Reading back

Well, I guess we've had a bit of time off from reading here ;-) but I have still been collecting links and have a few from recent weeks to share with you!

This Svenska Dagbladet-account of (northern) Iraqi investments in tourism gives some
perspective on the and development. But with increased violence also in the north, it still feels distant, even if there has been, so far, more reason for optimism there that elsewhere. However, last weeks rising attacks in the north do not encourage optimism - read the BBC reporting on Yazidis own opinions on the tragic event.

Al-Jazeera had this story on the situation for women in Iraq, highlighting the difficulties they face, including the need for selling sex to surive.

The US is attempting to list the Iranian revolutionary guard as terrorists. I am afraid this does not further dialogue and constructive development.

A friend has previously shown this, but I still want to share it with you too - beautiful photos (published by the BBC) of Lake Nasser south of Aswan in Egypt. Thanks Ibn ad Dunya!

Swedish Middle East journalist and photographer Mia Gröndahl writes about a Swedish photographer in the 1950's and his attempts to publish images of the Palestinian refugee population in Gaza. If I remember correctly his book is impossible to get hold of...

In the Swedish debate, issues on the fight against terrorism has been discussed again, here in Expressen.

Slightly more recent are 2 very interesting (as usual!) Crisisgroup-reports. The first one, from early August, is on Gaza and the way forward after the violent and tragic intra-Palestinian split earlier this summer. It warns against believing that peace is made by splitting the Palestinians like this.
The second report discusses Turkey and Europe after the AKP landslide election victory in July (heavily covered here) and was issued last week.