Topic: Social movements

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Armed service personnel patrol the streets of Baghdad, ensuring people adhere to the curfew issued by the Iraqi government (photo: dpa)

COVID-19 in Iraq

Working under the coronavirus curfew in Baghdad

Coronavirus is also spreading in Iraq. This didn't stop hundreds of thousands of pilgrims travelling to a Shia shrine, however. The nation's health system has already conceded it cannot cope with the epidemic. Birgit Svensson reports from BaghdadMore

COVID-19 epidemic in Iran: Faith and the coronavirusCOVID-19 pandemic: The world’s religions and coronavirus Fighting shy of coronavirus
Women's rights activists protesting in downtown Beirut (photo: Julia Neumann)

Female protesters in Lebanon

Solidarity is the solution!

Women have been the driving force behind the popular protests in Lebanon for months. They are fighting for the rights of everyone – women, minorities, refugees or migrants. Julia Neumann reports from BeirutMore

Middle East: Lebanon's protesters are here to stayWomen's rights in Lebanon: Campaign exposes "victim-blaming" attitudes to rapeDomestic violence against women in Lebanon: Protection, yes, but not enough
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
Women providing medical assistance on Baghdad's Tahrir Square (photo: niqash.org)

Iraq's revolutionary women

The female paramedics of Tahrir Square

During the protests against the central government in Baghdad, Iraqi women have been volunteering as nurses and learning first aid. They are also changing the status quo and promoting the rights of women in the country. By Azhar Ali HusseinMore

The icon of Tahrir Square in Baghdad and Cairo: Arab Spring and October RevolutionElias Khoury on the Arab Spring 2019: The re-birth of Tahrir SquareTahrir Square's democracy activists: The forgotten heroes
Director Karim Ainouz with the film's female protagonist Nardjes Asli (source: Berlinale 2020)

International Women’s Day

Ainouz' "Nardjes A." – hope as a form of resistance

Focussing on the Algerian protest movement, "Nardjes A." by Karim Ainouz, is about the universal power of hope to change the social and political status quo in the Maghreb country. By Rene WildangelMore

Berlinale 2018: ″Central Airport THF″ by Karim Ainouz: Lives lived in waitingFirst anniversary of the Hirak movement: The jury's still out on AlgeriaArab Spring 2.0: The Middle East's fearless protesters
A man casts his vote during parliamentary elections at a polling station in Tehran on 21 February 2020 (photo: Reuters/WANA/I. Tabatabaee)

Elections in the Islamic republic

Strong vote for a strong Iran?

In the run-up to Iran’s parliamentary elections on 21 February, state media was at full blast. Urging Iranians to take to the polls, state TV’s Channel 1 ran an election-day countdown, showing images of past elections and enthusiastic voters, regularly interrupted by music appealing to Iranians' sense of patriotism and nationalism. By Ali Fathollah-NejadMore

Interview with Nader Hashemi on the protests in Iran: Violence "reflects the Iranian regime's desperation"The mirage of regime change: Why the United States is Khamenei’s bogeymanThe longest duel: Iran and the USA square off
Protest in Algiers on 12 December 2019 (photo: AFP/Getty Images)

First anniversary of the Hirak movement

The jury's still out on Algeria

Few would have thought that Algeria's Hirak protest movement would still be mobilising the masses 12 months on from its first peaceful demonstration. According to Isabelle Werenfels and Luca Miehe, the systemic change people hoped for post-Bouteflika has yet to materialise. External players need to brace themselves for ongoing political turbulenceMore

Unpopular presidential elections: Algeria stands at a historic crossroadsArab Spring 2.0: The Middle East's fearless protestersDemocracy movements in the Arab world: Look to Sudan, Algeria!
Demonstrators on Tahrir Square in Cairo (photo: AFP/Getty Images)

The icon of Tahrir Square in Baghdad and Cairo

Arab Spring and October Revolution

The past enthusiasm of the Egyptians lives on in the Iraqis of today. But just as they were nine years ago in Cairo, current prospects in Baghdad are dim. A comparison by Birgit SvenssonMore

Tahrir Square's democracy activists: The forgotten heroesElias Khoury on the Arab Spring 2019: The re-birth of Tahrir SquareMass protests in Sudan, Algeria, Lebanon and Iraq: Is this the Arab Spring 2.0?
Iraqi author Sinan Antoon (photo: Ibtisam Azem/sinanantoon.com)

