Middle East

A broad protest movement has been taking to the streets against the legislative plans of the Israeli government for months. With Frances Raday we have talked about the recent developments in Israel. She is a professor of law, human rights expert and a vocal critic of the current Israeli government.

The Egyptian military dictatorship hosting this year's COP poses a political challenge for all participants. But upon close inspection, reference points for demanding human rights emerge.

In an excerpt from his essay “I, ,the fag'”, Syrian author Raeef al-Shalabi reflects on an inner struggle that helped to position himself as a gay man and ultimately to think about human rights in a new way.

“We live between great countries and superpowers. We laugh and cry, fear and suffer.” In recounting seven punches in the face, Avo Kaprealian's essay tells the story of Armenians in Syria that begins and ends with an exodus.

In the past months, Turkey has prosecuted students who have displayed rainbow flags in Istanbul, indicating a pattern of state-induced political homophobia and violence against marginalized groups, together with the motivation to delegitimize the political opposition in Turkey and elsewhere.

Against the backdrop of political homophobia and anti-feminism in recent years, a two-day digital conference entitled “Queer Feminist Perspectives on Political Homophobia and Anti-Feminism in the Middle East and Europe” was held in September 2021.

The biggest uprising in the country’s history, a devastating explosion in Beirut a year ago, a global pandemic, and now one of the worst socio-economic crises in the world. In the last two years, Lebanon has been transformed beyond recognition, has unraveled beyond limits.

In a brilliant and personal essay on the history of Bidoon literature, Mona Kareem shows why literature cannot be thought along national lines.