Essays
An Unexpected Solidarity
In the 1930s, a group of French women pacifists in Tunisia fighting against fascism began to see the oppression of French rule up close — and became allies of the country’s independence movement.
The Lost Daughters of Bousbir
In 1930s Casablanca, a walled district called Bousbir drew European tourists with promises of “exotic” pleasure. But behind its ornate gates, hundreds of Moroccan women and girls were imprisoned by the French colonial authorities. Their stories are preserved in the desperate letters of families who tried to free them.
The Forgotten Photographs of Iraq’s Yazidis
Buried for 90 years, a cache of Yazidi photographs has become a bridge between the Iraqi community’s past and today.
The Magic of Egypt in Interwar Britain
Ancient Egypt was at the heart of the occultism that flourished in Britain early in the 20th century. The stories of two magicians who were shaped by this association — Aleister Crowley and Rollo Ahmed — reveal much about what the period’s magic meant to the men and women who practised it.
How To Kill Subversives and Get Away With It
America’s role in war crimes in Colombia decades ago may shed light on how far the Trump administration could go to subvert U.S. and international laws pertaining to the use of military force against civilians at home.
Environmental Disaster and Hopeful Revival in Central Asia
The dried-up Aral Sea tells a story about decisions made in the past, but it is also the site of countless choices in our present: what kinds of economies we prioritize, what forms of nature we value and what we want our future to look like.
Haile Selassie’s Band of Armenian Orphans
Armenians the world over remember their close link with Ethiopia, symbolized by the royal adoption of 40 orphan musicians. The legacy of this act endures: Ethiopian music, exported around the world, still reflects this Armenian influence.