Human rights deteriorating in Morocco
Rabat's defamation drive
Turkish-Russian relations
Erdogan's re-election would serve Putin
Eye-witness on Iran protests
Exiled artist Forouhar: 'A country in turmoil'
Forced marriage in Turkey
Turkish state fails child bride in sect marriage
Morocco's regime continues to silence voices through censorship and arrest, including the country's former human rights minister, Mohamed Ziane.

Human rights deteriorating in Morocco

Rabat's defamation drive

Morocco's regime continues to silence voices through censorship and arrest, apparently feeling vulnerable in the face of widespread popular criticism. Commentary by Abdellatif El HamamouchiRead more

Growing repression in Morocco: Creating an atmosphere of fearMorocco's billionaire PM: Business elite stifles politicsMorocco and the return of autocracy: Playing with fire
Relations between Turkey and Russia are ambivalent. Moscow is nonetheless trying to prop up the leadership in Ankara. Elections are to be held in Turkey in June – and the last thing Russia wants is Erdogan’s departure.

Turkish-Russian relations

Erdogan's re-election would serve Putin

Relations between Turkey and Russia are ambivalent. Moscow is nonetheless trying to prop up the leadership in Ankara. Elections are to be held in Turkey in June – and the last thing Russia wants is Erdogan’s departure. By Burak UnverenRead more

Turkish-Syrian relations: A menacing rapprochementTurkey-Syria-Russia relations: Is Erdogan planning a deal with Assad?Russia, Ankara and Damascus: Who decides Turkey's foreign policy?
Visiting the country of her parents, murdered by the Iranian regime in 1998, German-Iranian artist Parastou Forouhar finds a changed society: hopeful, strong and courageous, despite all the repression

Eye-witness on Iran protests

Exiled artist Forouhar: 'A country in turmoil'

Visiting the country of her parents, murdered by the Iranian regime in 1998, German-Iranian artist Parastou Forouhar finds a changed society: hopeful, strong and courageous, despite all the repressionRead more

Iran protests 2022: Tehran fatally oblivious to social changeAsef Bayat on the Iran protests: "A movement to reclaim life"How feminist are the protests in Iran? The struggle for self-determination German-Iranian artist Parastou Forouhar: What it means to be Iranian these days
All eyes in Turkey are on a court hearing scheduled for January 30 into a child abuse case that allegedly occurred with the knowledge of one of Istanbul's most powerful Islamic sects. The little girl was failed by the state not once, but several times.

Forced marriage in Turkey

Turkish state fails child bride in sect marriage

All eyes in Turkey are on a court hearing scheduled for January 30 into a child abuse case that allegedly occurred with the knowledge of one of Istanbul's most powerful Islamic sects. The little girl was failed by the state not once, but several times. Ayse Karabat reportsRead more

Turkey: AKP under scrutiny for ties to ultraconservative Islamic communityViolence against women: Femicide on the rise in TurkeyThe Istanbul Convention and women's protection: Bombing the heart of the family in Turkey?Women in Turkey: Trapped in the gender gap

Politics

Shopping in a bazaar in Cairo (image: Mohamed El-Shahed/AFP/Getty Images)

Egypt’s economic crisis

Egyptians in dire straits

The devaluation of the Egyptian pound combined with rising food prices is taking its toll on Egypt. More and more people are slipping into poverty. Karim El-Gawhary reports from CairoMore

Economic crisis on the Nile: Is Egypt the 'new Lebanon'?Egypt's deepening economic crisis: Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s vanity projectsEgypt's rising debts: "A sign of crisis"Egypt's economic disarray: Whether to topple President Sisi...
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin (image: picture-alliance)

Turkish-Russian relations

Erdogan's re-election would serve Putin

Relations between Turkey and Russia are ambivalent. Moscow is nonetheless trying to prop up the leadership in Ankara. Elections are to be held in Turkey in June – and the last thing Russia wants is Erdogan’s departure. By Burak UnverenMore

Turkish-Syrian relations: A menacing rapprochementTurkey-Syria-Russia relations: Is Erdogan planning a deal with Assad?Russia, Ankara and Damascus: Who decides Turkey's foreign policy?
German-Iranian artist Parastou Forouhar (image: IPON/IMAGO)

Eye-witness on Iran protests

Exiled artist Forouhar: 'A country in turmoil'

Visiting the country of her parents, murdered by the Iranian regime in 1998, German-Iranian artist Parastou Forouhar finds a changed society: hopeful, strong and courageous, despite all the repressionMore

Iran protests 2022: Tehran fatally oblivious to social changeAsef Bayat on the Iran protests: "A movement to reclaim life"How feminist are the protests in Iran? The struggle for self-determination German-Iranian artist Parastou Forouhar: What it means to be Iranian these days
Symbolic image: child marriage (image: Christoph Hardt/Future Image/Imago)

