Kuwait
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Climate heroes in Iraq
A life for the trees
It is getting hotter and hotter in Iraq. Fifty degrees or more is no longer a rarity. The state between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers is now one of the hottest countries on earth. Muwafaq Mubareka from Baghdad is determined to fight global warming. Birgit Svensson paid the climate hero a visit
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Arab world
Germany and the Middle East – a tale of morals and markets
Germany's foreign policy is explicitly values-based. But what happens, Ralf Bosen asks, when democracy, the rule of law and human rights collide with the logic of trade and business?
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COVID-19 in the Middle East
Arab countries face high coronavirus vaccine hesitancy
The rollout of coronavirus vaccines in the Middle East and North Africa is already taking place on a massive scale, with the United Arab Emirates leading the way. Nevertheless, many people are in no rush to get the COVID-19 jab. Cathrin Schaer poses the all-important question: why?
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Arab states
Pandemic shines a light on the Gulf's three-way split
With Ramadan over and coronavirus hopefully on the wane, Bader Al-Saif takes a look at how divisions dating back to the June 2017 blockade of Qatar shaped the region's contrasting approaches to political messaging and public health in a time of both crisis and observance
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Coronavirus and the kafala system
Gulf migrant workers fear for their post-pandemic future
Between draconian migration laws and the continuing lockdowns, migrant workers in the Gulf were already facing increasing uncertainty. Now, keen to offload any duty of care, host countries are scrambling to repatriate as many as possible. Rabiya Jaffery reports
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Kuwaiti artist Monira al-Qadiri
In awe of the cosmos
With "Holy Quarter" by Monira al-Qadiri, Munich’s Haus der Kunst gallery is showing a work by one of the Gulf region’s most significant contemporary artists, in an exhibition that runs until the beginning of June. By Claudia Mende
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Politics, inequality and a lack of transparency
Coronavirus and the Middle East's ongoing state of emergency
Plagued by troubled state-citizen relationships on the one hand and conflict on the other, states in the Middle East could discover new uses for COVID-19 lockdown measures. By Abdalhadi Alijla
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Pandemic update
Corona across the Islamic world – the toll of COVID-19
While some are beginning to protest the lockdown, others are unable to bury their loved ones in accordance with Islam. Here’s the latest from across the region
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Pandemic update
COVID-19 across the Islamic world – Fighting shy of coronavirus
Coronavirus continues unabated. Iran remains a hub of infection, war-torn Syria has recorded its first case and Yemen is bracing itself for the worst. Here’s the latest from across the region
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Coronavirus in the Islamic world
In lockdown over COVID-19
With borders closing and the opportunities for international travel shrinking by the hour, we take a look at coronavirus developments across the Middle East and the wider Muslim world
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Coronavirus in the Middle East: Lock down or play down?
Countries such as Kuwait and Israel have instituted virtual lockdowns in the face of COVID-19, while religious gatherings have been limited at a time of year ripe with ritual. Others have been slower to act. By Tom Allinson
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Book review: Ismail Fahd Ismail’s "The Old Woman and the River"
Hemingway, eat your heart out!
Part desert-island novel, part war story, part ‘Don Quixote’ and part folktale, the last novel by Kuwaiti writer Ismail Fahd Ismail (1940-2018) brings us the Iran-Iraq war through the eyes of a wise old fool. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the book