By David Cronin

Before I visited Gaza ten months ago, I continuously heard it being described as the world’s largest open-air prison. Yet it was only when I passed through Erez, the high-tech border crossing run by a private Israeli firm, that I grasped what the phrase meant. The debris of destruction wrought by ‘smart weapons’, the constant surveillance from warplanes overhead, the heavy air pollution, the grinding poverty, the absence of basic materials needed for reconstruction – all these factors combined to make me feel something akin to suffocation.

A new Home Office report blames the sexualisation of society for violence against women. It recommends a crackdown on the media, but Eamonn Dwyer wants to know why it didn’t suggest introducing the hijab.

By Nabila Pathan

With the Equality Bill fresh in the recent news cycle, it is hardly surprising that the recent government announcement of university budget cuts of £500 million provoked coverage on the impact on equality. After all, many of this government’s higher education policies have focused on increasing places for students, whether it was 50 percent participation targets by 2010 or getting universities to publish their admissions policies.

By Shaaz Mahboob

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia appears to be at a crossroads today. For decades the alliance between its powerful clergy and the royal family has proved to be one of the most stable and blissful. However, King Abdullah’s recent flirtation with modernity appears to have backfired. Cracks are now visible in this alliance that has up until now successfully acted as a vanguard against attempts to democratise the oil-rich state or bring any progressive reforms to its society.

By Melanie Gouby

Often, French political and societal issues create more debate abroad than on their own soil. The proposed partial ban on the Islamic burqa is one typical example, and as on so many occasions, it has largely been misread by foreign commentators.

By Adam Branson

It was never going to be a particularly focused discussion. The motion for debate – “Europe is failing its Muslims” – and the panellists chosen made this week’s British Council and Intelligence Squared event inevitably rancorous.