Forced marriage in Turkey

Turkish state fails child bride in sect marriage

All eyes in Turkey are on a court hearing scheduled for January 30 into a child abuse case that allegedly occurred with the knowledge of one of Istanbul's most powerful Islamic sects. The little girl was failed by the state not once, but several times. Ayse Karabat reportsMore

Turkey: AKP under scrutiny for ties to ultraconservative Islamic communityViolence against women: Femicide on the rise in TurkeyThe Istanbul Convention and women's protection: Bombing the heart of the family in Turkey?Women in Turkey: Trapped in the gender gap
more Politics »

Society

80-year-old president of the Rabat Bar Association and former human rights minister, Mohamed Ziane (source: Twitter)

Human rights deteriorating in Morocco

Rabat's defamation drive

Morocco's regime continues to silence voices through censorship and arrest, apparently feeling vulnerable in the face of widespread popular criticism. Commentary by Abdellatif El HamamouchiMore

Growing repression in Morocco: Creating an atmosphere of fearMorocco's billionaire PM: Business elite stifles politicsMorocco and the return of autocracy: Playing with fire
Sharma has devoted his life to championing the deeds of an Indian "patriot" -- the man who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi (image: Jalees ANDRABI/AFP)

Hindu nationalism

Gandhi's killer – a Hindutva hero

Hindu fundamentalist Ashok Sharma has devoted his life to championing the deeds of an Indian "patriot": not revered independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, but the man who shot him deadMore

Indian democracy at 75: Narendra Modi’s damaging dominanceRahman Abbas' "Zindeeq": Who's learning lessons from the Holocaust?Indian Muslim writer Sadia Dehlvi: "The soul of India is inclusive, pluralistic, and democratic"
A group of women with raised hands and a placard at a demonstration in Kabul (image: Stringer/Reuters)

Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

The Taliban cannot defeat women

Since returning to power in Afghanistan, the Taliban have steadily eroded the rights and opportunities of women and girls, particularly their access to education. But Afghans are not taking the regime's draconian policies lying down – and nor should the rest of the world. By Gordon Brown & Yasmine SherifMore

Afghanistan under the Taliban: "Girls continue to attend our schools""Not our Islam!": German imams condemn ban on university education for Afghan women"Scheherazade's heirs": Keep writing! Literature from Afghanistan
Symbolic image: A woman on her way to an abortion (image: imago images/Addictive Stock)

Women's rights in Egypt

We need to talk about abortion

Abortions are illegal in Egypt unless they are necessary to save a married woman's life. But that doesn't stop local women from having one. Egyptian society needs to acknowledge this, activists say. By Diana HodaliMore

Women′s rights in the Arab world: The key to changeAzza Soliman, an Egyptian feminist at risk: "What has Azza done?"Morocco's abortion ban: Acknowledging reality
Man rifles through a wad of Egpytian pound notes (image: Mahmoud Elkhwas/NurPhoto/picture alliance)

Economic crisis on the Nile

Is Egypt the 'new Lebanon'?

Food prices doubled, salaries halved, banks restricting withdrawals: Egyptians now have the same problems as the Lebanese. But if things get worse here, the fallout will be far more damaging. By Cathrin SchaerMore

Egypt's deepening economic crisis: Abdul Fattah al-Sisi’s vanity projectsEgypt's food crisis: Wheat from the desert? Siemens wins major contract in Egypt: High speed up the Nile valleyCOVID-19, COP27 and World Cup 2022: Crisis management in the Arab world
more Society »

Culture

Protests in Frankfurt, Germany after the death of Mahsa Amini (image: dpa/picture-alliance)

Women's voices

Iranian literature in times of uprising

Young women are driving forward the protests against the Iranian regime, which have been going on for months. Literature provides clues as to why that should be, and why the current situation was unavoidable. By Gerrit WustmannMore

"Through the sad wood our corpses will hang": Flashback to a childhood in Tehran Iranian author Fariba Vafi: "Cliches have no place in writing"Iranian literature – the censor’s mindset
Retailer Salim Warda with a fake German licence plate (image: picture alliance/dpa | Johannes Schmitt-Tegg)

Cairo crazy about German licence plates

Egyptians favour the "D"

Giessen, Eichsfeld, Kusel, Berlin – cars bearing old German number plates are the latest trend on the streets of Cairo. Many Egyptians regard the discarded plates as chic. What counts is the small "D" on blue beneath the EU circle of stars. By Johannes SadekMore

Ziad Fahmy's "Street Sounds": Egypt, and the "great clamour" of urban lifeLove in Egypt: "Does love as it is here exist in Europe?"Mohamed Abla awarded Goethe Medal: Telling stories through art
Still from Sarvnaz Alambeigi's documentary "1001 Nights Apart" (source: YouTube)

