Spotlight
Baloch Women on the Road in Protest
The recent protest march, led by women, against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan province in Pakistan was unprecedented, not only in its size but also because it is rare for Baloch grievances to gain national limelight.
Mubarak’s Indian Doppelganger
As Egypt deals with an oppressive regime, economic hardship and loss of prestige in the region, the popular Indian singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya’s striking resemblance to the late Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has become a viral sensation, spotlighting some Egyptians’ nostalgia for the supposedly good old days.
The Sink-Or-Swim Politics of Mexico City’s Water Crisis
Mexico City is in the midst of a water crisis so severe it may soon run completely dry. As the nation heads to the polls in June, water is becoming a sink-or-swim issue for those vying to take on the presidency.
Teaching Middle East Journalism in the Midst of a Crackdown
In a scene I would have found familiar in Cairo, Tehran or the West Bank, the university’s president and the governor of Texas sent dozens of state troopers in riot gear marching down the pedestrian thoroughfare lined with mossy oak trees that is the heart of student life on campus.
A Yale Hunger Striker Speaks Out
The university administration had ignored all the “proper” avenues students had used up to that point to address Yale’s complicity in the violence, and I had lost my ability to imagine any other way to get the university to hear us. My imagination was crushed. I had no new ideas.
The Return to Circassia
No matter which paths different Circassians choose or are forced to take, what remains certain is that they prove yet again, like many peoples before and after them, that when a people are forcibly displaced, the notion of return endures the passage of time and the widening of distances.
The Meaning of Erdogan’s Defeat in Istanbul
Imamoglu prides himself on having won every election he has contested against Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party. With four mayoral victories under his belt, he stands out as a potential challenger for the presidency in 2028.