Dec 10, 2012 Posted by Joelle

Can A Blog Make People Happy?

In late October 2012, I enrolled in the 6-week course Introduction to Infographics and Data Visualization with Alberto Cairo, an internationally renowned expert in the field. The course is offered by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. For our final project, Professor Cairo gave us the liberty to do whatever we want. All we had to do was choose a topic, gather the appropriate information, and... read more

Sep 4, 2011 Posted by Joelle

Expressing Sexuality Through Art

To commemorate World Sexual Health Day (September 4), an art exhibit entitled “Good Sex/ Bad Sex/ No Sex/ Your Sex” was held at AltCity, in Hamra. “Sexuality is such a profound part of our life. So is art,” explained event organizer Rola Yasmine, member of the Youth Initiative Committee of the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS). ”What we did here is create a space for... read more

Aug 20, 2011 Posted by Joelle

Industries Shaping Women’s Self-Esteem

Self-esteem is what a person thinks of their own self-worth. It includes beliefs and emotions, and is reflected by behavior. In today’s world, girls and women are supposed to follow ideals of beauty, appearance and weight, imposed by multiple interconnecting industries that benefit from making them feel bad about themselves. The more women hate their bodies, the more they can buy dieting products... read more

Jul 25, 2011 Posted by Joelle

Deconstructing Sexual Harassment

One of the challenges of addressing sexual harassment is that it is, to a large extent, hard to define. It could be reduced to “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.” But there’s a lot more to sexual harassment than just a range of hostile or offensive acts. And while the absence of laws to criminalize and... read more

Jun 19, 2011 Posted by Joelle

Speak Up Against Sexual Harassment

This illustration is my contribution to the blogging and tweeting day against sexual harassment and gender-based violence, a call to action on June 20 initiated by activists in Egypt. In Lebanon, the team behind The Adventures of Salwa joined the campaign with a parallel blogging day. So did activists in Sudan. You, too, can speak up about sexual harassment. If you’re a blogger, post a personal... read more

Feb 7, 2011 Posted by Joelle

Egypt Will Rise

Using photos taken by Reuters photojournalists Amr Abdallah Dalsh and Goran Tomasevic, activist and artist Nick Bygon developed this illustration in support of the Egyptian people’s revolt against President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year dictatorial rule. The illustration is available for download in different sizes under a Creative Commons license. However, as Bygon created it without the... read more

Jan 30, 2011 Posted by Joelle

Breakdown: US Aid To Egypt

In the aftermath of Egypt’s crackdown on protesters since the revolution began on January 25, 2011, Washington has announced it is reviewing its aid package to the country. Egypt receives close to $2bn in financial assistance every year, making it the second largest recipient of US foreign assistance after Israel. In this infographic, I break down this aid which underlines the US’s longstanding... read more

Jan 26, 2011 Posted by Joelle

Carlos Latuff Draws Revolts

I’ve always been a fan of cartoonist Carlos Latuff. The ongoing revolts in Tunisia, and the recent uprising in Egypt, as well as Al Jazeera’s release of The Palestine Papers, the largest-ever leak of confidential documents related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have been a fertile ground for him. Here is a selection of some of my favorite cartoons of his reflecting on #Tunisia,... read more