After more than quarter of a century of struggle to raise awareness about the secret execution of their loved ones, Mothers of Khavaran, a grassroots network of thousands of survivors in Iran, receive the 2014 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights.
Human rights cannot thrive globally without the support of pluralist religious theologies that are in tune with public culture. In Muslim settings, this means that the shari’a free itself from a narrow traditionalism that has displaced a strong heritage of inclusive and egalitarian ethics. A contr
Three characteristics are often viewed as important in Arab societies: concern over politics, the place of religion, and the importance of family. Investigation of these 'Arabness' features in Morocco produces some intriguing results.
The US-sponsored peace negotiations on a two-state solution have failed, again, as they will always do until monopolistic narratives of victimhood are abandoned.
In the short term the Ukraine/Crimea crisis adds momentum to Russia’s drive to reassert its superpower presence and influence in the Middle East, and reinforces the regional perception, whether justified or not, of US withdrawal and hesitation.
War rages on in Egypt: but it is not secular vs religious, it is not a class or gender war…or even a war between different generations.
An Islamic cleric’s gesture to the persecuted Bahá’í community in Iran shows that in countries where universal human rights standards have little local resonance, appeals for tolerance based on religion, cultural traditions, and domestic history, can help break the deadlock. A contribution to the
The Gulf countries and Iran need to address their mutually contentious foreign policy issues, such as Syria, Iran's nuclear programme, and their relationships with the US.
The more the Gulf states pay a reputational cost in the west for maintaining this system of exploitation, the harder it will be for them to resist demands for serious reform.
Arab countries should be wary of applying new neoliberal economic policies, since it may have been adherence to these policies that led to the conditions causing social unrest
Egypt's heavy-handed crackdown on the Sinai insurgency may need recalibration in order to gain the support of, rather than alienate, the indigenous Bedouin community
