On Sunday, March 7, 2010, Iraq held its second national parliamentary election since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The next day, the Washington Post reported: "Election officals have said that 62 percent of about 19 million eligible voters cast ballots in Sunday's parliamentary election, a turnout slightly lower than the previous parliamentary election in 2005. Only 53 percent of eligible voters turned out in Baghdad, perhaps because of a series of explosions that ripped through the capital early Sunday. That is lower than the last full parliamentary election in December 2005, in which roughly 76 percent of eligible voters turned out. Officials attributed the drop to a combination of voter intimidation, more stringent ID requirements at the polls and a drop in voter excitement.

Dr. Laila Nicolas Rahbani provides an in-depth report and analysis on the state of Arab women in the media in the Middle East and North Africa.

Last week, Freedom House hosted an event featuring women activists from Egypt, Jordan and Iraq who spoke on the status of women’s rights and advancement in the region.

The Lantern Festival marks the end of the Chinese New Year season. Afterwards life becomes a daily routine once again.

Amid the chaos of war in Baghdad, Zuhal Sultan created a new national youth orchestra. Below, please find excerpts of her story from an article from Times Online:

Six months ago Zuhal Sultan stood in the wings of a makeshift concert hall in northern Iraq watching young musicians run through final rehearsals ahead of their first public performance. “I was crying a bit, because it was so emotional. The progress they had made was unbelievable, after all they had been through. I was so happy,” she says.

Sultan had every reason to be proud. Single-handedly, she had brought together professional musicians from some of the world’s leading cultural institutions and 33 Iraqi youngsters to form the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq (NYOI). The 18-year-old from Baghdad secured funding from organizations including the British Council and persuaded the deputy prime minister of Iraq to make a donation.

Today a number of MPs and youth organizations publicly condemned parliament’s decision to reject an amendment that would lower the voting age from 21 to 18, blaming the failure of this bill on the allegiances many political parties have to specific religious and sectarian groups. According to reports, if the legal voting age had been lowered, the balance between Sunnis, Shias and Christians would alter in favor of the two former groups. One can speculate that this factor played a role in the decision-making process in parliament on Monday.

Lebanon’s Daily Star covered this story; here is part of the article from today's paper:

Analysts estimate that lowering the voting age would add more than 50,000 Christians to the electorate, mainly Maronites, and about 175,000 Muslims, roughly equally split between Shiites and Sunnis.

The controversial bill has sparked fears of imbalance in Lebanon’s sectarian regime, with MPs opposed to the move demanding that expatriate Lebanese also be given the right to vote outside the country.

In his 17th statement, Mir-Hossein Mousavi made five specific points that he deemed necessary to start the political (and national) reconciliation process. The proposal lead to a noticeable uptick in the weeks leading up to 22 Bahman in talk of the need for national "unity" and also garnered much attention from Iranian intellectuals and dissidents. Ultimately, the regime's more radical elements reemerged and silenced the chatter before the security apparatus prevented a strong opposition showing on the revolution's 31st anniversary. But Mousavi's "five points," as they have come to be called, still carry much weight. Generally, they are:

Supreme Leader Khamenei addressed the Assembly of Experts in the Majles today claiming that the oppositionists have lost their presence in the “system" since they started protesting the June 2009 elections. He continued by saying that those individuals who are unwilling to accept the law and the votes of the majority – and who instead choose to undermine the successful elections (reflecting the will of 40 million people) – will be pushed out of the “rescue boat.” He stressed that the presence of the oppositionists will no longer be tolerated in the system and that based on the Islamic principles of the system they have already lost all legitimacy.

Recently an economics professor from Jeddah, Reem Asaad, started an online campaign through her Facebook page to boycott lingerie stores operated by male staff throughout Saudi Arabia. The following article taken from Al-Arabiya and translated by the Mideastwire.com points to some of the underlying dynamics that led to this campaign and shares male reaction on this issue. As one might guess, the opinions espoused by many male shopkeepers is symptomatic of the systematic gender discrimination in Saudia Arabia. This phenomenon of men selling women's clothing, however, is surprisingly common throughout the Middle East despite the fact that a majority of women are uncomfortable with sharing intimate details with men they hardly know.