Country: Mashriq

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Muslims attend Friday prayers in the Indian city of Ahmadabad (photo: AP/picture-alliance)

COVID-19 pandemic

The world’s religions and coronavirus

As COVID-19 sweeps across the globe, it is forcing religions to adapt and take action to prevent infection. But experts warn against using the crisis to fuel conspiracy theories. Christoph Strack reportsMore

COVID-19 epidemic in Iran: Faith and the coronavirus Religious services curbed across Middle East over coronavirus fearsCoronavirus in the Islamic world: In lockdown over COVID-19
Iranians wearing face masks to protect against coronavirus (photo: picture-alliance/AA/F. Bahrami)

Coronavirus in the Islamic world

The challenges of COVID-19

As the global economy reels and everyday life grinds to a standstill, we take a look at the spread of coronavirus across the Middle East and the wider Muslim world – and the containment measures being put in placeMore

250,000 pilgrims mass in Pakistan despite coronavirus warningsReligious services curbed across Middle East over coronavirus fears25 virus suspects on Nile cruise boat test negative in Egypt
Protesting the arrest of journalists in Cairo (photo: picture-alliance/Zuma Press)

Press freedom under attack

The Arab world's new wave of media repression

Since the 2011 uprisings, authoritarian rulers in the Arab world have worked out how to manipulate and instrumentalise the media to their own ends, nipping any new democratic quake in the bud. By Lydia KhalilMore

Protests in the Middle East: No tyranny without EgyptUnrest in the Arab world: The genie is out of the bottleThe icon of Tahrir Square in Baghdad and Cairo: Arab Spring and October Revolution
Islamists protest the release of Asia Bibi in Pakistan (photo: AFP/Getty Images/A. Hassan)

Human rights in the Islamic world

Battle cry "blasphemy"

Many predominantly Muslim countries have penal laws against "blasphemy", "defamation of religion" and "apostasy". In practice they serve as highly effective weapons to settle personal animosities, family vendettas and land disputes. By Thomas KrapfMore

Abusing blasphemy legislation: Indonesia's slide towards identity politics'Finally free!' – Asia Bibi on Pakistan prison and life in exileInterview with the Islamic scholar Ebrahim Moosa: The reinvention of Islam
(photo: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

Protests in the Middle East

No tyranny without Egypt

Insults directed against Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi have been particularly prominent among the hundreds of chants by Arab protestors in Algeria, Sudan, Iraq and Lebanon during the recent months of demonstrations. The question is, why? By Sherif Mohyeldeen and Noha KhaledMore

Military dictatorships in the Middle East: The real enemies of the Arab SpringTahrir Square's democracy activists: The forgotten heroesWhat triggered the Middle Eastern revolts in 2011? The economics of ArabellionPolitical rule before and after the ″Arabellion″: Internal colonialism and counter-revolution
Excerpt from an Iraqi maqama manuscript dating from 1237 (source: University of Victoria/Fine Arts)

The maqamas of Ibn Naqiya in German translation

The picaresque poet from Baghdad

The "maqama", a classical Arabic form of prose-poetry, is still almost unknown in Germany – as is the name of the 11th-century Baghdad poet Ibn Naqiya. A new translation has the potential to change all that. By Gerrit WustmannMore

Book review: Stefan Weidner's ʺ1001 Books. The Literatures of the Orientʺ: The Middle East – a rich vein of world literatureThe Book of Exposition: An archaeology of eroticaArabic-to-English literary translation: Raising the profile
Cover and e-book edition of Ofer Grosbard's "The Holy Quran for Educating the Child" in English, Arabic and Hebrew (source: quranet.net)

Interview with Quranet founder Ofer Grosbard

Parenting according to the Koran

At the suggestion of his Arab students, Israeli psychologist Ofer Grosbard created the project "Quranet", which uses texts from the Koran to solve educational problems in schools and families. More than ten years after its inception, the project is now attracting attention in the Arab world. Interview by Claudia MendeMore

"Quranet" websiteOfer Grosbard and his "Quranet" project: The therapeutic verses of the KoranIslam and psychoanalysis: A tale of mutual ignorance
Reem Al Farangi from Gaza, founder of Habaybna.net (photo: Claudia Mende)

First Arabic website for parents of disabled children

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"Habaybna" – for advice, community and inclusion

Reem Al Farangi from Gaza, mother to two children with autism, has created the first Arabic-language website for the parents of disabled children. "Habaybna" provides important information about early recognition, therapies and self-help – and connects parents from across the region. Claudia Mende reports from AmmanMore

