In focus

Dialogue of Cultures | Intercultural Dialogue

Coronavirus

9/11

Nour Emam from Egypt runs online awareness courses and maintains an Instragram channel under the name thisismotherbeing for women from the Middle East.

Sex education in the Arab world

Let's talk about sex, habibi!

Sex education – taboo in the Middle East. Or is it? Thanks to social media, millions these days are daring to ask everything about "it". Jennifer Holleis has the detailsRead more

Islam and eroticism: Let′s talk about sex, Ali Mona Eltahawy: "Why do you hate us so?": The Middle East needs a sexual revolution Shereen El Feki's ''Sex and the citadel'': Exploring a sexual minefield The Book of Exposition: An archaeology of erotica

Recep Tayyip Erdogan started out as a reformer. But that was soon to change.

Cengiz Aktar's "The Turkish Malaise"

Why is Erdogan gambling away Turkey's future?

In his essay “The Turkish Malaise”, Turkish economist and writer in exile Cengiz Aktar provides a crisp, concise explanation for his nation’s rapid, recent backslide into dictatorship. By Christiane SchloetzerRead more

Interview with Cengiz Aktar: ''Turkey's problem is Erdogan, not the AKP''Political transition on the Bosphorus? Turkey's "woke" Generation Z haunts President Erdogan The Turkish AKP as role model for the Arab world? No counterpart Protests in Turkey: Civil society versus father state

"Female Voice of Afghanistan" streaming festival

Afghan women raise their voices against trauma

The streaming festival "Female Voice of Afghanistan" by the Zeitgenössische Oper Berlin gives Afghan female musicians a global platform – at a time when their situation has worsened dramatically. Stefan Franzen reports for Qantara.deRead more

″War, Exile and the Music of Afghanistan″ by John Baily: Without music, no humanity Persian singer Mamak Khadem: Open to new influences Afghanistan: Victim-blaming – a trope of the West's failure in Afghanistan Qantara dossier: "Musical worlds"

Iraq's interim Prime Minister Mustafa al Kadhimi at the polling station.

Parliamentary elections in Iraq

Change or political stagnation in Baghdad?

Will Iraq's parliamentary elections bring change? The new electoral law, which allowed independent candidates to stand for the first time, provided a golden opportunity. But not many people took advantage of it. And voter turnout was shamefully low. Birgit Svensson reports from Baghdad and MosulRead more

Iraq's electricity crisis: Iraqis left in the dark by their corrupt politicians From Basra to Baghdad: Young Iraqis rise up for a life worth living Iraq's new government: Mr Kadhimi begins a clean-up operation Middle East: Factbox: Who's competing in Iraq's elections?

Politics

Recep Tayyip Erdogan started out as a reformer. But that was soon to change (photo: picture-alliance)

Cengiz Aktar's "The Turkish Malaise"

Why is Erdogan gambling away Turkey's future?

Iraq's interim Prime Minister Mustafa al Kadhimi at the polling station (photo: Khalid Mohammed/AA/picture-alliance)

Parliamentary elections in Iraq

Change or political stagnation in Baghdad?

One of the destroyed car windows, in the background the village of Mufkara (photo: Inge Gunther)

Attack on West Bank village Mufkara

Militant settlers sow the seeds of violence

The Palestinian villages to the south of Hebron in the West Bank have often come under attack from militant settlers. But the raid last week on the village of Mufkara by eighty masked men left more than just windows broken. It also nearly cost a three-year-old child his life. Many Israelis were horrified. The foreign minister Yair Lapid spoke for the first time of "terror". By Inge GuntherMore

End of the Middle East two-state solution? Israeli highways – a fast track to West Bank annexation Hagit Ofran of Peace Now: The Zionist still holding a candle for peace and equality Ask Project initiator Corey Gil-Shuster: Ask Israelis, ask Palestinians – beyond black and white Israeli philosopher Omri Boehm: The Haifa Republic – full equality for Middle East peace

Bashar al-Assad election posters in Damascus, May 2021 (photo: AFP/Getty Images/Louai Beshara)

Middle East

Arabs ease Assad's isolation as U.S. looks elsewhere

While Bashar al-Assad is still shunned by the West, which blames him for a decade of brutal war in Syria, a shift is under way in the Middle East, where Arab allies of the United States are bringing him in from the cold by reviving economic and diplomatic ties. By Maha El DahanMore

Loyalty and legitimacy: in Syria Bashar al-Assad's staging of the presidential election Northern Syria's humanitarian disaster: Syria's IDPs – waiting for death in Idlib Syria 10 years on: Bashar al-Assad’s Pyrrhic victory and the arrogance of power Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and Egypt: A new dawn for diplomacy in the Middle East?Reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Qatar: A turning point for the whole Middle East?

