Breast cancer is the boogey man lurking underneath our breastbones, and organizations committed to eradicating the disease are the super heroines wearing pink capes, except when they are selling something that can cause cancer. That Susan G. Komen’s fragrance ‘Promise Me’ may be laced with cancer-causing ingredients is a blessing in disguise. The world needs […]
While the political debate on the future of a Palestinian state fails to make any progress towards peace, local grass root initiatives, led by the overlooked Arab women, are quietly making a difference on the ground. The story of “Kayan” an Arabic word for ”being” offers inspiration and insight on a small but growing movement […]
Çağan Şekercioğlu founded ecological research and conservation NGO KuzeyDoğa in 2007 to promote biodiversity and resist environmental degradation in Turkey’s fast-developing eastern region. As thermal power plants and hydroelectric dams pop up more and more across Turkey’s landscape, the effects of these developments on the natural environment go largely unseen. Especially in Turkey’s rural, lightly […]
Saudi King Abdullah announced on Sunday that he was giving women the right to vote and run in municipal elections. What a coincidence. One week after it seemed that Canadian oil was going to beat the Saudis to the gigantic American market by making an inane comparison between the relative ethicality of the two fossil fuel purveyors, since Saudi women can't vote, King Abdullah has given Saudi women the right to vote. Suddenly now, dirty energy lobbying group EthicalOil doesn't have a marketing leg to stand on.
Naked Israelis to the rescue. Mission: Save the Dead Sea. Hugging trees, saving whales, and starting recycling campaigns for environmentalists. Now, eco-activists from a range of organizations –– including Green Prophet –– are suggesting that people bare all, and go naked for the environment. Witnessed by the Naked Dead Sea photography event this weekend at […]
With the nearing of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Makkah, Middle Eastern leaders and the 'Ecomuslim' aim to launch an official green guide to Hajj at the House of Lords, London.
Breast feeding moms have lower blood pressure and behave more aggressively compared to women who are bottle-feeding their children, suggesting that breast-feeding dampens the body’s typical stress response to fear, new research suggests. Women who breast-feed are far more likely to demonstrate a “mama bear” effect — aggressively protecting their infants and themselves — than […]
Karin goes on a 2-night stay at Kasbah du Toubkal, an eco-lodge in the foothills of North Africa’s highest peak. Soul-shifting is how I’d describe my two night stay at the Kasbah du Toubkal in the high Atlas mountains. From the gut-wrenching heat of Marrakesh, within an hour and a half we were transported to […]
On June 17th, she started to drive the car, not pose in front of it. In a defiant move against the repressive treatment of females in Saudi Arabia, women across the Kingdom will do something commonplace around the world but forbidden in their country: they’ll start driving. Consider it the shot across the hood (much […]
"Work harmoniously, eat consciously, live moderately." After the successful Buddhist immersion program 'Monk for a Month', the Blood Foundation lubricates the friction between Muslims and non-Muslims in the 'Muslim for a Month' project in Turkey. Read more here.
“Pollinating” social and environmental justice as it goes, British bicycle activism group P.E.D.A.L. launched a 100-day trip from London to Palestine this spring. Next month in Jerusalem: that’s the goal of 22 bicycle activists who passed through Istanbul this week. The community organizers, artists, farmers and ordinary cyclists have been visiting communities across Europe where […]
200 Beirut residents reminded others that cities can (and should) be green. Fed up with the absence of greenery in Beirut, 200 residents of the city gathered this past Saturday in a decidedly concrete Sassine Square to collectively say that they wanted to “Green the Grey”. Beirut has definitely been taking steps towards being “green” […]
When two embankments collapsed at the dam of a silver refinery in the Turkish province of Kütahya, workers began scrambling to keep the cyanide-contaminated water from leaking out of the dam. If it does, environmentalists warn, the accident could become “the most dangerous environmental crisis Turkey has faced thus far.” A silver mining and refining […]
UNICEF in this news piece has announced that although a number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have made considerable progress towards improving the health of mothers and children, disparities within these countries persist, making this progress inequitable. “The health and well-being of mothers and children is often determined not […]
Conservative Muslim bloggers and women’s rights activists bring harassers and inadequate legal and cultural protection to task, with women leading the charge. Women’s rights are a key environmental issue, a topic we’ve covered in recent articles about the need for a language revolution and the Arab Spring of women. Women in the MENA region are […]