Masters of War
by Bob Dylan

Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you sit back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
While the young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Red Cross rescue workers push the the bodies of two girls on a stretcher
through the rubble after Israeli air strikes on the southern Lebanese village
of Qana, 30 July 2006. At least 56 people, 34 of them children, were killed
when Israeli war planes blitzed Qana, the deadliest single strike since the
Jewish state unleashed its war on Hezbollah 19 days ago. (AFP/N. Asfouri)

A member of the Lebanese Civil Defence unit carries
a dead child after taking it out of a destroyed building
in the southern Lebanese village of Qana, 30 July 2006.
At least 56 people, 34 of them children, were killed when
Israeli war planes blitzed Qana, the deadliest single strike
since the Jewish state unleashed its war on Hezbollah 19
days ago. Qana was the site of an Israeli bombing of a UN
base 18 April 1996 that killed 105 people who had taken
refuge there during Israel's 'Grapes of Wrath' offensive -
also aimed at wiping out Hezbollah. (AFP/Anwar Amro)

Newly-crowned Miss Arab World 2006 Amira bin Yussef (C), from Tunisia,
poses with Iraqi First Runner-Up Claudia Hana (R) and Egyptian Second
Runner-up Dina Shalabi, at the end of the pageant, late 28 July 2006,
at a luxury hotel in the Egyptian Red Sea Resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
(AFP/Amro Maraghi)

Newly-crowned Miss Arab World 2006 Amira bin Yussef,
from Tunisia, models evening wear during the pageant,
late 28 July 2006, at a luxury hotel in the Egyptian Red
Sea Resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. (AFP/Amro Maraghi)

A butterfly gathers nectar from a flower at the home of Ann Udouj in Fort
Smith, Ark., 28 July 2006. (AP/Times Record, Kaia Larsen)

A crab covered with oil crawls along Ramlet El-Baida public beach (White
Beach) which is polluted with heavy fuel oil in Beirut, 29 July 2006. The
Mediterranean is threatened by its worst ever environmental disaster after
Israel's bombing of a power plant in Lebanon sent thousands of tonnes of
fuel gushing into the sea, the environment minister charged today.
(AFP/Ramzi Haidar)

Smoke billows from a southern Beirut neighborhood, 28 July 2006, three
days after the last Israeli bombardments in the area. (AFP/Eric Feferberg)

The New York Times
28 July 2006

Amid everything else that's going wrong in the world, here's one more piece of depressing news: a few days ago the Harris Poll reported that 50 percent of Americans now believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when we invaded, up from 36 percent in February 2005. Meanwhile, 64 percent still believe that Saddam had strong links with Al Qaeda.

At one level, this shouldn't be all that surprising. The people now running America never accept inconvenient truths. Long after facts they don’t like have been established, whether it's the absence of any wrongdoing by the Clintons in the Whitewater affair or the absence of W.M.D. in Iraq, the propaganda machine that supports the current administration is still at work, seeking to flush those facts down the memory hole.

But it's dismaying to realize that the machine remains so effective.

Here's how the process works.

First, if the facts fail to support the administration position on an issue — stem cells, global warming, tax cuts, income inequality, Iraq — officials refuse to acknowledge the facts.

Sometimes the officials simply lie. "The tax cuts have made the tax code more progressive and reduced income inequality," Edward Lazear, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, declared a couple of months ago. More often, however, they bob and weave.

Consider, for example, Condoleezza Rice's response a few months ago, when pressed to explain why the administration always links the Iraq war to 9/11. She admitted that Saddam, "as far as we know, did not order Sept. 11, may not have even known of Sept. 11." (Notice how her statement, while literally true, nonetheless seems to imply both that it’s still possible that Saddam ordered 9/11, and that he probably did know about it.) "But," she went on, "that's a very narrow definition of what caused Sept. 11."

Meanwhile, apparatchiks in the media spread disinformation. It's hard to imagine what the world looks like to the large number of Americans who get their news by watching Fox and listening to Rush Limbaugh, but I get a pretty good sense from my mailbag.

Many of my correspondents are living in a world in which the economy is better than it ever was under Bill Clinton, newly released documents show that Saddam really was in cahoots with Osama, and the discovery of some decayed 1980's-vintage chemical munitions vindicates everything the administration said about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. (Hyping of the munitions find may partly explain why public belief that Saddam had W.M.D. has made a comeback.)

