Using videos of Western-style parties in Syria, the Assad regime has sought to portray itself as a defender of liberal modernity against benighted "terrorist" opponents. Yet these crude and dishonest propaganda efforts only underscore the oppression at the heart of Assad's state, writes Robin Jones.
Islamic feminism, Tunisian LGBT rights, African-Arab relations, and the troubled history of North African Jewry are just some of the ground covered in this interview with Tunisian-French historian and feminist author Sophie Bessis.
Syria’s most powerful jihadists have neither agreed to nor impeded the creation by Turkey and Russia of an “extremist”-free buffer zone in Idlib Province. For now, all actors seem content to leave the matter at that.
In her second piece for Al-Jumhuriya Fellowship for Young Writers, Lama Rajeh discusses Al-Qubaysiat Sisterhood, drawing on her own experience with the group at an earlier stage in her life.
Yassin al-Haj Saleh explores the emergence of the Islamic State and its three main layers of identity and formation, from Afghanistan, to Iraq and eventually, Syria.
