Arab Spring on Vice

This Woman’s Dad Was Tortured and Imprisoned in Bahrain

Maryam Al-Khawaja was in the United States when her phone rang. Back in Bahrain, her native country, a government crackdown on the massive prodemocracy uprising was proceeding at a ferocious pace. The president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights was on the other end and launched into a graphic description of a man who had just been arrested and tortured by the county’s security forces. It was Maryam’s father. Full story

Molly Crabapple’s 'SHELL GAME' Opens Tomorrow in NYC, You're Invited

I've spent the last year making nine giant paintings about the rebellions of 2011: the Greek riots, Occupy Wall Street, Arab Spring… I interviewed dissident Tunisian bloggers, drank with Athenian anti-fascists, got arrested by the NYPD, and live-sketched riots in Madrid. I worked… Full story

Bahrain’s PR Campaign Is Doomed to Fail

Bahrain could solve its image problem by welcoming reform and not committing gross human rights violations. But clearly that’s not on the table, so the repressive regime is spending millions on PR and inviting journalists to its brand new Formula 1 racetrack. Full story

The Former President of Tunisia Is Selling His Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Dolce & Gabbana Suits

When Tunisia's former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country last year, he left behind Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Escalades, and loads of other valuable toys. The current government's "commission on confiscation" has now made a modern archaeological find of Ben Ali and h… Full story

A Poem Leads to a Life Sentence in Qatar

The Arab Spring has faded from headlines, but that doesn't mean governments have ceased oppressing their people. Case in point: Mohammed al-Ajami was just sentenced to life in prison in Qatar after reading a poem aloud at his house to a group of friends and colleagues. Full story

Is SpongeBob SquarePants the New Che Guevara?

Spongebob SquarePants has become a symbol for rebellious youth in Egypt. Student leaders in the fight against conservative President Mohamed Morsi have adopted him as their symbol, and he's inspired dozens of Egyptian Facebook fan groups, including at least one nominating him for… Full story

The Revolution Is Still Going on in Egypt—in Tiny Flashes

What I had witnessed was not one of the vast, telegenic protests of the Egyptian revolution. It was one of thousands of smaller acts of rebellion against authority taking place throughout the country every single day. One human rights group recorded 3,817 separate protest actions… Full story

Good Morning, Sinners... with Warren Ellis

How to Shut Down Internets

After shutting the internet down, most megalomaniac dictators believe they will still be around to turn it back on. They take their future for granted, and believe they only need to hide the corpses it will be built on. Full story

Things Are Still Going Terribly in Bahrain

To find out about the country's mostly ignored human rights crisis and the actions the government has been taking against its own people, I spoke with Maryam al-Khawaja, the acting president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, who told me people were being arrested for tweeti… Full story

The Writing Is on the Wall

Anti-Regime Activist Tarek Algorhani Talks About Fighting Guns with Cans and Tags

Tarek Algorhani launched a human-rights internet project centered around tagging anti-regime graffiti throughout the streets of Syria. In mid-October I called him up to ask how the fight was going. Full story