Just back from the 5th Arab Women’s Forum, Beirut (1-2) February.  As a guest of Lulu(in white) and Balsam(in black suit) Al-Ayoub, the famous fencing sisters from Kuwait I got an insider’s view of what is going on across the region.  The general sentiment was that the Arab spring is all very well, but what now? There was a harrowing presentation with pictures of abused girls and women on “The worst country to be a woman” from an Afghan presenter.  She said that the US used ‘women’s rights’ as a pre-text for invasion but left the country in a worst state and just took the oil.  Generally the mood was upbeat put there is palpable fear of dictatorial theocracies planting themselves in “Spring” soil. I met Arwa Damon who reports for CNN in the Middle East and we had a good discussion re. reporting in this region. Lulu, Balsam and I headed back to Kuwait where elections were being held. There has never been so much at stake at the ballot box and I was impressed to see Lulu and Balsam helping with vote counting.  I will write more in this issue of the Charitarian.