Society

Sex education in the Arab world

Let's talk about sex, habibi!

Sex education – taboo in the Middle East. Or is it? Thanks to social media, millions these days are daring to ask everything about "it". Jennifer Holleis has the detailsMore

Secular opposition members in front of a court in Egypt, 22.03.2013 (photo: Getty Images/AFP)

Sarhan Dhouib's "Erinnerungen an Unrecht"

Memories of injustice – for the liberation of Arab identity

The memory of experienced injustice plays a central role in the transformation of societies towards democracy. In the Arab world, the critical study of memory is only just emerging. The Tunisian philosopher Sarhan Dhouib from the University of Hildesheim has made an important contribution with his anthology, writes Sonja Hegasy in her reviewMore

The legacy of the Arab Spring: "The Syrian revolution is resumable today and tomorrow"Obituary: Tunisian author Albert Memmi: Adieu, Albert!Arab world: "The people aren't ready" – can Arabs do democracy? Historical roots of the current Middle East crisis: The end of an artificial construct

Sex worker on the street in Tehran, Iran (photo: Mehr)

Prostitution in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Open-minded, loving... and desperate

How did the Islamic revolutionaries deal with prostitution and sex workers in Iran, and how does the business of sex work in Iran today? Have supply and demand changed four decades after the ayatollahs came to power? By Nasrin BassiriMore

Prostitution in the Shah's Iran: Shahr-e No – "the neighbourhood of the sorrowful" The documentary film ''In the Bazaar of Sexes'': Temporary marriage in Iran Child trafficking in Iran: The agony of the destitute

Boat carrying refugees on the Mediterranean (photo: picture-alliance/Photoshot)

Migrants and the EU

Is Europe ready for a post-COVID migration wave?

Unauthorised immigration to Europe went down at the peak of the pandemic. As EU countries re-open, migrant flows are back up. What does it mean for the EU – and for migrants? By Sonya Angelica DiehnMore

Coronavirus fallout: Tunisia post-lockdown – should we stay or should we go?Tunisia's ″Cemetery for the Unknown″: The gravedigger of Zarzis Underage migrants stranded in Spain: The lost children of Ceuta and the "warehouses of shame"MEP Dietmar Koester on Fortress Europe: "The EU allows human rights to be trampled underfoot"

Culture

"Female Voice of Afghanistan" streaming festival

Afghan women raise their voices against trauma

Iranian-German author Siba Shakib (photo: Giacomo Terracciano)

Interview with Iranian-German author Siba Shakib

"The notion of home is bound up with loss"

Iranian-German author and filmmaker Siba Shakib was born in Tehran. Her best-selling novels deal with themes of heritage and the past. She speaks to Qantara.de about her new novel "Der Kirschbaum, den sie ihrer Mutter nie schenkte" (The Cherry Tree She Never Gave Her Mother), home, religion and the identity politics debate. Interview conducted by Schayan RiazMore

Modern Persian literature: Five Farsi novels and their impact on Iranian pop culture Book review: Nava Ebrahimi’s "Das Paradies meines Nachbarn" – The scars of war Young Iranian women writers in Germany: Patchwork identities Interview with the Iranian author Fariba Vafi: "Cliches have no place in writing"

Subay in front of his street painting in Paris in November 2019 (photo: AP Photo/picture-alliance)

Berlin's Human Rights Film Festival

"Yemen's Banksy" – Murad Subay creates art against war

Yemen remains the world's worst humanitarian crisis, say humanitarian organisations. At the recent Human Rights Film Festival in Berlin, street artist Murad Subay commented on the horrors of war. Elizabeth Grenier reportsMore

Graffiti artist Shamsia Hassani: Giving voice to Afghanistan's oppressed Qantara photo essay: An eye-catching tableau for resistance: graffiti art in Bethlehem Qantara photo essay: Street art in the Egyptian revolution

Homepage banner of the Human Rights Festival in Berlin 2021 (source: Human Rights Festival Berlin)

Berlin's Human Rights Film Festival

The Moria Film School – "...and here we are"

German actress Katja Riemann has made a short yet impressive documentary about a special project in Moria. In her directorial debut, she shows how young refugees learn the basics of filmmaking. The film, part of the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin programme, can be streamed until 3 October. Rene Wildangel reports for Qantara.deMore

After the fire in Moria: For many migrants, the dream of freedom ends in Lesbos Greece and the asylum-seekers: How do you solve a problem like Moria?MEP Dietmar Koester on Fortress Europe: "The EU allows human rights to be trampled underfoot"Berlin's Human Rights Film Festival: "Captains of Zaatari" – the unshakeable power of dreams

Editor's picks

Islam for the 21st century? Look no further than Goethe

Future-proofing Islam: Focus on the soul of Islam

The West′s Islam debate: For all our freedoms!

