![Workers clean up at the Villaggio shopping mall in Doha, May 29, 2012. Thirteen expatriate children were among those killed in Monday's fire at the Villaggio Mall in Doha's west end, including two-year-old triplets from New Zealand. Authorities have ordered an investigation into the blaze near a childcare area at the mall amid reports that security staff at the complex reacted slowly to the blaze and in chaotic fashion. Several at the complex told Reuters fire alarms did not go off or rang only dimly. REUT](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/04/RTR32SNV.jpg/RTR32SNV.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=3miubYYA)
Elizabeth Dickinson is a Gulf-based American journalist. A former correspondent for The National newspaper, assistant managing editor at Foreign Policy magazine and Nigeria correspondent for The Economist, her work has also appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, The Atlantic, NewYorker.com, as well as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. You're most likely to find her at the airport or on Twitter: @DickinsonBeth
![Workers clean up at the Villaggio shopping mall in Doha, May 29, 2012. Thirteen expatriate children were among those killed in Monday's fire at the Villaggio Mall in Doha's west end, including two-year-old triplets from New Zealand. Authorities have ordered an investigation into the blaze near a childcare area at the mall amid reports that security staff at the complex reacted slowly to the blaze and in chaotic fashion. Several at the complex told Reuters fire alarms did not go off or rang only dimly. REUT](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/04/RTR32SNV.jpg/RTR32SNV.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=3miubYYA)
![Riot police briefly detain protesters during clashes after an anti-government rally organised by Bahrain's main opposition party Al Wefaq in Budaiya March 21, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer (BAHRAIN - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3I3JW](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/04/RTR3I3JW.jpg/RTR3I3JW.jpg?h=c2c5b897&itok=ZNjO1cS7)
![Elizabeth Dickinson](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/twitter.jpg/twitter.jpg?h=935ba3c3&itok=CaFmX6Jd)
Elizabeth Dickinson
![Children sit on a roadblock set up by protesters to prevent riot police from entering the village of Shakhoora, west of Manama, August 14, 2013. Bahraini police fired tear gas and birdshot at demonstrators on Wednesday, witnesses said, as protests called for by activists to press demands for democratic change in the U.S.-allied Gulf kingdom turned violent. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed (BAHRAIN - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX12LBN](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/03/RTX12LBN.jpg/RTX12LBN.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=YZsJXTQp)
![Elizabeth Dickinson](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/twitter.jpg/twitter.jpg?h=935ba3c3&itok=CaFmX6Jd)
Elizabeth Dickinson
![An Egyptian protester waves a Saudi Arabia flag at Tahrir square in Cairo July 29, 2011. Thousands of Egyptians gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to show Islamists and others were united in wanting change, though divisions remain on how hard to press the military rulers about the pace and depth of reforms. Muslim chants such as "There is no God but God" and "Islamiya, Islamiya" dominated. Some waved banners saying "Islamic Egypt." A senior Muslim Brotherhood official described the rally as a "Frid](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/03/RTR2PF7X.jpg/RTR2PF7X.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=H9UNWO0p)
![Elizabeth Dickinson](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/twitter.jpg/twitter.jpg?h=935ba3c3&itok=CaFmX6Jd)
Elizabeth Dickinson