Almonitor Middle East News 03/12/2016

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Weekend Reads Looking for some weekend reads? Check out these five great stories that you might have missed this week. Turkey hopes to reverse its tourism woes by attracting 10 million Arab visitors a year. On the menu: women-only beaches, bedouin tents and traditional dishes. Iran is in mourning over the death of Cuba’s Fidel Castro. Even hardline anti-leftists are paying their grudging respects to an old-school revolutionary who managed to stick it to Uncle Sam two decades longer than they have. Egypt is tackling societal taboos by launching its first American football women’s league. Next stop: A national team? Israel’s conservative Jews have long favored an all-male military. Their views are coming under renewed scrutiny as they launch a campaign to bar the education ministry from funding groups that encourage religious women’s enrollment. Smart phones are all the rage in Gaza. So are smuggled Israeli SIM cards, which remain the only way to get 3G service. VIEW SLIDESHOW> Egypt Gulf Iran Iraq Israel Lebanon Palestine Syria Turkey Congress Russia / MidEast