A fantastic move for human rights – if consistently upheld

The government have done something right. Hoorah. On the Andrew Marr show, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said that any individual that has abused human rights would not be able to enter the country. He specifically spoke about the Olympics and clarified that that any athletes from the Syrian delegation who had connections (or supported) Bashar al-Assad’s regime would be banned from entering the UK.

I don’t need to say it but this is a fantastic move on the part of the British government. As a country, we shouldn’t be welcoming those who are involved in torture, mass murder or a string of further abuses, as is the case with al-Assad’s regime. And the same can be said of the leaders of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and a number of other countries.

If the government are serious about this, they need to prove it. In Bahrain, citizens have been protesting peacefully for over a year, and one person was shot and killed on the very first day. In a continuation of the brutal tactics, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa then brought in tanks from Saudi Arabia to viciously crush the non-violent movement. Tom Malinowski, director of the Washington, D.C. office of Human Rights Watch, dubbed Bahrain “Prison Island” and writes that in response for taking part in peaceful demonstrations, protesters can expect to be either arrested, tortured, thrown off a building onto a balcony, tear-gassed or a mixture of the above. So why, just over 10 days ago, was King Hamad at the Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations sharing a joke with Her Majesty?

Food from my childhood - emel

I was asked by emel magazine's Lifestyle editor Fatema Zehra to write for a section of the magazine called Food from my Childhood. The issue was just published and here's what I wrote:

Cameron vs. Merkel: Watching the Champions League final

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

This first picture is great, really telling. Just look at the reactions as Prime Minister David Cameron, President Barack Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel, José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, President François Hollande and others watch the overtime shootout of the Chelsea vs. Bayern Munich Champions League final, in the Laurel Cabin conference room during the G8 Summit at Camp David.

Cameron appears to be the only leader with his sleeves rolled up carrying on the theme of "chillaxing" that's been floating in the media (he's clearly not working, is he?), Merkel looks like she's about to shout at someone, Obama is just casually enjoying the sport and Hollande appears to have no idea of what's happening.

Here's what happened next:

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Cameron and Merkel hug to express no hard feelings (although Cameron is obviously whispering "And you claim to never lose penalties.") Hollande, meanwhile, still has no idea what's happening.

Originally published in The Student Journals.

Hollande: est-elle la nomination de Vallaud-Belkace le premier pas dans la bonne direction?

Le nouveau président a apporté un air d’espérance avec lui, particulièrement pour la grande communauté musulmane en France. « Le changement est maintenant », a déclaré François Hollande plusieurs fois pendant sa campagne présidentielle et il a rapidement tiré un trait sur la présidence de Sarkozy.


Par rapport a Sarkozy, qui a montré ses cinq enfants au monde pendant son investiture, les enfants d’Hollande n’étaient pas là. Hollande veut être vu comme un président qui fait le travail et il veut recréer la ligne entre la vie publique et la vie privée. En plus, c’est la première fois en France que le nombre des femmes et des hommes du Gouvernement est égal.

 Le fait que la porte-parole du Gouvernement est Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, aussi la ministre des droit des femmes est révélateur. Elle est jeune, 34 ans, et elle apporte encore sa nationalité marocaine, où elle est née- ce qui vraiment énerve la droite. Peut-être qu’elle ne veut pas être un « icône de la diversité » mais elle peut devenir un symbole d’aspiration pour tous les immigrés en France.

France gets socialist president after almost two decades

On 15 May, François Hollande was inaugurated as the seventh President of the Fifth French Republic. Allow me to let you in on a not-so-discreet secret though; the French people are not particularly fond of their President. While Hollande won enough votes to be named President, the alternative in the second round was the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of ‘bling bling’. During the election campaign, Hollande was seen as the anti-Sarkozy, the ‘ordinary’ French citizen. This was amplified by Sarkozy himself when he was caught hiding his £45,000 watch in his pocket before shaking the hands of supporters, out of fear that it would be stolen.

After the first round of the elections, the big news was that of Marine Le Pen achieving a record high percentage with the far-right National Front. Yet while worrying, the more significant news should remain that a left-wing Socialist candidate was named the President of France for the first-time in seventeen years. Hollande may have no government experience but he was able to inspire enough votes, regardless of their reasoning.


Hollande’s electoral message was one of hope, and a change from Sarkozy’s style of leadership. Without doubt, one of the areas where he will have the most impact on an international scale is the economy and the Eurozone treaty. Indeed, on the very day of his inauguration he visited Angela Merkel, the German chancellor who publicly backed Sarkozy in the elections, after closely working with him on the fiscal treaty.