Arab World

( Middle East Monitor ) – The problem with most Western media’s political analyses is that they generally tend to be short-sighted and focused mostly on variables that are of direct interest to Western governments. These types of analyses are now being applied to understanding official Arab attitudes towards Russia, China, global politics and conflicts. […]

Russia

The Forgotten War: what Russia could win from the reignited Conflict in Syria

The Conversation

Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham | – (The Conversation) – Largely overshadowed by the war in Ukraine, Syria remains a deeply divided and violent country, where military conflict has recently reignited. This new period of conflict in Syria, with Russia, Turkey and Israel all launching attacks, also reflects some of the battle lines of the […]

Ethiopia

Half a million Ethiopian Migrants have been Deported from Saudi Arabia in 5 years – what they go through

The Conversation

By Girmachew Adugna, Addis Ababa University | – (The Conversation) – Tens of thousands of migrant Ethiopian workers have been forcibly repatriated from Saudi Arabia each year since the early 2010s. Although this is carried out as part of a crackdown on illegal migrant workers, legally documented workers have frequently been caught in the dragnet. […]

Children

Yemen: Ukraine War, boosting Wheat Prices, has increased Food Insecurity and Acute Malnutrition for Children

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Russia’s War on Ukraine has added to global inflation along many dimensions, including higher gasoline and fossil gas prices. It has also affected the price of wheat, since Ukraine and Russia used to be responsible for 9% and 19% of global wheat exports. Although wheat shortages of the magnitude that […]

Bashar al-Assad

Syria: Families of ‘Disappeared’ Deserve Answers: UN Proposal Offers Promising Pathway (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

( Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – United Nations member countries should establish an international, independent entity to track and identify those missing and disappeared since the start of the Syria crisis in 2011, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. The Syrian conflict has been marked by prolonged arbitrary detention, torture and other […]

Featured

Could Iran’s Kurdish Protests and the Ayatollahs’ Determination to Crush Them Destabilize Neighboring Iraq?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The protests roiling Iran this fall have had an epicenter in Iranian Kurdistan in the west of the country. The death in the custody of the Shiite morality police of Tehran of a Kurdish young woman, Mahsa “Zhina” Amini, rallied Kurdish-Iranian subnationalism. Cities like Mahabad, Saqqez, and Sanandaj have seen […]

Arab World

No more “Marry your Rapist”: Repeal Laws Discriminating against Women in the Middle East – ‘Equality Now’

Middle East Monitor

By Amelia Smith | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – The women’s rights NGO, Equality Now, has released a policy brief to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on how inadequate justice for women and girls, and a lack of deterrents for perpetrators, has increased violence against women. According to […]

Afghanistan

How the Bush “War on Terror” Fed US White Nationalism and brought the Terror Home

Andrea Mazzarino

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Recently, an agent of the Department of Homeland Security called me and started asking questions about a childhood acquaintance being investigated for extremism. I put him off. My feelings about this were, to say the least, complex. As a military spouse of 10 years and someone who has long written about […]

Immigration

Is the Controversy over Qatar’s World Cup just More Orientalism and Islamophobia?

Mohammed Samaana

Belfast (Informed Comment) – The entire Arab world is excited as one of the world biggest sports events, the FIFA World Cup is held in an Arab Muslim country for the first time. This excitement is because of decades of collective feeling of frustration with being portrayed by Western media as backward, uncivilized and savage. […]