Qantara Startseite Englisch - Dialogue with the Islamic world
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Nahid Siamdoust on Iran's protests"Revolution has become more conceivable today"
Is Iran's regime at a breaking point? Nahid Siamdoust assesses the significance of the recent uprising, examines its potential leaders and outlines five possible scenarios for what comes next.
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Iran protestsMass anger in a political void
From bazaar strike to national revolt: Iran's current protest wave has achieved unprecedented social and geographic reach. But without a unifying programme or cohesive demands, can it withstand the regime's brutal response?
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Films on SudanStories from elsewhere
The war in Sudan has made displacement a fact of life for millions. Two new films, with Sudanese women at their core, reflect this reality through very different lenses. A review of "Aisha Can't Fly Away" and "Cotton Queen".
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Syrians in TurkeyA home for Istanbul's refugees
Based in an inconspicuous room in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district, Addar offers Syrian refugees education, advice and community. But without proper funding, the initiative is struggling to survive.
Politics
More about Politics-
Syria's economyAusterity and liberalisation won't rebuild the country
Syria's government is pursuing economic growth through liberalisation, foreign investment and cuts to state spending. These moves benefit the new elite but won't lift the majority out of crisis.
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Religion in the armed forcesMilitary imams to be introduced in Germany
From 2026, Germany's Bundeswehr will recruit chaplains for Muslim soldiers, responding to calls from Islamic associations that go back over two decades.
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National Dialogue in SyriaA Political Farce
The latest meeting for the purpose of national dialogue in reality served the regime in Damascus as an opportunity to legitimise its own sovereignty as well as to weaken and isolate the opposition, in the opinion of the Syrian dissident and writer Yassin Al Haj Saleh
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Interview with Nader Hashemi''The War of Ideas in Iran Is Over''
The ideological support for the Iranian regime is waning – liberal and democratic ideas have triumphed within civil society, says political scientist Nader Hashemi in this interview with Lewis Gropp
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Demonstrations against the Military Council in EgyptThe Revolution Comes First
"The military council is not cooperating with the revolution; it is trying to control it." This is the kind of thing that demonstrators are saying in Cairo. Once again, they are flocking to Tahrir Square in their thousands; only this time, they are protesting against the military council and the transition government. Amira El Ahl sends us this report
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Egypt after Mubarak
Revolution without Change of Power
The euphoria over the ouster of Hosni Mubarak has died down, and Egypt's transitional government is increasingly coming under criticism. Many people ask themselves whether a new democratic order is really being set up. By Andreas Jacobs
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Iran's Green Movement Two Years after the Protests
Simmering beneath the Surface
While Iran's revolutionary leader Ali Khamenei reinterpreted the fall of Mubarak as an Islamic rebellion, the protagonists of the 2009 Green Movement looked to Cairo in frustration: Why was there no Tahrir Square phenomenon in Tehran? By Marian Brehmer
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Critical Reflections on the Arab RevolutionsProfiteers from Authoritarian Decay
Khalil al-Anani, an Egyptian political scientist at Durham University in England, laments in his essay that, after the fall of the autocratic rulers of Tunisia and Egypt, sweeping social change has yet to come about, as the political realm is still dominated by the same old men
Society
More about Society-
Education in SyriaReturning pupils face language barrier
Eleven-year-old Ali spent six years in Germany. Now back in Syria, he is struggling with Arabic, his native language, as the new government appears overwhelmed by the task of reintegrating returning schoolchildren.
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Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi"Intersectional long before the term was coined"
A seminal feminist text by Nawal El Saadawi has been translated into English and German for the first time, over five decades after it first appeared in Arabic. Publisher and translator Sophie Haesen explains why it should be essential reading worldwide.
