“A Free Country Needs Free Women”—Interview About Palestinian Women’s Protests

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Last Thursday, in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Gaza, Haifa, and the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, more than 3,000 women took to the streets until late at night under the…

Read More

Defend the women’s revolution in northeastern Syria

Friday, October 11, 2019

ROAR collective Since 2012, with the leading role of women, the people in North and East Syria have been building a social system that enables a peaceful, radical-democratic,…

Read More

Feminists on the front lines of the Algerian uprising

Monday, September 9, 2019

Leïla Ouitis When in early February Algeria’s ailing octogenarian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his intention to run for the presidency for a fifth term, millions of Algerians took…

Read More

Domestic Violence is Widespread in the Middle East

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Cesar Chelala. Gender violence, manifested essentially as violence against women, is one of the most significant epidemics in the Middle East today. This kind of violence occurs in…

Read More

Lights out: Tehran’s clampdown on Western habits

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Kourosh Ziabari. Iran is a country in which many aspects of public life: governance, education, foreign relations and even people’s lifestyles are peculiarly determined by ideology. The authorities…

Read More

Suitcases & Theater: Two poems

Saturday, June 29, 2019

Solmaz Sharif. Suitcases Suitcases of dried limes, dried figs, pomegranate paste, parsley laid in the sun, burnt honey, sugar cubes hardened on a baking sheet. Suitcases of practical…

Read More

Social Media and the internet: a powerful organising tool

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Podcast by David Harvey. Social media has been a powerful took in organising mass movements. Their use in organising more durable structures such as trade unions, women’s organisation…

Read More

Tehran 2019: City On Edge, Iranians In Anticipation

Monday, June 17, 2019

Fariba Amini. May this year was a very pleasant time in Tehran when it comes to the weather. The abundant rain had cleared the pollution for a while,…

Read More

‘To sing is not a right in the Gaza Strip’

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Hind Khoudary. Abed Nasser, the owner of Cedar restaurant in Gaza City, broke the news to his customers in a Facebook post: the highly-anticipated music night scheduled for…

Read More

Welcome to the new Algerian revolution: an interview with Hamza Hamouchene

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Omar Hassan speaks to Algerian scholar and activist Hamza Hamouchene, coordinator of Environmental Justice North Africa and co-founder of the Algeria Solidarity Campaign, about the mass movement sweeping Algeria. In…

Read More

Three poems by Forugh Farrokhzad, a woman alone

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

English Translations of selected Poems and Poetry of the great Iranian Poet Forugh Farrokhzad فروغ فرخزاد Forugh, one of the most famous Persian Women poets died in a…

Read More

Women and the War in Yemen: Actors or Victims?

Sunday, May 5, 2019

In most conflicts, women are grouped with children; they are categorized among the most vulnerable groups. This designation erases, in many cases, women who are engaged in the…

Read More

Only People Make Their Own History: Writings on Capitalism, Imperialism, and Revolution: Book Review

Friday, March 29, 2019

Semir Amin. Radical political economist Samir Amin (1931–2018) left behind a cherished oeuvre of Marxist writings. Amin’s intellectual range—from economics to culture—was admirable, and his lessons remain essential….

Read More

Voices above the chaos: female war poets from the Middle East

Saturday, March 9, 2019

Ed Vulliamy. The Syrian city of Aleppo crumbles into rubble, assailed by Russian bombs, government artillery and chemical weapons. In the heat of battle, Turkish troops and Kurdish…

Read More

Iran: Women’s right and the class struggle

Friday, March 8, 2019

Yassamine Mather. Friday March 8 is International Women’s Day, which this year coincides with the 40th anniversary of the first major protest by Iranian women against the Islamic…

Read More

We Crossed A Bridge and it Trembled: Book Review

Friday, March 1, 2019

Wendy Pearlman: We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria, Custom House, 2017. Everyone talks about Syrians, but very few are actually talk to them. Perhaps that’s…

Read More

The Me Too Movement in the Middle East

Thursday, February 14, 2019

by Lara al-Kateb and  Omar Abbas with contributions from Selin Cagatay, Frieda Afary,  Fatemeh Masjedi and socialist feminists inside Iran  The Me Too movement against sexual assault and…

Read More

Defying War and Defining Peace in Afghanistan

Friday, February 1, 2019

Kathy Kelly. On January 27th, 2019, the Taliban and the U.S. government each publicly stated  acceptance, in principle, of a draft framework for ongoing negotiations that could culminate…

Read More

Chile’s feminists inspire a new era of social struggle

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Bree Busk. It is May 2018 and as winter descends on Santiago, Chile, a new wave of feminist activity is exploding into life. Anti-patriarchal graffiti covers the city…

Read More

5.5 Million Women Build Their Wall in Kerala

Monday, January 14, 2019

Vijay Prashad. On Jan. 1, 5.5 million women in the Indian state of Kerala (population 35 million) built a 386-mile wall with their bodies. They stood from one end…

Read More

What does democracy look like?

Friday, January 11, 2019

James Miler. “This is what democracy looks like!”—for some of us protesting Trump in New York on January 21, 2017, this was a familiar chant. We’d heard it…

Read More

Inside Mother Camp: the woman tackling Afghanistan’s drug problem

Monday, January 7, 2019

Rushi Kumar. Laila Haidari is considered a criminal, despite never committing a crime. The 40-year-old works with drug addicts in Kabul. “The addicts I work with are considered…

Read More

Exploitation and Expropriation, or Why Capitalism Must be Attacked with Equal Force on Every Front

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Michael D Yates. [Author’s note: This essay is based upon arguments made in Chapter 2 (“Some Theoretical Considerations”) of my book, Can the Working Class Change the World? Unless…

Read More

Lessons to Learn on the 25th Anniversary of the Zapatista Uprising

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Hilary Klein Twenty-five years ago today, the Zapatistas rose up in arms. Twenty-five years – it’s hard to believe! It’s been many years since the Zapatistas were the…

Read More

Aziz Al-Azmeh in conversation: Part III Women, democracy and political Islamisms

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Concluding part of dialogue: Political Islamism, women and democracy Ardeshir Mehrdad: As you have probably observed, amongst the authors dealing with feminist-Islamism some place their emphasis on the…

Read More

Aziz Al-Azmeh in conversation Part 2: Political Islamisms the labour movement and women

Friday, December 7, 2018

This is the second part of a three-part conversation carried out with the Syrian academic Aziz Al-Azmeh. Here Professor Al-Azmeh addresses the various forms that political islams take…

Read More

Books on Middle East 2018 – tales of repression, ruse and resistance

Thursday, November 29, 2018

 Into the Hands of the Soldiers: Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East. David Kirkpatrick, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018. From 2011 to 2015, David Kirkpatrick was the…

Read More

Saudi Arabia: Reports of torture and sexual harassment of detained activists

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Amnesty International. Several Saudi Arabian activists, including a number of women, who have been arbitrarily detained without charge since May 2018 in Saudi Arabia’s Dhahban Prison, have reportedly…

Read More

Engaging Books Series: Pluto Press Selections on Radical Politics

Friday, November 23, 2018

ENGAGING BOOKS SERIES Pluto Press Selections On Radical Politics Engaging Books is a new series that features books by various publishers on a given theme, along with an…

Read More

Why Is Israel Afraid of Khalida Jarrar?

Friday, November 9, 2018

Ramzy Baroud. When Israeli troops stormed the house of Palestinian parliamentarian and lawyer, Khalida Jarrar, on April 2, 2015, she was engrossed in her research. For months, Jarrar…

Read More