WorldcrunchDaraj is a Beirut-based, Arabic-language independent digital media platform that was created by journalists.
Syria’s new education minister, Nazir al-Qadri, may have quietly revealed the true intention of the new government, replacing the generic word “law” with “Sharia,” Islamic law. This and other changes to school curricula appear to be happening after the government has denied such changes.
Jordan has cautiously followed the emergence of Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, from the ranks of jihad fighters to a statesman. Amman is increasingly concerned that the Muslim Brotherhood could exploit the rise of Islamists in Syria to sow chaos in Jordan, or the return of extremist fighters to areas on its borders.
Al-Sharaa has surprised many with his openness to dialogue after a past linked to al-Qaeda. He represents a complex model that embodies the transformation of Syria since the beginning of the revolution in 2011.
The absence of documentation and an international accountability mechanism capable of deterring warring parties in Yemen has exacerbated the severity of violations related to sexual assault against children. These violations have spread across social media, revealing the extent of unspoken crimes that have yet to find their way to justice.
Palestinian writer Feda Ziyadh shares a personal fear, which she says cannot be understood or explained: that of getting used to a sense of the present that has been created by what she calls a “saga of displacement.”
In Syria, the Muslim Brotherhoods and the Kurds have long suffered from repression more than other factions in Syrian society. They suffered not only because of their opposition to the regime but also their identities. Rebuilding a functional Syrian state requires deep reflection and hard compromise on what the nation’s identity and laws will be.
The Palestinian Authority insists that its operation in the Jenin refugee camp was intended to maintain security and thwart any Israeli plans for the West Bank. Yet other Palestinian factions have criticized the move, which comes amid Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza and ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
After the downfall of Bashar al-Assad, Kurdish citizens of Syria rejoiced, but deep concerns over the people’s fate have not gone away.
A post-Assad tour of Damascus, that singular Middle East capital, from which the Ba’ath Party spared nothing and desecrated everything. How quickly it shed all the ugliness that the Assad regime had spread over more than five decades!
Amman and its allies, much like the skeptical secular Syrian opposition, await tangible actions on the ground to match the promises of pragmatist rhetoric from Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who is marketing himself as a statesman committed to building an inclusive new Syria that’s a good neighbor after abandoning extremist ideologies.
Amid the chaos of the collapsing Assad regime, the businessmen who were close to power know they are at risk.
Since he fled in the cover of the night to Russia with his wife and three children, Bashar al-Assad’s entourage and extended family have expressed their anger and humiliation at his deception. He also betrayed his regional allies who went out of their way to protect his regime for years.
As the Assad regime was crumbling, the sight of the prisoners being freed had its own impact on so many people, including exiled Syrian writer Ruqayyah Al-Abbadi, who knew them from the inside.
The scenes of joy and vengeance in Damascus recall the outpouring in Baghdad in 2003 when Saddam Hussein, and his statues, were toppled after years of rule by the same bloody political Ba’athist ideology that has held sway in the region for 77 years. But beware the risks of De-Ba’athification like in Iraq.
The upcoming challenge is the most serious for Jordan since King Abdullah II assumed power 25 years ago, as the incoming U.S. president will be pressing for a deal that could reshape the whole region.
Returning to their destroyed villages in the south, Lebanese found no one waiting for them. Others have no possibility to return. Meanwhile, Israel considers it just a 60-day pause in fighting. What deal was cut behind closed doors?
The surprise attack by rebel groups on Syrian government forces in Aleppo has raised many questions since it coincided with the ceasefire deal in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel. With so many forces and interests around Syria, don’t expect the reignited conflict to end anytime soon.
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, use of the term “evil” has increased. The more heinous and public the murder, the more the evil of the murderer would be revealed and “the world” would be pushed to intervene. Yet in both Syria and Gaza, that world has been satisfied with symbolic responses.
One might think that the rush to announce the completion of the deal refers to its preemptive failure with each party blaming the other for this failure. But there are many moving parts in the negotiations, like there are in the region.
