In this episode, Ahmed talks to Gene Bunin, founder of the Xinjiang Victims Database - a unique initiative to track the crimes being committed against individuals in the western region of China and investigate the fate of those missing.
Read More
Ahmed Gatnash and Iyad El-Baghdadi reflect about the podcast, how far it’s come, and plans for the future, as well as discussing Joe Biden’s election victory and Trump’s defeat, and what they mean for the MENA region and the global struggle for human rights.
Read More
In September, Ahmed spoke to Joey Ayoub, Lebanese writer and researcher, about tankies, genocide denial, red-brown alliances and the uncomfortable affinity between large parts of the political left and authoritarianism.
Read More
Ahmed talks to Timour Azhari and Joey Ayoub about the massive popular movement against the entire political order which has rocked Lebanon for over 2 weeks. It has led to the end of the government already, but can it achieve the real goal - total systemic change?
Read More
Ahmed Gatnash speaks about the recent protests in Egypt, which surprised almost everyone but show that the lessons of 2011 have still not been fully absorbed.
Read More
Human Rights Foundation and Arab Tyrant Manual present this panel from this year’s Oslo Freedom Forum, in which Iyad el-Baghdadi and Karen Attiah discuss the Saudi government’s use of surveillance software. They go into detail on Jamal Khashoggi and his legacy, as well as the hack of Jeff Bezos and what activists can do to keep safe.
Read More
Celebrities are notoriously shy of politics, advised to stay neutral for the sake of their careers. But what do you do when you can no longer be silent?
Denise Ho, a singer and actress from Hong Kong, and Amr Waked, an Egyptian actor, discuss their journeys into activism, what it meant for their careers, the regimes they fight against and how their art plays a role.
Read More
At the Oslo Freedom Forum last year, 7 activists from the Arab region found ourselves in a room together. This is the discussion which followed - on identity, exile, activism, trauma and healing, whether the Arab Spring failed, and different visions of what the future holds.
It was nuanced and surprisingly self-critical, but there was no cynicism or defeatism in the room - just the maturity of taking the long term view, as we recalibrate for the future.
Read More
This episode is a recording of Iyad El-Baghdadi’s recent press conference, in which he speaks about the recent revelations from intelligence agencies that the Saudi government potentially poses a threat to his life.
Read More
What is the purpose of nonviolence? What are its limits? Surely it couldn’t work against someone as brutal as the Nazis…could it?
In this episode, Iyad and Ahmed speak to Jamila Raqib, Executive Director of the Albert Einstein Institution - an organisation dedicated to advance the worldwide study and strategic use of nonviolent action. She tells us about working with Professor Gene Sharp, what issues are on the cutting edge of nonviolence, and future problems for nonviolent movements.
Read More
Ahmed Gatnash (@gatnash) discusses Libya with Nadine Dahan (@NadineDahan), a journalist and independent analyst focussed on Libya, human rights and transitional justice in the MENA region.
As well as analysing the current crisis, started by Haftar’s attempt to invade the capital Tripoli, they also provide a run-down of what’s happened Libya since 2011 and how it came to be this bad - armed militias, terrorist groups, coups, rival parliaments, allegations of slavery, a dozen international parties and a UN-sponsored diplomatic reconciliation initiative.
Read More
Abderrahmane Weddady, the brother of regular Arab Tyrant Manual contributor Nasser Weddady, has been charged with “spreading fake news” and jailed pending trial in his home country of Mauritania. His crime? Revealing a massive Ponzi scheme which cost 7000 families their homes, and uncovering direct links to the president’s family.
In this episode, Nasser tells us about his brother and what he uncovered.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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?
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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”?
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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.
Read More
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
Read More
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.
Read More
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?
Read More
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?
Read More
Ahmed and Iyad discuss the protests in Iran, what they’re about, and what they mean for the future.
Read More
Recent Comments