"1001 Nights Apart"

Dancing for freedom in Iran

Ballet performances are prohibited in Iran. In her film "1001 Nights Apart", director Sarvnaz Alambeigi documents the history of dance in the Islamic Republic. By Fahimeh FarsaieMore

How feminist are the protests in Iran? The struggle for self-determination Iran protests 2022: Tehran fatally oblivious to social changeGerman-Iranian artist Parastou Forouhar: What it means to be Iranian these days
In a country that bears the scars of decades of conflict and has seen antiquities plundered, the House of Manuscripts' collection has managed to survive (image: Sabah ARAR/AFP)

Iraq’s cultural heritage

Iraqi conservators strive to preserve ancient manuscripts

Iraq bears the scars of decades of conflict and has seen its antiquities plundered, yet the House of Manuscripts' collection has managed to surviveMore

Reconstruction in Iraq: Mosul's Old City rises from rubble in IraqCultural heritage in Syria and Iraq: Casualties of warVirtual reality revives Iraq's war-ravaged heritage
Mehmet Celebi in the cemevi attached to his house (photo: Rainer Hermann)

Turkish music

Fighting for freedom with the lute, not the sword

The poetry of Pir Sultan once prompted uprisings in the Ottoman Empire. To this day, Alevis identify with him. Rainer Hermann visited Mehmet Celebi, a direct descendant of the medieval bard, who lives in the house Pir Sultan built in a tiny mountain village in TurkeyMore

Turkish incursion into northern Syria: You reap what you sowChallenging Turkish history from the ground up: "The stories of our families"Photo gallery: The last years of the Ottoman Empire
more Culture »

Editor's picks

How feminist are the protests in Iran? The struggle for self-determination

FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022: Qatar critics and their blind spots

Qatar 2022 and the Arab world: "It’s our World Cup"

Asef Bayat on the Iran protests: "A movement to reclaim life"

Islam’s conscientious thinkers: People of reason...More

Islamic art – understanding the richness of the Muslim world

The Prophet Muhammad, depicted as an inscribed and radiant disk, during his celestial ascension, Nizami, Makhzan al-Asrar (Treasury of Secrets), text transcribed in western India in 1441 and painting inserted subsequently, Topkapi Palace Library, Istanbul.

How is one to convey the history of Islamic images of Muhammad freed from today’s polarised politics? What are the challenges and pinch points of this particular academic endeavour?More

Favourite photo subject: Mosques around Europe

German-Danish photographer Eckhard Ahmed Krausen (image: DW)

German-Danish photographer Eckhard Ahmed Krausen is fascinated by mosque architecture. The devout Muslim has photographed over 70 European mosques in this ongoing project.More

Tunisia milk market 'collapsing' as feed prices soar

Tunisia's farmers are struggling to feed their cows as the cost of fodder has soared by up to 40 percent in the past year due to the impact of the war in Ukraine on imported ingredients (image: FETHI BELAID/AFP)

A Tunisian farmer attaches a machine to a cow's udder and sets the pump whirring, but he only expects to fetch less than half the normal amount of milk amid soaring fodder pricesMore

Iran's 'death committee' president

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a meeting with the families of the security forces killed during the Iran protests, in Tehran, 9 December 2022 (image: Presidential Website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS)

Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi is overseeing an unyielding crackdown. The current situation grimly echoes his role in a purge of political prisoners in 1988More

Seven extraordinary Arab female modernists

Iraqi artist and calligrapher Madiha Umar pictured in Egypt in the 1950s (source: en.vogue.me)

A staunch champion of Arab women artists, Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, founder of Barjeel Art Foundation, curates for Vogue Arabia the modernists who have left an indelible mark on the region and the worldMore

GIGA: Iran’s uprisings: A feminist foreign policy approach

Mural on a wall in Frankfurt, Germany, commemorating Iranian Kurd Jina Mahsa Amini, whose death sparked the most severe protests in the Islamic Republic since its founding in 1979 (source: kollektiv ohne namen website)

The current uprisings in Iran following the death in police custody of Mahsa Jhina Amini, a young Kurdish woman, carry strong implications for states that have adopted a “feminist foreign policy” (FFP).More

Lahore’s maverick restauranteur

Bilal Sufi, owner of Baking Virsa eatery, prepares kebabs in Lahore, Pakistan, 3 December 2022 (photo: AP Photo/K. M. Chaudary)

Welcome to Baking Virsa, a hole-in-the-wall in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore described as the country’s most expensive restaurant for what it serves – household favourites like flatbreads and kebabsMore

Oxford study on Muhammad's "underage" wife Aisha

The green dome of the Prophet's Mosque, Medina, Saudi Arabia (photo: AFP via Getty Images)

New scholarship suggests the story of Islam's prophet marrying a minor is baseless propaganda fabricated for political and sectarian motives.More