Interview with Iraqi author Sinan Antoon

The West and its cliched view of Iraq

Looking outwards with the knowledge from within: a conversation with the Iraqi writer Sinan Antoon on the future of his homeland. Interview by Lena BoppMore

Facing the Mahdi militias: Iraqi civilians in the firing lineThe Iraq War fifteen years on: "America destroyed my country"Book review: Sinan Antoon′s ″The Baghdad Eucharist″: Fading under fire
A clerk serves a Lebanese customer at a bank in Beirut (photo: Getty Images/AFP/J. Barrak)

A toxic combination of sectarianism and rentierism

Lebanon's perfect storm

Today's in-fighting over the composition of the country's next cabinet is part of a larger battle for a new political settlement. The financial crisis poses a mortal danger to the country; but it also represents an opportunity for political change. By Ishac DiwanMore

Interview with Lebanese activist Nizar Hassan: Beirut's ruling elite may be down, but they are not yet outInterview with Lebanese director Rabih Mroué: "First, they all have to go. And all means all"Middle East: Lebanon's protesters are here to stay
Iran expert and journalist Reza Alijani (source: YouTube)

Interview with Reza Alijani on Soleimani's assassination

In the wake of Iran's shadow commander

The assassination of the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a surprise U.S. drone strike is being used by the Islamic Republic of Iran to political ends, says Iranian journalist and activist Reza Alijani. Interview conducted by Azadeh FathiMore

Following the assassination of Qassem Soleimani: Tehran weighs its next moveThe assassination of Qassem Soleimani: U.S.-Iranian conflict set to escalateProfile: Qassem Soleimani: The man who pulls the strings
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
Egyptian writer Tawfiq al-Hakim (photo: AFP/Getty Images)

Book review: Tawfiq al-Hakim’s "Return of the Spirit"

Awaiting the day of resurrection

In 2019, the long-running Penguin Classics series released its first novel translated from Arabic: Tawfiq al-Hakim’s "Return of the Spirit", conveyed into English by William Hutchins. Al-Hakim wrote his popular novel in Paris in 1927 and published it in Cairo six years later, in 1933. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the bookMore

Book review: Tawfiq al-Hakim's "The Revolt of the Young": A revolutionary manual for older generationsInterview with Egyptian novelist Ahmed Naji: When writing becomes a crimeInterview with the Egyptian author Youssef Rakha: "Taken together, these things would make up home..."
Christmas tree on Sahat an-Nour Square in the north Lebanon city of Tripoli (photo: Hanna Resch)

Christmas in Lebanon

Revolution under the Christmas tree

Beirut usually sparkles and dazzles at Christmas time. This year, marked by major protests, however, everything has been turned on its head: there is a distinct lack of Christmas in Beirut, while in Tripoli, a Christmas tree has been erected for the first time ever on the main square, Sahat an-Nour. Hanna Resch reports from LebanonMore

No Christmas tinsel in Iraq, in solidarity with protestersChurch renovation lifts Christmas spirit in BethlehemNazareth preserves its Arab traditions as Christmas nears
Symbolic image of loneliness/depression/suicide (photo: Fotolia/lassedesignen)

Suicide on the rise in Tunisia

A last desperate stand

Tunisia is considered a paragon of the Arab Spring. Despite democratic reforms, however, a mood of political frustration and economic despair still prevails, particularly among young people. Since 2011 the country has seen an increase in the number of suicides – an act some see as a form of political protest. By Hannah El-HitamiMore

Eight years after the Jasmine Revolution: Young Tunisians see redSocial unrest in Tunisia: Taking on the IMFErdogan's economic crisis: Plumbing the depths of despair in Turkey
Anti-government protests and unrest in Iraq (photo: Getty Images/AFP)

Unrest in Iraq

Sadr City – a hotbed of resistance

The resignation of Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has not managed to quell the unrest in Iraq. After a deadly weekend in which many lost their lives, the wave of protests has swelled up once again. Most of the demonstrators come from Sadr City in Baghdad. Birgit Svensson paid a visit to the Shia suburb of the Iraqi capitalMore

Facing the Mahdi militias: Iraqi civilians in the firing lineAnti-government protests: Is this Iraq's Arab Spring?Unrest in the Arab world: The genie is out of the bottle

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