How to challenge the patriarchal ethics of Muslim legal tradition

Ziba Mir-Hosseini 13 May 2013

One lesson from the 1979 Iranian revolution and the 2011 Arab revolutions is that activists seeking to promote women’s rights, human rights and the transition to democracy must challenge patriarchy from within the Muslim legal tradition. 

An arms craze: drones to lasers

Paul Rogers 2 May 2013

The United States, Israel and other military powers continue to seek the perfect weapon - from "unmanned aerial vehicles" to "directed energy". They forget how the story ends. 

Bury the WMD-free zone and resuscitate the peace process

Edvin Arnby-Machata 10 April 2013

In order to achieve long-term security in the Middle East, it is necessary to address the root cause of conflict rather than its symptoms.

Syria, war without exit

Paul Rogers 29 March 2013

The rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran is at the heart of Syria's destructive stalemate. This proxy conflict, with Baghdad providing crucial help to Tehran, highlights the scale of the blowback from the United States's war in Iraq.

Playing chicken with the Islamic Republic

Linda Heiden 13 March 2013

Threats of attack and sanctions have proven to be a double-edged sword, inflicting real damage on both the Iranian regime and its democratic opposition, with real costs for the fragile European economy and America’s strategic power.

Rebuilding the walls

Jillian C. York 12 March 2013

The internet promised “shared humanity in all its messy glory”. But national governments are keen to turn back the global tide of communications.

Nuclear assurances: when a fatwa isn’t a fatwa

Sasan Aghlani 8 March 2013

Ayatollah Khamenei issued a fatwa forbidding the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons. What does its disregard mean for his ability to project authority to both international actors and domestic audiences?

A forgotten anniversary: Iran’s first revolution and constitution

Amir-Hussein Firouz Radjy 8 March 2013

Too often the history of Iran is reduced to a string of despotisms interrupted by moments of fanatical violence and foreign intervention.  

Who should care about stoning?

Rochelle Terman 8 March 2013

Today sees the launch of a new Global Campaign to Stop Stoning. Rochelle Terman examines the history of this gendered practice of violence against women. With stoning, as with all forms of culturally-justified violence against women, it is very difficult to see where culture ends and politics begin.

The Iranian key to the Syrian crisis

Heiko Wimmen 5 March 2013

Iran's strategic and ideological investment in the Assad regime may force smaller, unpalatable political compromises to secure a 'solution' in Syria.

So what keeps Iran’s Supreme Leader awake at night?

Afshin Shahi 28 February 2013

The biggest threat to the survival of the Islamic Republic might not come from sanctions imposed by the west, but from growing divisions that are disintegrating the regime from the inside.

Islam in the Arab transformations

Sami Zubaida 18 February 2013

The Shari’a is largely irrelevant to most important issues of policy and administration in the economy and in government. Its historical and symbolic locus is on family and sexuality: patriarchal rights, segregation of the sexes, enforced female modesty.

In conversation: Syria in perspective

openSecurity 18 February 2013

Fawaz Gerges and Rosemary Hollis with Robin Yassin-Kassab at the openDemocracy conference Syria's peace: what, how, when?, discussing the regional proxy war, class dynamics in Syria, intervention and the costs of not negotiating with Assad.

Turkey, Syria and the dynamics of ‘cold war redux’

Karabekir Akkoyunlu 17 February 2013

Syria’s neighbours, including Turkey, have the most to lose from an intensifying Syrian conflict, as they directly bear the brunt of it. Thus it is imperative that there is some sort of dialogue across the geopolitical divide. The EU is conspicuous in its absence.

جنگ بر سر واژه ها: آزادی بیان بعد از خروج نیروهای آمریکایی از افغانستان

Nasim Fekrat 21 January 2013

%22Bordering"

نویسندگان و خبرنگاران افغان با وخیم تر شدن وضعیت روبرو هستند. بعضی بر این باوراند که ممکن است دستآورد های آزادی بیان بعد از خروج نیروهای خارجی ناپدید شوند

English.

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

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