maximum security prison in Abu Dhabi in June.

 Source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/shezanne-cassim-prison-united-arab-emirates-parody-video-100455.html

Video can be seen here:

Expat Woman's Festive Fare Fair

Here we go. A festive bump for a lonely looking blog...

The Festive Family thingy has been postponed to Jan 25th 'cos of rain forecast for Dubai tomorrow. So it'll just become a family thingy...

New Blog

After being away for five years, I've moved back to the UAE (in Abu Dhabi, this time) and started up a new blog. If anyone is interested: http://www.returntocamelland.com/

World of Jinn, Magic and Ruqya explained

In The Realm Of The Unseen

World of Jinn, Magic and Ruqya explained

 

Date: 29th & 30th March 2013

Time: 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Venue: Kalemah Islamic Center, Al Qusais, Dubai [click here for location map]

Registration Fee: FREE (Entry for 15 years old and above only)

 

Books And Writing At The Archive

It's a shame not to use the UAECB now it has been restored by the Gods at Google!

I just thought I'd post a heads up about a new series of workshops being organised by funky art/workspace The Archive and the Emirates Literary Group on the subject of writing and publishing. Next Wednesday is the first in a series of four workshops which will deal with how to write a book, how to write poetry (in fact, essential if you want to hone your writing anyway), how to find your route to market (either through an agent and publisher or through self publishing) and understanding sales, distribution and booksellers.

There's more detail if you're interested over on the Fake Plastic Blog.

Pip pip!

UAE Community blog is back

After the sudden Google outage, UAE Community blog is back.

We understand there were many other blogs affected, but the situation appears to be resolved now.

Wishing you all a very happy 2013, wherever you are.