Some of my correspondents have even picked up on claims, mostly disseminated on right-wing blogs, that the Bush administration actually did a heck of a job after Katrina.

And what about the perceptions of those who get their news from sources that aren't de facto branches of the Republican National Committee?

The climate of media intimidation that prevailed for several years after 9/11, which made news organizations very cautious about reporting facts that put the administration in a bad light, has abated. But it's not entirely gone. Just a few months ago major news organizations were under fierce attack from the right over their supposed failure to report the "good news" from Iraq — and my sense is that this attack did lead to a temporary softening of news coverage, until the extent of the carnage became undeniable. And the conventions of he-said-she-said reporting, under which lies and truth get equal billing, continue to work in the administration's favor.

Whatever the reason, the fact is that the Bush administration continues to be remarkably successful at rewriting history. For example, Mr. Bush has repeatedly suggested that the United States had to invade Iraq because Saddam wouldn't let U.N. inspectors in. His most recent statement to that effect was only a few weeks ago. And he gets away with it. If there have been reports by major news organizations pointing out that that's not at all what happened, I've missed them.

It's all very Orwellian, of course. But when Orwell wrote of "a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past," he was thinking of totalitarian states.

Who would have imagined that history would prove so easy to rewrite in a democratic nation with a free press?

Source: Paul Krugman: Reign of Error

A Haiku on Lebanon (1)
by Saleh Badrah

Carnation fragrance
amid the ruins calms her
but sadness remains

Published in the Saudi Gazette , Saturday, 29 July 2006
copyright © Saleh Badrah (2006)

Young female reporters beat their male colleagues to the forefront of the war zone, braving the danger of becoming a target for the gunships hovering over their heads.

Arab women correspondents, including Iraqis, have increasingly been reporting for Arab television outlets from violence-wrecked Iraq, and a number were killed doing their job.

But the Hezbollah-Israel showdown brought Arab female reporters out in force from day one, and it was not long before a Lebanese freelance photographer paid with her life.

Layal Nagib, 23, was killed on the spot when an Israeli missile struck next to the taxi in which she was travelling in south Lebanon.

"I volunteered to go to south Lebanon, although I usually work in the newsroom in Doha," said Katia Nasser, whose name and face became familiar among Arab audiences in a matter of days.

"The management did not discourage me from going for being a woman. On the contrary, I felt they appreciated my decision," Katia said from Al-Jazeera's Beirut office.

Women in general take a back seat in most of the male-dominated conservative Middle Eastern societies, but in audiovisual media, Arab women are increasingly occupying the turf.

Katia's West Bank-based colleagues Shereen Abu Aqleh and Jivarah al-Budairi had long been used to getting caught in crossfire. This time they stood on the Israeli side of the border reporting on the Hezbollah missiles pounding northern Israel.

Bushra Abdel Samad, who until July 11 reported for Al-Jazeera on the endless bickering between Lebanese politicians, was the first to appear in a blue body-armour and helmet from southern Lebanon.

Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television also sent out female reporters to cover the fierce bombing of Beirut's southern suburbs. In awe, Rima Maktabi and Najwa Qassem watched from a hill overlooking the densely-populated Shiite area being bombarded from air and sea.

Lebanon's private televisions also dispatched members of the female press corps to the hot spots, outnumbering their male counterparts.

LBC's Mona Saliba fed reports from the flashpoint border town of Bint Jbeil, shortly before it became famous as the scene of fierce fighting between advancing Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants.

NTV's Nancy Sabea clutched her flak jacket as she roamed devastated neighbourhoods in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Katia, for one, admitted it can be scary.

"It's normal to be scared. Courage boils down to controlling this fear and not letting it show on camera," she said.

Fear becomes more tangible after listening to Katia's narration of the targeting of a press convoy she travelled with to flee the border zone.

"I felt that life had suddenly turned into slow motion as I saw dust and smoke billowing around me," she said describing the aftermath of the shelling which hit in front and behind the five-vehicle convoy.

Herself a Lebanese from the south, Katia appeared to be struggling on screen to hide her sympathy for southerners who were being killed or fleeing their villages.

"Humans were more important for me than anything else happening on the ground. This was my people being hit. On air, I separated between personal feelings and pure reporting, but -- off air -- I cried twice," she said.

