Richard Jansen was watching the streets, waiting for Islamic State (ISIS) fighters to appear, when a heavy firefight broke out one day in January. “There was shooting like crazy, then it went quiet for a bit,” he recalls. It is not clear what exactly happened next, but Jansen was told that a mortar came out of the silence that followed the firefight, striking a wall … Continue reading The Westerners who fight against ISIS
Hossam Assad, a 42-year-old Syrian refugee, says his family lives for Fridays. “This is his favourite time of the week, going to football training,” Hossam tells Al Jazeera, gesturing to his eight-year-old son, Abdullah, as they walk through the noisy, crowded Cairo neighbourhood of al-Tawabeq. “Coming home from football training is his worst time of the week.” The rest of the time, daily life is … Continue reading Syrian refugees in Egypt: The Assad family
JAMMES AND SHAWKAN were in trouble. A police officer was standing on Jammes’s toes and a line of police trucks had arrived. The officer stared into Jammes’s face for several minutes. He slapped him when he tried to speak. Jammes was advised to keep looking down at his feet, half obscured by the officer’s boots. His friend Shawkan, just behind him, endured the same treatment. … Continue reading Blackout: Independent Journalism in Egypt Today, and the Case of Mahmoud Abu Zeid
At first glance there is nothing remarkable about the football team warming up and firing balls towards the goal. After a while there are cries of “yalla, yalla;” two teams assemble and kick-off a practice match. At one point the ball breaks to Mohamed Ali El-Haj and he finds himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper. El-Haj tries to fire off a shot, but the ball is … Continue reading The Lebanese Landmine Survivors’ Football Team
Last December, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Maitri India found 95-year-old widow Kanchan Dal living and begging on the streets of Radhakund, a small village a few kilometres outside of Vrindavan. Now she is sitting on her bed in Maitri’s recently constructed emergency shelter. Stick-like limbs poke out of her sari at various angles and her right eye is covered by a cloudy cataract. She says she … Continue reading Beaten & begging: all India’s parties ignore the “untouchable” widows
Vrindavan, just over 100 miles south of Delhi, exudes the chaos and filth that afflicts many small Indian towns; cows ambling amid noisy traffic, animals rooting through rubbish, and the insistent smell of sewage from the open drains that line the roads. However, it is also regarded as a holy city; where the deity Krishna spent his childhood, according to Hindu scripture. Thousands of destitute … Continue reading An unlikely partnership: Vrindavan’s widows and a New York fashion designer
The message delivered to Irina Putilova’s friend, a fellow political activist in Russia, was blunt: “You should stop your activities, otherwise you might lose both your legs.” It was not an idle threat. A short time later, Putilova’s friend was attacked in the park and, as promised, both his legs were broken. Soon afterwards, she began receiving similar emails: “Do you want to get the same? Aren’t … Continue reading LGBT Russians attempt to take refuge in the UK
Writing by Patrick Keddie 