Featuring interviews with the main protagonists from all sides, award-winning journalist Ghaith Abdul Ahad travels into the heart of Yemen’s radical heartland. He provides a first-hand report of how members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have taken advantage of turmoil in the country, imposing their rule on areas of south Yemen in a first ever attempt to establish its own state.

In Ja’ar, a town with a population of over 100,000, the Al Qaeda administration has abolished taxes, provided free water and electricity and installed sewage pipes. Their trucks distribute water to villages and Bedouin settlements. People living in the desert on the outskirts of town have said the jihad had connected their village to the electricity grid for the first time in their lives.

Reporter Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
Directed by Safa Al Ahmad
Duration: 52′
Year: 2012

This screening is in partnership with PBS America available on Sky channel 166 and Virgin Media 243

An interesting post on PBS Frontline by Hossein Borujerdi discusses Iran and the ‘Arab Spring. The  subject is the focus of tonight’s First Wednesday where we will be looking at the power struggles within the government and what has become of its Green pro-democracy movement.

Here’s an extract from the article:

Even as the Arab Spring blossoms, the Islamic Republic of Iran seems to have dexterously repressed the democratic aspirations of its people. The Iranian leadership has gone so far as to tout the recent developments in the Arab world as a victory for the Islamic Revolution of 1979, with Egypt and Tunisia walking in Iran’s proverbial footsteps.

At a glance, the recent developments in the region certainly appear to favor Iran. Since the Islamic Revolution, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s offer of sanctuary to the exiled Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and the Camp David Accords of 1978 that lead to the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, the two countries had frosty relations for decades. Sadat’s decisive shift into the Western camp also made the prospects of good relations between the two nations highly unlikely.

With the demise of the Mubarak regime, which sought to perpetuate this state of affairs, the prospects of greater cooperation between the estranged states are conceivable, especially regarding peace negotiations addressing the nature and parameters of a future Palestinian state. There was a possible sign of things to come in late February when two Iranian warships were permitted to pass through the Suez Canal, much to the chagrin of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.

 

Tonight’s event discussing Iran’s Green Revolution and the Arab Spring starts at 7pm and you can watch it live here.