Female reporters appear more professional than male counterparts in adhering to safety precautions. Male correspondents have been seen roaming dangerous zones without bullet-proof vests. When some took the trouble of wearing a flak jacket they did not bother to don a helmet.

But taking risks seems to pay back for female reporters in quick fame.

"You are a hero," said Katia, recalling messages she received from viewers in many Arab countries.

"I feel I got more (praise) than I deserve... too much," she said, insisting that she was "only one among those people" who were stuck in their bombed villages.

One male Gulf columnist went even further in praising one female reporter stationed in Beirut to claim that she has "outdone (veteran Western reporters) Kate Adie and Christiane Amanpour."

Samah Shehab cries in a hospital in Beirut, 26 July 2006. Samah was injured
during Israeli attacks on Tyre, south Lebanon. (Reuters/Adnan Hajj)

Memory for Forgetfulness

by Mahmoud Darwish

Beirut, August, 1982

Out of one dream, another dream is born:

-Are you well? I mean, are you alive?

-How did you know I was just this moment laying my head on your knee to sleep?

-Because you woke me up when you stirred in my belly. I knew then I was your coffin. Are you alive? Can you hear me?

-Does it happen much, that you are awakened from one dream by another, itself the interpretation of the dream?

-Here it is, happening to you and to me. Are you alive?

-Almost.

-And have the devils cast their spell on you?

-I don't know, but in time there's room for death.

-Don't die completely.

-I'll try not to.

-Don't die at all.

-I'll try not to.

-Tell me, when did it happen? I mean, when did we meet? When did we part?

-Thirteen years ago.

-Did we meet often?

-Twice: once in the rain, and again in the rain. The third time, we didn't meet at all. I went away and forgot you. A while ago I remembered. I remembered I'd forgotten you. I was dreaming.

That also happens to me. I too was dreaming. I had your phone number from a Swedish friend who'd met you in Beirut. I wish you good night! Don't forget not to die. I still want you. And when you come back to life, I want you to call me. How the time flies ! Thirteen years! No. It all happened last night. Good night!

Three o'clock. Daybreak riding on fire. A nightmare coming from the sea. Roosters made of metal. Smoke. Metal preparing a feast for metal the master, and a dawn that flares up in all the senses before it breaks. A roaring that chases me out of bed and throws me into this narrow hallway. I want nothing, and I hope for nothing. I can't direct my limbs in this pandemonium. No time for caution, and no time for time. If I only knew--if I knew how to organize the crush of this death that keeps pouring forth. If only I knew how to liberate the screams held back in a body that no longer feels like mine from the sheer effort spent to save itself in this uninterrupted chaos of shells. 'Enough!' 'Enough!' I whisper, to find out if I can still do anything that will guide me to myself and point to the abyss opening in six directions. I can't surrender to this fate, and I can't resist it. Steel that howls, only to have other steel bark back. The fever of metal is the song of this dawn.

What if this inferno were to take a five-minute break, and then come what may? Just five minutes! I almost say, 'Five minutes only, during which I could make my one and only preparation and then ready myself for life or death.' Will five minutes be enough? Yes. Enough for me to sneak out of this narrow hallway, open to bedroom, study, and bathroom with no water, open to the kitchen, into which for the last hour I've been ready to spring but unable to move. I'm not able to move at all.

Two hours ago I went to sleep. I plugged my ears with cotton and went to sleep after hearing the last newscast. It didn't report I was dead. That means I'm still alive. I examine the parts of my body and find them all there. Two eyes, two ears, a long nose, ten toes below, ten fingers above, a finger in the middle. As for the heart, it can't be seen, and I find nothing that points to it except my extraordinary ability to count my limbs and take note of a pistol lying on a bookshelf in the study. An elegant handgun--clean, sparkling, small, and empty. Along with it they also presented me with a box of bullets, which I hid I don't know where two years ago, fearing folly, fearing a stray outburst of anger, fearing a stray bullet. The conclusion is, I'm alive; or, more accurately, I exist.

No one pays heed to the wish I send up with the rising smoke: I need five minutes to place this dawn, or my share of it, on its feet and prepare to launch into this day born of howling. Are we in August ? Yes. We are in August. The war has turned into a siege. I search for news of the hour on the radio, now become a third hand, but find nobody there and no news. The radio, it seems, is asleep.

