Qantara.de - Dialog mit der islamischen Welt

Traditional gender norms dominate societies across the Middle East and North Africa, but young people who don't easily fit into well-established identities are increasingly speaking out. From Iraq to Tunisia, non-binary voices are demanding a platform and online magazines like My.Kali play a central role in helping to forge empowered non-conformist communities. More

While inequalities with men are fading in many areas and speech is becoming freer with movements like #MeToo​, there is still a long way to go on many fronts. From Saudi Arabia, where women have only recently gained basic freedoms, to Afghanistan, where the return of the Taliban threatens the fragile progress of girls' education.More

Discussing Dr. Shoaib Pervez’s latest book "Radicalization in Pakistan: A Critical Perspective", Farah Adeed probes the origins of collective societal radicalisation in Pakistan.More

People's access to information has deteriorated dramatically over the past year, with a commensurate increase in obstacles to news coverage. The coronavirus pandemic has been used as grounds to block journalists’ access to information sources and reporting in the field. Will this access be restored when the pandemic is over?More

Bahloul challenges patriarchal readings and interpretations of Islamic scriptures:: “Muslims must reclaim their sacred text and give themselves the authorisation to read it and interpret it with the tools we have today in the twenty-first century.”More

Most of Raqqa's historical treasures were looted or immediately destroyed by IS. Ten years after the start of the Syrian revolution, our reporters met Syrians who are trying to reshape the future of their city.More

Faced with sharp price rises, a decline in the buying power of the dinar and rising unemployment, Iraqis enter the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan with a feeling of dread.More

During 2020, the world was rocked by COVID-19. The pandemic and measures taken to tackle it impacted everyone, but also threw into stark relief, and sometimes aggravated, existing inequalities and patterns of abuse.More

A recent report by Amnesty International reveals that Lebanese security forces have committed shocking violations against Syrian refugees in custody, often arbitrarily, on terrorism-related charges, employing some of the same atrocious torture techniques used in Syria’s most notorious prisonsMore

Human Rights Watch 98-page report, "'I Wanted to Run Away': Abusive Dress Codes for Women and Girls in Indonesia", documents government regulations that require girls and women to wear the jilbab – Muslim apparel that covers the head, neck, and chest.More

The labyrinth of alleys and lanes in the old city of Suzhou hides a secret: historical fragments of the long history of Islam in China. In stark contrast to the current persecution of its Muslim minorities by the People's Republic, Islam was highly regarded by generations of Chinese emperors.More

Turkey is torn between the deeply secular heritage of its founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the state religion now promoted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The government is trying to impose its views through psychological pressure and a revised educational curriculum, but is meeting strong resistance. Shona Bhattacharyya reports.More

Swiss citizens have voted by a slim majority for a ban on face coverings. In future, Muslim women will not be allowed to wear burkas or niqabs in public. Protesters and hooligans who hide their faces will also face fines. Such bans apply in several European countries. Europe's press is at odds over the decision.More

Indian Islam: Ghazala Wahab's latest book examines how the world’s second largest religion is practiced in the country.More

For more than 300 years, Muslims have influenced the story of the U.S. – from the ‘founding fathers’ to blues music today.More

Women's gyms are a rarity in Somalia. A woman leading a gym is even rarer. But that's exactly what Aisha Muhyadin is doing – keeping women fit, building self-confidence and maintaining a thriving business.More

The global health crisis has triggered a major shift away from restaurant dining, leaving many in the culinary sector out of work. But one chef, Joudie Kalla, has pressed on and transformed her career into something entirely new.More

As demonstrated by numerous statements by Egyptian women on social media, victims of sexual violence who do talk about their experience are usually met with disbelief or are accused of bringing it on themselves. Why is that so? And why are the perpetrators able to continue to commit crimes with impunity?More

Narrated by Olivia Coman, this feature documentary is about one of the world’s most courageous human rights activists and political prisoners, Iranian attorney and Right Livelihood Award winner Nasrin Sotoudeh. The film also profiles the untold story of Iran’s women’s rights movement.More

Ofarin is an association working hard in Afghanistan to provide girls an education. Founded by German aid worker Paul Schwittek it has transformed the lives of a generation of Afghan girls, but now his project is coming to an end.More

Whether religious writings are interpreted in a tolerant or hostile way is closely linked to the historical context of their interpretation. The responsibility for terror lies primarily with the people and not with the religious texts themselves, says Assem Hefny, lecturer at Al-Azhar UniversityMore

