Iran
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Ebrahim Raisi
Iran's 'death committee' president
Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi is overseeing an unyielding crackdown. The current situation grimly echoes his role in a purge of political prisoners in 1988
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China, the Arabs’ preferred partner?
Mr. Xi goes to Riyadh
Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Saudi Arabia in December 2022 may have rattled Washington, but it simply highlighted the Arabs’ desire to diversify their foreign relations in the face of a changing world. Analysis by Abdullah Baabood
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Turkey-Syria-Russia relations
Is Erdogan planning a deal with Assad?
There are signs of an imminent normalisation of relations between Turkey and Syria. This would allow Erdogan to score political points domestically before the upcoming elections in Turkey. It would also be opportune for Putin. By Ronald Meinardus
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Protests in Iran
The longing for a modern form of Islam
Forty-three years after Khomeini's revolution, the regime is facing its greatest internal challenge yet. State Islam in Iran is being rocked from beneath.
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Marking the anniversary of Rumi's death in Konya
From traditional to lifestyle Sufism
In 1925, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had the Sufi orders shut down. In modern-day Konya, the city council uses whirling dervishes in its marketing campaigns. Marian Brehmer on Islamic mysticism in Turkey
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Best of Qantara.de 2022
Our readers' favourite articles this year
At the end of every year, the team at Qantara.de gives you a run-down of the ten most-read articles on the site over the past 12 months. Here is a quick overview of the stories that attracted the most attention in 2022. Happy New Year to all our readers!
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"Woman, life, freedom!" – Iran marks three months of protests
The violent death of Jina Mahsa Amini in September has triggered the largest protest movement in decades against the repressive rule in the Islamic Republic. The Iranian state has reacted with full force.
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Iranian literature in exile
"A great demand for Persian books"
Cologne-based publisher Anahita Redisiu sells Persian books that have been banned or censored in Iran. She regards the situation in Iran with concern and has harsh words for Germany's stance towards the Iranian regime. Gerrit Wustmann spoke to her about politics and literature
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Protests in Iran
Rethinking Sharia and democracy
According to a recent survey, half of all Iranians say that they have left Islam as a religion, while two-thirds believe Islamic law should be excluded from their legal system. In the following essay, Ahmet T. Kuru explores the implications
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Iran and global energy supplies
Covert conflict in the Gulf
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Europe has been trying to find alternatives to Russian gas, inevitably zeroing in on the Arab Gulf states. In his commentary, Yemeni politician Muammar al-Iryani proposes a simple way for the West to secure international shipping routes
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Arab world on tenterhooks
World Cup semi-final – "We are all Moroccans"
Morocco has taken the 2022 World Cup by storm, with the northwest Africans reaching the semi-finals for the first time in their soccer history. As the knockout match approaches, Birgit Svensson's public viewing report from Baghdad throws a different light on Morocco's recent victories in Qatar
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New release to mark 750th anniversary of Rumi's death
Complete edition of the "Masnavi" in German
For the first time ever, a complete edition of Rumi's "Masnavi" has been published in German in verse. At the Sufi Festival in Hamburg in late November, Marian Brehmer met translator Otto Hoeschle and spoke to him about the significance of this masterpiece of Islamic mysticism