The Arab nations and people are facing a general state of failure that includes actions of regimes, societies and political parties, armed militias, national liberation and resistance movements. And while Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Lebanon is abhorrent, Arabs hold most of the responsibility.
Tunisians are among the largest group of people migrating to Europe due to the lack of decent living conditions in the North African country. But now even animals are being pushed to the brink by the neglect and mismanagement of resources.
After recovering from a series of crises in recent years — Lebanon’s economic collapse, the COVID-19 pandemic — the country’s national basketball team is playing qualifiers for the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup to be held in Saudi Arabia. With their country embroiled in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, the team’s players have infused social importance in their matches.
Palestinians need to rationalize their anger and resentment for the sake of a humanitarian project that enjoys global support.
The Shia question is an expression of the entire Lebanese question, and requires the good will of all faiths, but also poses the responsibility of what to think and do about Hezbollah.
A video in the summer of 2023 showed Julia Alli playing the piano in her home southern Lebanon. In the fall of 2024, a new video emerges of Israeli soldiers in the ruble of that home and piano. For writer Badia Fahs, the contrast also links to the story of Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning Holocaust drama The Pianist.
A photographer captured the seasoned Iranian official Ali Larijani laughing on his visit Thursday to Beirut, fully aware of what laughter means in such a situation. The seasoned Iranian diplomat knows that many Lebanese hold his regime responsible for dragging their country into a bloody, senseless, and destructive war.
The situation in Gaza has become so dire that Palestinians have observed hungry dogs and cats eating dead bodies on the streets — and even digging up buried corpses — and becoming more aggressive toward people.
In his first term, Donald Trump tried to undermine the strategy that Jordan had bet on for more than two decades, to protect itself from the risk of transferring the Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to Jordan. What will a second Trump term mean for the country?
In more than a year since the Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalated, news of bombing has become a habit in Lebanon. In an essay for the Beirut-based independent media Daraj, Lebanese journalist Pascale Sawma discusses how war has become “normal” — and what that means for her and her work.
Last month saw a sudden uptick in violence on Syrian territory, either carried out by Israel, or by the Assad government and its Russian and Iranian allies. Once again, innocent Syrians, including too many children, are paying the price.
One Arab writer takes issue with a noted scholar who assigns the lion’s share of the blame to the establishment of the Jewish State. Israel has excelled, not only, because of its military strength and Western allies, but also because of its ability to build a state of institutions and relative freedom.
Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri has made a notable public quip about Donald Trump signing a pledge to end the violence in Lebanon in a famous café in Dearborn, Michigan. Everyone is trying to read between the lines, even as thousands are dying across Lebanon since Israel launched its offensive.
With the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House, we must expect a major shift in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a return to the vision of the “Abrahamic Peace,” which includes no reference to the Palestinians’ right to a state.
Whether it is Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, aggressive bullying or hypocritical well wishes, the actual decisions of U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East always follow the same cynical script.
Sudan’s ongoing war has been marked by widespread reports of rape and gang rape, atrocities long documented in the African country dating back to the Darfur conflict in early 2000s.
The legacy of Hassan Nasrallah will weigh heavily on Naim Qassem, who was named this week as new secretary general of Hezbollah. Can the less charismatic Qassem win the hearts of his followers?
We, the children of “front edge” villages, have seen thousands of homes disappear into rubble. Our loss is not limited to memories and dreams, but also to the stories of our villages.
In the Middle East and North Africa, divisions are as stark as they can be. War-torn nations stand side-by-side with wealthy oil-rich countries where the elites feel disconnected from the rest of the region. But, as Yemeni freelance journalist and a human rights defender Afrah Nasser, warns, these inequalities breed monsters, and wealth will not prevent oil-rich countries from experiencing chaos and destruction.
At a recent festival honoring Syria’s pistachio production, officials made promises about returning pistachio lands to their owners. Yet activists and displaced farmers say their lands are being auctioned off to Ba’ath Party elites, regime forces and their militias.
The ongoing crackdown on critics of the MBS regime becomes more difficult with the dire situation in Gaza and the ambiguity of Saudi foreign policy.