Author Archives: Mehrunisa

About Mehrunisa

Mehrunisa Qayyum is the founder of PITAPOLICY Consulting & Blog. PITAPOLICY Blog is listed on Muftah.Org. As @PITAPOLICY she tweets about politics, interests, technology and analysis in the "pita-consuming" region and contributes to the Huffington Post Blog, A Better People, and Triple Pundit. Regarding international affairs and trade issues, she worked at the United States’ Government Accountability Office for four years. Prior to that, she earned her MPP and Certificate in Contemporary Arab Studies from Georgetown University and a BA in both Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations and Public Policy from the University of Chicago. Her recent writing experiences include analytical pieces on civil society, transparency & governance, human rights, political economy of Syria, and social media forums' impact. She enjoys watching the Colbert Report in her free time.

“Governance and Stability in Iraq” Remarks by Deputy PM Saleh al-Mutlaq

The United States Institute of Peace (USIP), the National Defense University (NDU), and the Iraqi American Community Center (IAC) hosts H.E. Mr. Saleh al-Mutlaq, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq, and members of the Iraqi Council of Representatives … Continue reading

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Impasse: #US Senate Hearing “#Syria Refugee Crisis” #SyrianRefugees

“Only 31 [Syrian] refugees were allowed into the U.S. in 2013,” said Senator Durbin, who added that none of the Gulf Cooperation Council members have committed to accepting Syrian refugees and that “these countries need to step up as well” … Continue reading

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Filed under Analysis, Interests, Politics

Town of Kafranbel in Syria Is 2nd Wave of Revolution

Note: On January 7th, the U.S. Senate will hold another hearing on the humanitarian crisis in Syria.   Senator Durbin, (D-IL) will preside as Syrian activists provide testimony.  We are live-blogging and live-tweeting The Coalition for a Democratic Syria (CDS), which … Continue reading

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Filed under Interests, PIDE (Policy, International Development & Economics), Politics

Happy 2014 Pitaconsumers: Wrestling with a form of secularism that doesn’t alienate.

Dear Pitaconsumers, Time to start 2014 with some good news, sandwiched by bad news, wrapped up in more good news.  That is definitely not a formula for objective blogging. But, it is tooo easy to note all the worrisome predictions … Continue reading

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Filed under Analysis, Interests, PIDE (Policy, International Development & Economics), Politics, Technology

Does coverage of government corruption overshadow coverage of business corruption in the Middle East & North Africa region?

“The world with all countries resized to their population” Source: Twitter @RichardMclellan Notes: Egypt is 2nd largest populated country in Africa; among largest in MENA region–with Iran, Turkey and Pakistan. Middle East and North Africa: Holding Public and Private Corruption … Continue reading

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What Are 5 Innovative Trends in Women’s Economic Equality?

Greetings Pitaconsumers, Apologies for being offline for the last 10 days, the PITAPOLICY sight underwent technical maintenance!  Much has happened as we wind up the 2013. On December 8th, we observed the first “Peace Game” simulation at the  U.S. Institute … Continue reading

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Filed under Analysis, PIDE (Policy, International Development & Economics)

Bad And/Or Good News: TIME Magazine Names General al-Sisi; Egypt’s New Tech Park

Added 12/10/13: What’s really puzzling is that the Egypt’s Defense Minister did not make it to TIME Magazine’s top ten finalists for 2013–a separate selection process that is distinct from last week’s readers’ poll.  But two other figures from the … Continue reading

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Turkish Opposition Party, CHP, Visits U.S.A After 37 Years

  Photo by PITAPOLICY: Kemal Kilicdaroglu at the Kenney Auditorium of the Johns Hopkins SAIS building.   “The government in Ankara is democratic in name only,” wrote the head of a Turkish opposition party in the Wall Street Journal.  On … Continue reading

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Forbes Middle East’s Top 50 Influential Women Is From Syria

Originally Interviewed for Oryx Premium by Mehrunisa Qayyum,  Founder of PITAPOLICY Consulting & Blog Forbes Middle East’s Top 50 Influential Women Is From Syria Published for Qatar Airways Oryx Premium magazine What does one of the Forbes Middle East Top … Continue reading

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Western Sahara: Resolution Between Three, Not Two Parties

PITAPOLICY is excited that its founder, Mehrunisa Qayyum, contributed her first piece to the Atlantic Council’s MENASource Blog.  The Atlantic Council is a Washington, DC based think tank that houses the Rafik Hariri Center focusing on the Middle East & … Continue reading

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