Muslims in the West – the cultural go-betweens

Authors of 'War on Terror' in denial to the bitter...More

Opinion: Why sliding back into autocracy won’t solve Tunisia’s problems

Tunisian journalist and human rights activist Sihem Bensedrine (photo: DW)

Apologists for Saied’s moves are wrong to believe that a return to strongman rule could ever be the answer to Tunisia’s problems. What Tunisia needs is to erect the real pillars required to strengthen its hard-won democracy — most urgently, the creation of a constitutional court and the implementation of transitional justice.More

Obituary: Iran's first revolutionary president, Abolhassan Banisadr

Iran's first president following the Islamic Revolution, Abolhassan Banisadr (photo: Peter Weis)

Abolhassan Banisadr, who has died aged 88, was a thoughtful, French-educated, Islamic intellectual who accepted the presidency of Iran in 1980 despite his opposition to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s concept of the velayat-e faqih (“governorship of the Islamist jurist”) – effectively Islamic dictatorship.More

Lebanon: a land in crisis

Lebanon is in crisis. The economy is collapsing, there are big shortages of basics like fuel and medicine, and there’s little faith that the new government will turn things around. How did it get so bad and why is it so hard to fix? Sandra Gathmann for Al Jazeera explainsMore

Online education is the only hope for Afghan schoolgirl

Afghan primary school girls in a classroom in Kabul, 18 September 2021. Secondary schools for girls remain closed (photo: © via Reuters/WANA News Agency)

Denied access to school due to the Taliban's failure to reopen secondary schools for girls, one Afghan teenager has taken to the Internet to try to exercise her basic right to an education. But her self-driven online learning mission has not been easy.More

"We are many. we are one": Celebrating Canadian Islamic Heritage Month 2021

Canadian Islamic Heritage Month 2021 (photo: Canadian Race Relations Foundation)

The Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) is commemorating Canadian Islamic Heritage Month 2021 by launching a social media series entitled, "We are many. we are one". The series focuses on the historical contributions of Muslims who have had a part in shaping Canada's past and present.More

Treats and tradition in Tehran's oldest, tiniest teahouse

Owner Kazem Mabhutian, 63, serves tea at the smallest and oldest teahouse tucked away in an alleyway of the Grand Bazaar in the Iranian capital Tehran on 20 September 2021 (photo: ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Tea is a mainstay of popular culture across the Middle East, from Morocco to Qatar. Tucked away in Tehran's Grand Bazaar is arguably the world's tiniest tea shop. The owner's signature brew – "the tea of kndness" – is just one of the many treats awaiting discoveryMore

UN: 16 million in Yemen "marching towards starvation" as food rations run low

A woman's hand holds a small. malnourished child (photo: picture-alliance/dpa)

At least 5 million people in Yemen are on the brink of famine and a further 16 million are "marching toward starvation", as the country’s humanitarian crisis spirals out of control.More

SWP dossier: Forced displacement and migration

Pin and thread sculpture of a map of the world (© pogonici/Shuttterstock)

Migration is on the increase worldwide. The causes are manifold. Ever more people are forcibly displaced by persecution, violent conflicts and human-rights violations. Read up on international cooperation in the areas of forced displacement and migration, on developments in Europe’s migrant and refugee policies, and on the migrant and refugee policies of individual states.More

In focus

Sex education in the Arab world

Cengiz Aktar's "The Turkish Malaise"

"Female Voice of Afghanistan" streaming festival

Parliamentary elections in Iraq

Politics

Society

Culture

In brief

Most Recent Photo Essay

Editor's picks

Opinion: Why sliding back into autocracy won’t solve Tunisia’s problems

Obituary: Iran's first revolutionary president, Abolhassan Banisadr

Lebanon: a land in crisis

Online education is the only hope for Afghan schoolgirl

"We are many. we are one": Celebrating Canadian Islamic Heritage Month 2021

Treats and tradition in Tehran's oldest, tiniest teahouse

UN: 16 million in Yemen "marching towards starvation" as food rations run low

SWP dossier: Forced displacement and migration