A R A B I C A ارابيكا

72 HOURS

*Al Jazeera reports that the Libyan Transitional Council has ruled out any sort of dialogue with Muammar Gaddafi, giving the Libyan leader 72 hours to leave the country to avoid being prosecuted in the future. The council told a Gaddafi representative that it "will not negotiate with someone who has spilled the blood of Libyans an continues to do so," said council spokesman Mustafa Ghariani. Al Jazeera reports that Gaddafi is pursuing a dual strategy of trying to find a "graceful exit" and negotiate a way to stay in power.

25^TH MARTYRS

*The Egyptian revolution continues to inspire the music industry, with the latest from singer Tareq Jedawi. The video opens with Jedawi scrolling through a pro-democracy Facebook page. The song is called "My right is in my hands," and is dedicated to "the January 25^th martyrs." Jadawi is seen walking through the streets of Cairo, with clips of recent protests interspersed throughout. "Martyrs… but they refuse to be victims," he sings.

*New Egyptian Interior Minister Mansour al-Essawi says in a televised interview that "the decision to fire live ammunition on protesters can only have happened with approval from the president."

LEBANESE MOTHERS

*On the 100^th International Women's Day, a group of Lebanese protesters gathered outside the Interior Ministry in Beirut to demand the right for women married to non-Lebanese men to pass on their nationality to their children. The current citizenship law dates back to 1925 and states: "Anyone born of a Lebanese father is Lebanese." A Lebanese man married to a foreign woman can pass on his nationality to his children, but a woman cannot.

SYRIAN BROTHERS

*The Facebook group, "The Syrian revolution against Bashar al-Assad" offers "some instructions from one of our freed Egyptian brothers. We hope that you benefit from them." What follows is a manifesto for Syrians looking to organize peaceful protests against the regime. "Rallies should start out small, in the smallest streets and move to larger streets and then major avenues." It is in the poorest and most underserved areas of Syria that the revolution must begin, the adminstrator concludes. He concludes by saying, "Come out, Syrians." It is not clear whether the 31,000 members of the group will step out from the relative safety of the Internet to the risky proposition of challenging the regime on the streets.

March 8, 2011

photo credit: illustir