I no longer wonder when the steely howling of the sea will stop. I live on the eighth floor of a building that might tempt any sniper, to say nothing of a fleet now transforming the sea into one of the fountainheads of hell. The north face of the building, made of glass, used to give tenants a pleasing view over the wrinkled roof of the sea. But now it offers no shield against stark slaughter....

'Our Lady of Lebanon, protect him for all Lebanon!' The barely audible prayer spreads like a prophet's tent, like the raised turrets of Israeli tanks. The Israeli secret habit has now become an open marriage. Israeli soldiers stretch out on the shores of Junieh. And Begin on his birthday eats a whole tank made of halva and calls for signing a peace treaty, or for renewing the old one between Israel and Lebanon. And he chides America: 'We've made you a present of Lebanon.'

What is this old treaty, now up for renewal?

It is a fact that Begin doesn't live in this age or speak a modern language. He's a ghost, come back from the time of King Solomon, who represents the golden age of Jewish history that passed through the land of Palestine. In Jerusalem, he made coins as common as stones. He built the luxurious temple on a hill and decorated it with cedar and sandalwood, and with silver, gold, and dressed stone; and he made the royal throne of gilded ivory. He struck a treaty with Hiram, king of Tyre, who offered metals and master craftsmen, and fished with him in the Mediterranean. Solomon built the boats, and Hiram gave him the seamen; he built the temple and ruled when he became king. His people learned metalworking and the making of weapons from the Philistines, navigation from the Phoenicians, and agriculture, house building, reading, and writing from the Canaanites.

Begin has assumed the persona of Solomon, pushing aside Solomon's wisdom, his songs, and his cultural resources. He's taken only the golden age, hoisted on combat tanks. He hasn't learned the lesson about the fall of the kingdom, when the poor became poorer and the rich, richer. His only concern with Solomon is to seek out the king of Tyre to sign a peace treaty. Where is the king of Tyre? Where's the king of Ashrafiya? Begin freezes history as of this moment, not seeing the end of the temple, of which nothing remains except a wall for crying--a wall that archaeology hasn't been able to prove Solomon built. But what have we to do with the history of what came out of history? For in the mind of the king of the legend everything has been frozen as it had been, and since that time history has done nothing in Palestine and on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean except wait for the new king of the legend....

Let Beirut be what it wants to be:

This, our blood raised high for her,

Is an unbending tree. I now wish,

I wish I knew where the heart will fly,

That I may release for her the bird of my heart

And from my body let him set me free.

I am not yet dead and know not if I'll grow

One day older, to see what can't be seen

Of my cities. Let Beirut be what it wants to be:

This, our blood raised high for her,

Is a wall holding at bay my sorrow.

Should she want it, let the sea be ours,

Or let there be no sea in the sea,

If that's what she wants.

Here, within her, I live,

A banner from my own shroud.

Here, I leave behind what's not mine.

And here, I dive into my own soul,

That my time may start with me.

Let Beirut be what it wants to be.

She will forget me,

That I may forget her.

Will I forget? Oh, would, oh, would I could

This moment bring back my homeland

Out of myself! I wish I knew what I desire

I wish I knew!

I wish I knew!"

From Mahmoud Darwish: Memory for Forgetfulness (Beirut, August, 1982) - Translated by Ibrahim Muhawi (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1995)

Source: Memory for Forgetfulness - Mahmoud Darwish

A Jordanian woman disembarks from a military plane at the Amman airport
along with other evacuees from Lebanon, 26 July 2006. (Reuters/Ali Jarekji)

Saudi says Israel attacks threaten regional war

by Andrew Hammond
Reuters
25 July 2006

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah warned on Tuesday of war in the Middle East if Israel continues attacking Lebanon and the Palestinians, in an apparent appeal to key ally the United States to end the fighting.

"Saudi Arabia warns everybody that if the peace option fails because of Israeli arrogance, there will be no other option but war," state-owned media quoted the king as saying.

His comments were unusually forthright for Saudi Arabia, which has called for a ceasefire but has also blamed Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrilla group for starting the fighting which has so far claimed 411 lives in Lebanon and 42 in Israel.

