Photo Essays

A new exhibition at the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn offers a portrait of the daily lives of Muslims in Germany. By Marlis Schaum

For months now, Syria's largest city, Aleppo, has been a battleground. These pictures, taken in Aleppo by the photojournalist Daniel Etter in July and August this year, tell a tale of violence and suffering - and also hope.

"Breaking the Silence" is an initiative launched by veteran Israeli soldiers who want to draw attention to the situation in the Palestinian territories. They tell of violence against Palestinians, intimidation, a gradual increase in brutality and more. The 2012 "Breaking the Silence" exhibition toured major European capitals. All photos from Breaking the Silence.

In spite of strict moral regulations, plastic surgery is allowed in Iran. More than 60,000 Iranian women per year get nose surgery. Such contradictions have informed Tehran-born artist Homa Arkani's work since 1983.

Since the toppling of President Amadou Toumani Toure in March 2013, Mali has been trapped in a hopeless political crisis. After a band of soldiers staged a mutiny in the capital Bamako, rebel Tuaregs and Islamist groups took the opportunity to seize control of the north of the country in a bid to declare an independent state. By Annett Hellwig

It's a day of celebration for Israelis but for Palestinians it's the Nakba, the catastrophe. The foundation of Israel on 14 May 1948 meant hundreds of thousands of them fled or were expelled from their homes.

The image of women in Iran has undergone dramatic change in recent years. Today, many Iranian women play a much more active role in their nation's economic and social life than during the Shah era. More than half of all students at Iranian universities are female. And in professional life, many Iranian women are keeping pace with their male counterparts, working as doctors, engineers, teachers and university lecturers. As actors and directors, they are making a significant contribution to the cultural life of their nation. And despite all the restrictions imposed on them by Islamic moral guardians in public life, they are making their presence felt in the sporting world too – something that would have been unthinkable just decades ago.

Al Mutanabbi Street is one of the oldest and best known streets in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, viewed as a seismograph of the state of Iraqi culture over the course of the centuries. The history of the street goes back to the time of the Abbasids. It was the site of the first book traders' market in the metropolis that was Baghdad. With its almost inexhaustible supply of books, Al Mutanabbi Street served as a contemporary witness to the political and cultural changes taking place in Mesopotamia. While in the 1950s, most of the books available were Marxist writings, these were later replaced by nationalistic Pan-Arabic works. For more than 30 years, traders were only allowed to sell books that glorified the Ba'ath ideology and later Saddam Hussein. All photos by Munaf al-Saidy

In the years 2003, 2004 and 2006, Ikhlas Abbis travelled through the marshlands of southern Iraq. He took photographs of the process of development taking place in the swamps, which were drained under Saddam Hussein in the 1980s and reflooded after his overthrow.