This short sentence is all you need to understand why the German government committed an error of judgment concerning Afghanistan. An error of judgment that kills people every day – and democracy throughout the world as well, by the way.

Just days after Taliban violently seized control of Afghanistan, the Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum, Notis Mitarakis, has warned of a repeat of the situation in 2015 and announced that Greece will not be the “gateway to Europe for illegal Afghan migrants”.

Turkish President Erdogan, usually a friend of many and often harsh words, needed almost a week before he took a stand on the Taliban takeover in Kabul.

What is needed now is a special programme to resettle people living in danger in Afghanistan and to give Afghan nationals already living in Germany the right to remain and prospects for their futures!

This two-day digital conference, organized by the Humboldt University of Berlin’s Department of Diversity and Social Conflict in cooperation with Brown University and the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, aims to bring together researchers, activists, and community organizers to discuss how discourses on gender and sexuality have evolved in the Middle East and Europe amid the rise of far-right and authoritarian movements.

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.

The Geneva Refugee Convention turned 70. Hardly anyone feels like celebrating in view of the many violations internationally, but the occasion offers the opportunity to strongly support the Convention’s principles in face of all hostilities, because it stands for nothing less than the protection of refugees.

What if leaders of all stripes, from diverse sectors, started to follow the kinds of feminist leadership approaches that have been championed by activists from all over the world for decades. How might this type of leadership help us to navigate our way through these splintered, uncertain times?

It still feels so rare to see non-profit leaders take a firm, defiant stand when facing backlash for their attempts to disrupt the status quo. It still feels unusual to see a leader lean into, rather than away from their values when push comes to shove.

In the non-profit sector, we’re great at talking about structural inequalities. Yet despite our fluency in structural analyses of power, we remain woefully inarticulate about a very specific form of power: privilege.