Analysts say the kingdom, the world's top oil exporter, and other key U.S. allies such as Jordan and Egypt fear that popular anger could escalate and force them to take an aggressive stance over Israel that angers Washington and worsens the crisis.

Arab governments have often said that since the last Arab-Israeli war in 1973 they have decided to pursue peace as a means to end disputes over occupied land and the status of the Palestinians, who do not have a state.

The king's comments suggested that Arab governments could decide to rethink that approach.

"No one can predict what will happen if things get out of control," said the statement from the king, who was due to hold talks with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak later on Tuesday.

"The Arabs have declared peace as a strategic choice ... and put forward a clear and fair proposal of land for peace and have ignored (Arab) extremist calls opposing the peace proposal... but patience cannot last forever."

The king was referring to an Arab peace initiative, proposed by Saudi Arabia and adopted in a 2002 Arab summit, which offers Israel a comprehensive peace in return for land it seized in a 1967 Middle East war.

Mubarak, also facing popular anger over the Israeli strikes, took a swipe at U.S. policy, telling reporters in Cairo: "What is happening in the region is destructive chaos, not creative chaos."

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia also sees Hizbollah, which has the backing of many ordinary Arabs, as a tool for Shi'ite powerhouse Iran to expand its influence in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly warned of Iran's "interference" in the region, but its criticism of Hizbollah comes amid growing Arab anger at the Israeli strikes which have ravaged Lebanon.

Most Arabs see Israel, which does not want to return all of the Arab territories it seized in 1967, as more of a threat than Iran, whose help is welcomed.

Israel launched its offensive after Hizbollah killed eight soldiers and abducted two others in a July 12 border raid.

State media said Saudi Arabia had pledged $500 million to rebuild Lebanon and $250 million for the Palestinians, who are also under Israeli military siege following the capture of an Israeli soldier. It would also transfer $1 billion to Lebanon's central bank to help prop up the economy during the crisis.

Saudi Arabia has been a major political and economic sponsor of Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war was ended by a 1989 agreement made in the Saudi city of Taif.

Lebanese-Colombian singer Shakira waves to her fans during her news
conference in Red Square with St. Basil's Cathedral in the background
before her concert 'Oral Fixation World Tour 2006' in Moscow, 22 July
2006. (Reuters/Anton Denisov)

Nina Chahine, 19, of Dearborn, Michigan speaks with the
media at the US District Court 24 July 2006 in Detroit,
Michigan after a lawsuit was filed on her behalf by the
Arab American Anti Discrimination Committee to sue the
US Departments of State and Defense for failure to protect
US citizens in Lebanon. The lawsuit claims that Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld failed to fulfill their constitutional and professional
obligations and protect US citizens in a crises or time of war.
(AFP/Bill Pugliano)

Smoke caused by an Israeli air strike covers the city of Beirut 24 July 2006.
(AFP/Patrick Baz)

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires into southern Lebanon from a position
near the town of Kiryat Shmona, 22 July 2006. (Reuters/Oleg Popov)

US singer Mariah Carey performs during the International Carthage festival,
22 July 2006, at the El-Manzeh olympic stadium in Tunis. (AFP/Fethi Belaid)

A displaced Lebanese girl waits after fleeing her home and arriving at a
processing center in the port city of Sidon in southern Lebanon, 22 July
2006. (AP/Kevin Frayer)

Writer, journalist and film-maker Tariq Ali takes part in a march through
central London 22 July 2006, protesting against Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
(AFP/Felipe Trueba)

Dancers of the Korean national ballet perform during the International
Carthage Festival at the Roman Theatre in Carthage,Tunisia, 21 July 2006.
(AFP/Fethi Belaid)

Journalists inspect the damaged buildings after Israeli air raids in southern
Beirut, 20 July 2006. (Reuters/Fadi Ghalioum)

An Israeli army tank fires a shell at a building during a military operation
in the West Bank city of Nablus, 20 July 2006. (Reuters/Abed Qusini)

Misyar Opens Happiness Door to Saudis
by Souhail Karam
Reuters
Wednesday, 19 July 2006

RIYADH - Khaled never thought a form of temporary marriage, described by some in Saudi Arabia as legal prostitution, would open the door to his happily-ever-after.

The 25-year-old Saudi security guard opted to marry Zeinab, also a Saudi, through a "misyar" contract -- a kind of marriage-lite under which couples often live separately but get together regularly, sometimes just for sex.

