Search

Iraq's beacon shines no more

The Kurds are fleeing Kurdistan. The wave of refugees on the Belarusian-Polish border and the drowned Kurds in the English Channel are only the tip of the iceberg. Birgit Svensson visited Erbil and Dohuk to find that the exodus from Kurdistan has already been going on for several years

The power of provocation

Salafism. It's madness! It's the evil of our time! It's the decline of the West! These first, intuitive reactions are understandable. But in a second step, we should try to achieve a deeper and more self-critical insight into what this movement is all about. By Aladin El-Mafaalani

Hotbeds of anger and resentment

According to sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar, one of the significant factors of jihadist radicalisation in Europe is a type of city district he describes as the "jihadogenous urban structure". This type of urban structure shapes the identity of those who are socially excluded and culturally stigmatised

Iraq: IS returnees met with tolerance – and distrust

In Iraq, returning families of IS fighters have to turn to local initiatives for help, as there is no official path home. Judit Neurink met with families on the ground

Reading outside the box

Mullahs, dictatorship, nuclear conflict – Iran could be reduced to these keywords if one were to rely only on the articles in the daily press. But to really understand a country better, you have to study its literature. And Iranian literature is just as diverse as the country itself. By Gerrit Wustmann

Going their own way

For a long time, Persian classical music was considered untouchable. Now the sons of Iran′s great ustads have begun to change traditional music. By Marian Brehmer

The writers fated to "represent"

There is a common expectation that writers with non-European origins will supply a literary representation of their birth culture. But many of them find themselves adrift between two cultural entities. Is it merely a question of focusing on one at the expense of the other? Marcia Lynx Qualey met the "Arabic Europe" authors featured at this year's Shubbak Festival in London

Coronavirus lockdown weighs heavy on a country in crisis

Coronavirus, economic crisis and an unresolved explosion: the situation in Lebanon is tense and a new lockdown is only making things worse for a people already suffering trauma and economic devastation. Diana Hodali reports

U.S. aid cuts bite in Gaza

UNRWA, the relief agency for Palestinian refugees, is feeling the crunch since the United States, its main donor, slashed its contributions. The crisis comes amid a military escalation between Hamas and Israel. Tania Kraemer reports from Gaza

The subsidy quandary

Flour, medicine, fuel … a whole range of essential goods is subsidised in Lebanon. If the subsidies stop, then prices, poverty and the possibility of conflict increases. If they don't, the country runs out of money. Local experts say they have an answer. They just need politicians to act on it. Cathrin Schaer reports from Beirut