Yasmine Bouchène wrote

But Yasmine explains

Jasmine Elnadeem explains

Yasmine Khalifa shares similar sentiments

Yasmine Bouchène It's the era of girl power!

Locations of the Ahwar of Southern Iraq, World Heritage Site.

Around 20,000 Marsh Arabs live in southern Iraq.

Cross posted from Yasmeen's blog, Gaza, out of the blue.

Yasmine Bouchène, Algiers, December 2012.

The wetlands span thousands of square miles in the middle of desert.

But the marshes that survived for thousands of years have taken a beating in recent decades. Iraqi governments since the 1950s began draining parts of the marshes to expand agriculture and drill for oil.

The marshes today remain one of the poorest areas in Iraq.

The liberalization of media is apparently on its way and a new text is expected by mid 2013, Yasmine rejoices.

As Yasmeen El Khoudary, fellow Global Voices author and co founder of the initiative, explained

Alwash says he feels vindicated by the UNESCO listing.

For Yasmine, black irony has become a daily sport.

Yasmine Amanda Bleeth (born June 14, 1968) is an American former actress.

Laughing at our astonishment in seeing so many girls at ESI, she brags

After 19 years serving in the government, ten of which as education minister, Boubekeur Benbouzid resigned from his post.

Much of the land along the Gulf Coast is, or was, marshland.

But since Saddam was toppled in 2003, there have been efforts to restore the suffering marsh ecosystems.

Jasmine Roman envisions a future with no sectarianism. She tweets

Yasmine calls for caution when reading and analyzing the official number of Internet subscribers as claimed by the government. One should consider the figures of the IUT (Telecom International Union), she says.

What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn't follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith

What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

Iraqi American environmentalist Azzam Alwash and Nature Iraq, the group he founded, have set up an eco camp in the heart of the marshes.

but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn't arrive at the law of righteousness.

But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.

There are still threats to the marshes primarily from agricultural runoff as well as drought attributed to climate change.

While men in the marshes fish, women and girls do most of the manual labor including cutting and transporting the reeds.

Some students of ancient history believe the marshes, lined with reeds, teeming with fish and filled with birds, are the site of the biblical Garden of Eden.

A few years ago, people were looking and laughing at me saying why do you want to restore the marshes?

In the 1980s, at war with Iran, Saddam Hussein sped up their destruction so the marshes couldn't serve as a refuge for fighters.

It was in that house that the cold reduced me to tears, as all the windows were broken and all my attempts to make it warmer failed.

This post is the first by our new author, Palestinian blogger Yasmeen El Khoudary, in which she introduces an initiative set up by a group of bloggers in Gaza called Diwan Ghazza.

On June 17, the UN cultural agency, UNESCO, added the marshlands and the ancient Sumerian cities that once flourished among them to its list of World Heritage Sites.

A few days after our discussion, she wrote a short piece on the launching of 3G in Somalia, while slamming the Algerian government

And you are carried on them and on boats .

And you are carried on them and on the ship .

and upon them , and on the ships , you are borne .

And on them and on the ship ye are borne .

And on them , and on ships you are carried .

And on them , and on the ships , you are transported .

and are carried on them and also on ships .

And on them and on the ship ye are carried .