Khaled and Zeinab are among thousands of people who choose misyar in this ultraconservative Islamic kingdom where contact between unrelated men and women is forbidden and extramarital sex regarded as a grave sin.

Misyar also offers an alternative to cash-strapped men who want to avoid lavish weddings but would like a relationship, without incurring the wrath of the morality police.

Under misyar, the husband is not financially responsible for his wife, and the marriage often ends in divorce.

Khaled, who declined to give his full name, admitted he wasn't serious about commitment when he decided on misyar.

But now, he and Zeinab are expecting a baby together.

"I thought let's give it a try ... and now I feel like a hero in a romantic film," he said.

Misyar is allowed under Sunni Islam and it is legal in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam. But it is traditionally frowned upon and the fact that it leaves the wife financially vulnerable has angered many women's activists and intellectuals.

"Misyar reduces marriage to sexual intercourse," said Hatoun al-Fassi, a female Saudi historian. "For clerics to allow it is shameful for our religion."

"A MAN'S MOODS"

In regular marriages in Saudi Arabia, men must pay for expensive ceremonies, huge dowries and a home. If the couple divorce, he must pay alimony and child support.

So misyar appeals to men of reduced means, as well as men looking for a flexible arrangement -- the husband can walk away from a misyar and can marry other women without informing his first wife.

Wealthy Muslims sometimes contract misyar when on holiday to allow them to have sexual relations without breaching the tenets of their faith.

A misyar is often one of the only options for older spinsters, divorcees and widows who often struggle to find husbands in a society where they are stigmatized.

This vulnerability has sometimes encouraged abuses: women sometimes act as matchmakers for less than scrupulous men on the prowl for lonely and wealthy spinsters.

Suhaila Zein al-Abideen, of the International Union of Muslim Scholars in Medina, said almost 80 percent of misyar marriages end in divorce.

"A woman loses all her rights. Even how often she sees her husband is decided by his moods," she said.

But Saudi television presenter Rima al-Shamikh said misyar is the result of frustration among Saudi Arabia's largely youthful population, bound by a strict religious code but exposed to Western lifestyles through the media and Internet.

"Our young people watch the satellite television channels. There is dissatisfaction," she explained. "Misyar is a way of getting around the obstacles of marriage in Gulf societies."

MARRIAGE-LITE

Some scholars say misyar was practiced in the Arabian peninsula during the early days of Islam, when men were often away for months during battles or for trading.

The practice reappeared in the early 19th century in Egypt, where it is known as urfi marriage and is now very common.

After years of study, the influential Mecca-based Islamic Jurisprudence Assembly in April declared that misyar marriage was legal, angering many womens' rights' activists in the Gulf, where misyar is practiced in several countries.

Influential Muslim cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi has given his blessing to misyar, but said there should be at least some form of dowry to provide a guarantee for the wife.

"No doubt it is somehow socially unacceptable, but there is a big difference between what is Islamically valid and what is socially acceptable," he recently told Al Jazeera television.

Saudi clerics say misyar is authorized as long as it meets the basic requirements of sharia, Islamic law -- consent of both parties, the blessing of the woman's guardian, the presence of witnesses and a state marriage official.

Adverts for Saudi men and women seeking misyar marriage abound on the Internet, recalling the "lonely hearts" columns popular in Western newspapers.

"I am a 33-year-old Saudi man with acceptable looks seeking to marry a Saudi virgin or a divorcee," read one posting on a special misyar site. "Saudi man seeking divorcee living in Jeddah, no objection to children," read another.

But not all misyar couples are in it for the short-term. A few, like Khaled and Zeinab, find misyar can be a first step to something more durable.

"We got used to each other very quickly," said Khaled, who has been married for 18 months. "Then she got pregnant. We couldn't bear our situation, so we decided to live together for real, not just with misyar."

Jordanian women shout anti-Israeli slogans during a sit-in to denounce
the continued Israeli bombing of Lebanon, near the UN offices in Amman,
20 July 2006. (AFP/Khalil Mazraawi)

A Palestinian sister of Mohammed Abu Abdoh, who was killed by an
Israeli air strike, cries during his funeral in Maghazi refugee camp in
central Gaza strip, 20 July 2006. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem)

Click Here to Enlarge