“Muslims around the world, rulers and ruled, reject terrorism that acts in the name of religion, and affirm the innocence of Islam and its Prophet from terrorism.”More

This August saw the launch of the world's first online platform for Muslim services. Featuring a global provider community covering a full range of life services, from marriages to education, wills, and life coaching, ImamConnect enables users to book Imams, scholars, therapists, and more, all of whom have gone through stringent background and credentials checks.More

Relations between Muslims and Christians disintegrated in northern Iraq after the Islamic State took over Mosul and surrounding regions in 2014. Some 100,000 Christians fled their homes, returning years later to live uneasily alongside Muslim residents, whom they saw as complicit in the attacks. To what extent might football help heal the wounds?More

Universities can take an active role, however, in helping to build peaceful relations on campus, and beyond, by challenging prejudice and empowering Muslim and all marginal voices.More

"The Invisible Muslim" offers a topical read to better understand the anti-racism conversation raging across the world right now, as well as a case study of what it means to be a Muslim in the West in the 21st century.More

In the tenth issue of its online magazine. RAWI – Egypt's Heritage Review – delves into Egypt's fascinating culinary past, while also dishing up a few contemporary treats.More

The Tunisian-French author and sociologist Albert Memmi died last week at the age of 99. His life's work on de-colonisation, emigration and displacement remains highly relevant.More

The recent Netflix docuseries “Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak” illustrates how the Islamic ritual washing, known as "wudu", may help spread a good hygiene message.More

With an estimated population of 1.8 billion, Muslims are the world’s second-largest religious group, after Christians. But our surveys have found that about half of Americans – as well as most Western Europeans – say they know little or nothing about Islam.More

Iranian activist and co-author of "Freedom is not a crime", Shaparak Shajarizadeh relates how she got "fed up with living a lie" and decided to take off her veil in Iran as an act of civil disobedience.More

In a bid to replace French with English in its tertiary level education, the Algerian government is to fund hundreds of PhD students to study at Ireland's University of Limerick (UL) under a deal estimated to be worth up to €20 million.More

Many disabled people in Yemen have not only survived years of armed conflict, but are also among the most marginalized people in a country that is currently experiencing – according to the United Nations – the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.More

Water is one of the most important elements of our planet. As a source of life, it is also one of the commons most threatened by the way we use it. In cooperation with Afaq Magazine, Goethe Institut Perspectives showcases initiatives, ideas and possible solultions for the MENA region.More

France's on-off row over the Muslim headscarf is on again. With March municipal elections on the way, President Macron told MPs from his own party not to let the far-right own the conversation on secularism, radicalisation and sectarianism. We ask what the law says and what the French want.More

A group of young Australian Muslims are embarking on a rural expedition across the country to challenge misconceptions about their faith. The road trip will see the young men from six cities visit more than 50 rural towns on the way to a gathering at Uluru.More

For decades, hundreds of Muslims have been forging their own identity in predominantly Catholic southern Mexico. Catholicism was brought to the mainly Maya indigenous region during the Spanish conquest, and in recent decades evangelical Christians have increased in number, but Muslims from Spain also came to Chiapas in the 1990s, bringing their religion with them. Soon locals began to convert, and now many fuse indigenous culture with Islamic customs.More

Contrary to popular belief, Muslims are firmly a part of the modern world and are grappling with the challenges of modernity in myriad ways. Many of them are navigating modernity’s sometimes uncharted waters with creativity and imagination, re-engaging with their tradition and revisiting their history.More

Taking inspiration from the success of star architect Zaha Hadid, who died in 2016, a new batch of ambitious female architects is hoping to take the region by storm.More

In India after World War Two, the city of Calcutta was home to 5,000 Jews. Muslims there have been the caretakers of synagogues in India for generations. Kalpana Pradhan reports.More

Specifying three principles, religious sociology expert Jose Casanova from Georgetown University argues that tolerance needs to begin with the recognition of religious diversity and plurality.More

In a country bound by strict Islamic law, more Iranians than ever before are staying single. The government is so concerned that it has set up an online dating agency. Shaunagh Connaire went to Tehran in 2016 to find out about dating, Iranian style.More

For thousands of years, two famous rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, made Iraq one of the most fertile regions in the Middle East. These days, the future of both rivers is in danger.More

Open societies and liberal democracies are no longer merely ideas: they have become reality, argues Aladin El-Mafaalani in his lecture on "Open society and social closure".More