Omar Youssef Souleimane, a Syrian award-winning poet and journalist, discusses his new book Le Petit Terroriste (“The Little Terrorist”) (2018) which was published in French by Flammarion, Paris and reflects on the seventh anniversary of the Syrian Revolution.

March 17th, 2018 | Arabic

In the third and final installment of the panel on Authoritarian Leaders in Asia and the Middle East, the speakers discuss the relationships that the leaders have with their military. They then take questions from the audience.

In Part II, the panelists delve deeper into their respective case-studies, highlighting similarities and differences between certain authoritarian leaders, while addressing other topics, such as how each leader makes use of 'grievances' as a tool to maintain power.

Courtesy of Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
February 15th, 2018 | English

In Part I, the speakers introduce themselves and speak of examples of authoritarianism in countries such as Turkey, China, North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Courtesy of Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
February 15th, 2018 | English

A conversation with Gaza based writer Rawan Yaghi about daily life in Gaza.

In her recent op-ed in the New York Times, titled “Gaza Screams for Life,” Gaza-based writer Rawan Yaghi describes her visit to the site of the Great March of Return protest at the border two days after Friday’s massacre. She writes, “I left the protest thinking of the rest of Gaza — shellshocked for years, its borders closed and its United Nations-funded infrastructure in decay. I thought of the kids in my neighborhood who play football in what used to be the ground floor of a tall residential building, with bare concrete columns and poking iron rods as their only audience. And I thought: Once again, Gaza the Injured has come out to protest, and to scream for life.”

April 5th, 2018 | English
Interviewed by Malihe Razazan
Courtesy of Voices of the Middle East and North Africa (VOMENA)

VOMENA (Voices of the Middle East and North Africa) Producer Shahram Aghamir spoke with Dr. Cengiz Gunes who is an Associate Lecturer at the Open University in the UK about the Turkish invasion of Afrin, an enclave in North Western Syria, on January 20th.

March 22nd, 2018 | English
Interviewed by Shahram Aghamir
Courtesy of Voices of the Middle East and North Africa (VOMENA)

A conversation with Gaza based human rights activist and legal researcher for the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Mohamad Abu Hashem, about the Great March of Return.

April 5th, 2018 | English
Interviewed by Mira Nabulsi
Courtesy of Voices of the Middle East and North Africa (VOMENA)

On Friday 30 March 2018, thirty-thousand Palestinians in the Gaza Strip organized the largest civil protest in recent history in Palestine. The effort, known as the March of Return, is meant to commemorate the Land Day protests organized by Palestinian citizens of Israel in response to Israeli land confiscations and to last through the Palestinian Nakba on 15 May 2018, also known as Israel’s independence day.

On the first day of the March of Return, Israeli snipers shot to kill 18 Palestinians and injured 1,400 others across the militarized border against the unarmed demonstrators who were within the Gaza Strip’s buffer zone and posed no threat to the soldiers.

In this interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Status host Noura Erakat places the march in context and discusses the mainstream media’s inability to understand or explain this mass civil uprising.

Yemeni journalist and political commentator Sama'a Al-Hamdani discusses current events in the Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia's continued war in Yemen and arrests of members of the royal family, the death of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the ongoing diplomatic crisis in the GCC, its legal implications, and more.

Courtesy of Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
January 19th, 2018 | English

In a talk based on his most recent book, Dr. Lahouari attempts to assess the history and political legacy of radical Arab nationalism to show that it contained the seeds of its own destruction. While the revolutionary regimes promised economic and social development and sought the unity of Arab nations, they did not account for social transformations, such as freedom of speech, that would eventually lead to their decline. But while radical Arab nationalism fell apart, authoritarian populism did not disappear. Today it is expressed by political Islam that aims to achieve the kind of social justice radical Arab nationalism once promised.

Dr. Lahouari creatively links the past and present while also raising questions about the future of Arab countries. Is political Islam the heir of radical Arab nationalism? If political Islam succeeds, will it face the same challenges faced by radical Arab nationalism? Will it be able to implement modernity? The future of Arab countries, Addi says, depends on this crucial issue.

Courtesy of Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
January 12th, 2018 | English