Disabled refugee children in Jordan: The lesser-known victims of warProcessing child trauma in the Middle East: Sesame Street's new trio of refugee puppetsRights for the disabled in Tunisia: Inching towards inclusion
Algerians protesting the election of Tebboune as the new President of Algeria on 13.12.2019 (photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Arab Spring 2.0

The Middle East's fearless protesters

The upheavals of the past year in the MENA region are arguably as momentous as those of the Arab Spring in 2011. Yet perhaps the biggest difference is that our interest seems to have evaporated. Why? Essay by Jannis HagmannMore

Interview with the Moroccan thinker Hassan Aourid: Democracy cannot be stoppedUnrest in the Arab world: The genie is out of the bottleMilitary dictatorships in the Middle East: The real enemies of the Arab Spring
Graffiti in the Jordanian capital Amman: "No to violence against women" (photo: Claudia Mende)

Women's rights in Jordan

The women of Dar Amneh

In Jordan, members of civil society have set up the first shelter for women who are under threat of death from their own families. For one year now, such women have been able to turn to Dar Amneh for help and support. A report by Claudia MendeMore

Protecting women from violence in Jordan: For a self-determined life Cultural shift in Jordan: A slow awakeningWomen′s rights in the Arab world: No house room for criminals
Lebanese director Rabih Mroué (source: YouTube)

Interview with Lebanese director Rabih Mroué

"First, they all have to go. And all means all"

The Lebanese director Rabih Mroué explains why a tax on WhatsApp led to an outbreak of mass protests in his country. And also why the government has until now refrained from using force. Rabih Mroue talked to Till BrieglebMore

Interview with the Lebanese media artist Rabih Mroué: "Images until victory?"Middle East: Lebanon's protesters are here to stayBook review: Mazen Kerbaj′s ″Beirut won′t cry″: ″Bombs pass and we bark″
Palestinian studies the Koran in Khan Younis (photo: dpa/picture-alliance)

The Prophet and Sharia

Islamic family law reform – a question of interpretation

Equality in divorce, a ban on polygamy: reformers of Islamic family law have a clear agenda. They are exploiting the ambiguity of traditional jurisprudence. By Joseph CroitoruMore

Marriage, divorce and inheritance: Who should reform Egypt's personal status law, and how?Women's rights in Morocco: Gender equality on paper onlyBook review: Zahra Ali's "Islamic Feminisms": Female emancipation based on the spirit of Sharia
Lebanese author Amin Maalouf (photo: Imago Images/IPA/N. Zonna)

Interview with Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf

Petrodollars proved stronger in the Middle East than cultural tradition

Decades of oil exports have completely destabilised culture and politics in the Middle East. Speaking with Lena Bopp, the renowned writer Amin Maalouf says that the distorted political discourse in the Arab world is now impacting on the WestMore

Amin Maalouf: "The dissolution of world orders": The psychology of large collectivesAmin Maalouf: A tree needs roots; a human being doesn'tOil and development in the Middle East: A two-edged sword
Moroccan political scientist Hassan Aourid (photo: private)

Interview with the Moroccan thinker Hassan Aourid

Democracy cannot be stopped

Hassan Aourid is one of the most important political and intellectual figures in Morocco. In interview with Ismail Azzam for Qantara, Aourid outlines his vision of the decline of political Islam and the future of democracy and human rights in the MaghrebMore

Indigenous rights in the Maghreb: An uphill struggle for Tunisiaʹs AmazighMorocco′s Amazigh: The long road to recognitionUnrest in the Arab world: The genie is out of the bottle
Hamid Dabashi, professor at Columbia University, New York (photo: hamiddabashi.com)

Interview with Hamid Dabashi

Europe’s coloniality persists after the fall of empire

An interview with the Iranian-American historian and cultural philosopher Hamid Dabashi about writing, Europe's past and present, right-wing populism and the Arab uprisings. By Tugrul MendeMore

Interview with Hamid Dabashi: ''Another people now Is re-defining the Idea of democracy''Iran and Saudi Arabia: A plea for Islamic toleranceFather of post-colonial studies: Edward Said – exiled between cultures
Anti-government protests on Tahrir Square in Baghdad on 03.11.2019 (photo: picture-alliance/dpa)

Anti-government protests

Is this Iraq's Arab Spring?

Iraq is currently facing such an alarming array of economic, political and social problems that many observers fear no-one will be up to the task of delivering the much-needed reforms. By Stasa SalacaninMore

Unrest in the Arab world: The genie is out of the bottleProtesting for reform and an end to corruption: Iraq's youth reject the dire status quoThe Iraq War fifteen years on: "America destroyed my country"

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