Arab Spring on Vice
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
The Mare
A New Story by Mary Gaitskill
Toppling a Delicate World
Being Gay and South Asian In America
There's No Sex in Prison Showers
We Usually Wore Our Underwear
Try Not to Destroy Your Life
The First Time I Took Molly
Femen
Sextremism in Paris
"Whitey" Isn't Very Popular in Boston
Interviews with Some of His Old Friends