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Restoration of the Old Quarter in Herat
A Race against Time
Germany is providing financial support for the restoration of the Old Quarter in the Afghan city of Herat. The aim is to help the Afghans retrieve some of their lost identity and to create new jobs by funding the conservation of their culture. Britta Petersen reports from Herat
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Portrait Sadiq Al-Azm
An Argumentative Arab Enlightener
The Syrian philosopher Sadiq Al-Azm is one of the highest-profile and most strident critics of the Arab world. To this day, his ideas are between all fronts, making him enemies of both Islamist and secular dogmatists. Sadiq Al-Azm is soon to celebrate his 75th birthday. A portrait by Kersten Knipp
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Interview with Asra Nomani
'Gender Jihad' in the Service of Women's Rights
The 44-year-old US writer Asra Nomani is viewed as a prominent representative of "Gender Jihad". For the former Wall Street Journal reporter, there is no contradiction between Islam and feminism. She spoke to Alfred Hackensberger
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Opus Prize for Aicha Chenna
"Secular in My Head, Muslim in My Heart"
The Opus Prize, worth 1 million US dollars, is awarded to people who are motivated by their faith to carry out humanitarian work. This year the award went to an Arab Muslim woman for the first time – Aicha Chenna of Morocco. Martina Sabra visited the founder of the women's organization Solidarité Féminine in Casablanca
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Baha'i in Iran
A Life of Repression
The situation for Baha'i in Iran has been deteriorating ever since the "Islamic Revolution" thirty years ago. Yet persecution has intensified under President Ahmadinejad's rule. By Katajun Amirpur
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Piety and Politics in the Middle East
A Bad Pair
From the very beginning, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was more than just a fight for land. Religion plays a large role, for both the Israelis as well as the Palestinians. Pious fanatics from both sides put a strain on negotiations. Kersten Knipp reports
Culture
More about Culture-
"Archiving Gaza" anthologyA vivid record of life before the war
"Archiving Gaza in the Present" brings together essays on Gazan art, literature, music and archaeology. By preserving the memory of a once-vibrant cultural world while confronting the scale of its loss, it stands as one of the most important recent books on Gaza.
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The murder of Ben BarkaNew revelations from Israel's archives
The book "L'Affaire Ben Barka" reveals new details about the assassination of Moroccan opposition leader Mehdi Ben Barka. Long-secret Israeli documents show the role of Mossad in one of the 20th century's most mysterious murders.
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Katharina Mommsen
Goethe's Orient Investigated
No other specialist in German Studies has so thoroughly researched or written as much on Goethe and his intense bond with the Islamic world as Katharina Mommsen. On the occasion of her 80th birthday, Qantara.de offers the following article in recognition of her work. By Stefan Weidner
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The 9th Istanbul Biennial
Istanbul - a Gravitation Center for Modern Art
Istanbul is about to join the ranks of the great modern art metropolises. And now this city on the Bosporus has itself become the focus of a series of artworks. For the 9th annual Istanbul Biennial, artists from around the world have taken up the urban phenomena of this great city and its many faces. By Dirk Fuhrig
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New Exhibition of Contemporary Art in Teheran
Unusual Images for the Islamic Republic
For years they wasted away in the basement of the Teheran Museum for Contemporary Art: The paintings of well-known artists had long ago been deemed "Western works of the devil" by the Mullahs. Now they have been recovered from their hiding place and put on display at the museum
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"Oriental Garden" in Berlin
Visitors Flock to Garden of Paradise
In Berlin's local recreation area known as "Gardens of the World," traditional Islamic garden art is drawing visitors in record numbers. Already shortly after opening, the "Oriental Garden" is a magnet for tens of thousands of curious guests. Ariana Mirza reports
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Copyright and the Arab Publisher
A Catch-22 Situation: Caught between Censorship and a Weak Book Market
What drives Arab publishers and cultural institutes to book piracy? Do they want to give Arab readers access to international literature or is it all just about the bottom line? Khaled Al-Maaly, a publisher who lives and works in Germany, relates his experiences
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Book Review Bernard Lewis
"The Anger of the Arab World"
Bernard Lewis is one of the most highly-respected Western scholars of Islam. In his latest publication, he makes a further attempt to answer the question posed by the New York Times: "Why do they hate us so much?". Review by Lewis Gropp
750th anniversary of Rumi's death
750th anniversary of Rumi's death - Qantara.de
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