At age 12, a visit to the hairdresser marked a rare occasion for Umm Mohammad. “We were all very excited, as each girl had just been given a new, white dress.” And yet, the day didn’t proceed as expected. “Suddenly ...
This piece is the second part of Glimpse’s “Contemporary Geopolitics Series” The last century has seen the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) and the countries that form it repeatedly fall into disarray and instability. Authoritarian regimes led by dictators ...
A former communications technician for the Islamic State (IS) has written an op-ed lamenting his participation in IS and, more importantly, claiming Turkey to be an ally to the terrorist organization. Sherko Omar (his pseudonym for Newsweek) said he became ...
In the 2012 Burmese elections, Aung San Suu Kyi – the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) – won a seat in parliament after spending years under house arrest. Her triumph represented a shift in the power wielded ...
Yemen is a nation under siege. The state is rife with conflict between the Sunni-majority Sana’a government and the Zaydi Shi’a minority insurgency known as the Believing Youth or the Houthis. The group takes its name from military commander and ...
Tunisia will hold parliamentary elections at the end of October. A month later, presidential elections will follow. To see a country in the Middle East preparing to hold democratic elections, particularly in the current climate of regional instability, is nothing ...
Israel and Hamas have held a tenuous cease-fire since August 26th. In the ‘final’ 20 minutes of the conflict my phone buzzed 36 times thanks to Red Alert: Israel, a smartphone app that sends real time notifications to users whenever ...
As the Syrian Civil War continues into its third year and the Islamic State’s (IS) actions in Iraq grab international headlines, a humanitarian crisis is clearly unfolding in the Middle East. However, one of the most difficult aftermaths of ...
They have been called barbarians, terrorists and murderers. Even Al Qaeda has disavowed them. The group has been known as ISIS as well as by ISIL, but its latest name illustrates its power: the Islamic State, or IS. Their ambition ...
The CNN app on my phone, which informs me of global and domestic events multiple times throughout the day, has stopped mentioning the current Gaza crisis. Is my phone getting tired of hearing about these continuous attempts to broker successful ...