Worldcrunch
By defending their fundamental rights, Iranian women are effectively fighting for the rights of all in the Middle East. Their victory could spell an end to Islamic fundamentalism that spouts lies about “family values” and religion.
The 22-year-old is believed to have been beaten to death at a Tehran police station last week after “morality police” had reprimanded her clothing. The case has sparked the nation’s outrage. But as ordinary Iranians testify, such beatings, torture and a home brand of misogyny are hallmarks of the 40-year Islamic Republic of Iran.
The West is insisting on reviving a nuclear pact with Iran. However, this will only postpone the inevitable moment when the regime declares it has a nuclear bomb. The only solution is regime change.
The writer, a Bogota native, was in Tangier for the recent celebration of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice. She had been warned about how shocking the ceremony could be, but an impromptu invitation from a local family brought her back to her own.
In the cradle of the Arab Spring, democracy is once again at stake.
Welcome to Worldcrunch’s LGBTQ+ International. We bring you up-to-speed each week on the latest news on everything LGBTQ+ — a topic that you may follow closely at home, but can now see from different places and perspectives around the world. Discover the latest news from all corners of the planet. All in one smooth scroll! […]
The Gulf region’s public reaction to the controversial comments on Prophet Muhammad made by two senior officials from India’s ruling party is worrying Muslim Indians who feel this intervention might do more harm than good. For the author, the BJP’s “ideology of Islamophobia” is the center of the problem.
A new generation of Muslims want to do things differently. This is especially true for women — Muslim feminism has never been as visible as it is now.
In Belize, San Pedro’s Muslim community revolves around the Harmouches, a Lebanese family who immigrated in the 1980s and whose hardware business is at the heart of the town.
The European far-right’s sympathies for “white and Christian” Ukrainians shows its devotion to the idea of the “clash of civilizations.” But it fails to see the basic paradoxes of war, where you may be fighting those who most resemble you and be forced to welcome those who look different.
Erdogan has long sought to mould young Turks into a so-called ‘pious generation’ for his brand of Islamic political rule. Now it seems he has failed, as the younger generation longs for what that the president refuses to grant them. In next year’s elections, their votes may prove decisive.
No girls, no science, no foreign languages, only the Koran. This is how the Taliban want to erase the generation of students educated for 20 years by the “Western usurpers.” La Stampa’s Francesca Mannocchi visits one of the rigid, boys-only madrasas near Kabul.
Many Muslim female students lament that several of their Hindu friends have turned their backs on them, despite the fact they have been friends for several years.
Launched in 2017 to combat radicalization, the Moussalaha program is finding success by helping those incarcerated for terrorism by providing counseling, reducing their prison sentences and following up after release.
How do you rebuild a country decimated by four decades of war and embargoes? Following the withdrawal of the U.S. military, Iraq faces many challenges, from oil revenues captured by the militias and endemic corruption to religious segregation. However, there are glimmers of hope for the country’s future.
The Tunisian president is cultivating his ambiguities and pushing his constitutional reform, without proposing a roadmap to get the country out of the crisis. Refusing to speak to the media, he has an increasingly populist tone with messianic accents.
A decade after the Arab Spring, the Islamist political movement driven by the Muslim Brotherhood, from Egypt to Morocco and beyond, continues to flirt with more extreme Salafist elements to build popular support — and continues to show its utter incapacity to properly run a national government.
Migrant associations and activists are saying there are not enough politicians of migrant origin in the new German Bundestag. But are such politicians guaranteed to support policies that benefit migrants? There are prominent examples that suggest otherwise.
Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed caused a stir by appointing Najla Bouden, the first female head of government in the Arab world. But as the president has assumed full powers a decade after the launch of the Arab Spring, it is a choice with a mixed message.
An Iranian public healthcare official warns that a parliamentary bill to boost birth rates will cut access to condoms, and could fuel sexually-transmitted diseases like AIDS.
Seven years after Moscow annexed Crimea, arrests and trials of Crimean Tatars are used as weapons to repress this ethnic minority that has already suffered for centuries.
Whether out of cynicism, greed or basic lack of knowledge, the West has willingly embraced the fabricated vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a slightly unruly, but essentially legitimate government with which it can do business.
The bow-and-arrow murder of five people in the small Norwegian city of Kongsberg this week was particularly chilling for the primitive choice of weapon. And police are now saying the attack Wednesday night is likely to be labeled an act of terrorism. Still, even though the suspect is a Danish-born convert to Islam, police are […]
Born some eight centuries ago, the famed poet and philosopher Rumi offered ideas on religion that bear little resemblance to the brand of Islam being imposed right now in Afghanistan by the Taliban regime.
Iran’s clerical Shiite regime has seemingly overturned its long-held hostility to the Taliban, and may be readying itself to welcome the ‘enemies of America’ as Kabul’s new masters.
Heated debate over an ‘Islam Map’ is drawing new attention to the center-right government’s aggressive policy, which some in Germany now see as a model.
For decades, France did well in accommodating the religious needs of Muslims — on the condition they went back to their country of origin. Now, demands to express one’s faith are often labeled: separatism.
The forced abortiona of a Hindu woman married to a Muslim man should be treated like murder by the state. Yet, not much is being said about it, or other ways new laws are used to disenfranchise Muslims.
From France to China, these female worship leaders not only provide spiritual guidance but also encourage diversity and dispel stereotypes, from both within and outside of their community.
Things are heating up between Erdogan and Macron, leading to the recall of the French ambassador in Ankara. France’s efforts in training local imams may thwart Turkey’s policy of influence through religion.
Le Monde’s editorial board warns that the brutal killing of a middle school teacher is another direct attack on the same basic freedoms targeted in France since the Charlie Hebdo murders in 2015.
Darwin may have poked a hole in the Christian creation myth. But historically speaking, the relationship between science and religion has been far more nuanced than most people imagine.
Some leftists are screaming racism because of a conference on the pros and cons of the headscarf in Frankfurt. One can only wish these people that they never have to live in the society that they are rooting for.
Since 2017, Tunisian women have had the right to marry non-Muslims. But reality is playing out in different ways down on the local level amid an Islamist resurgence.
A series of recent legal cases across Europe have questioned whether those who refuse to shake hands with people of the opposite sex for religious reasons are guilty of discrimination.
MONTREAL — The video lasted just seven seconds, but it was enough to unleash a fury of online outrage. “They could have chosen anyone else to make an ad,” one Facebook user wrote. “Things start to stink a hell of a lot when governments and big companies push the neighbor’s religion on us …” The […]
BERLIN — This past week marked the beginning of a period of peace and quiet for Muslims around the world. It is Ramadan, a month dedicated to reflection, prayers, and fasting, where disputes are meant to be avoided wherever possible. But instead of harmony, conflicts around Ramadan itself have increasingly been coming to the fore […]
BAGHDAD — Her hands, covered in magnesium carbonate for a better grip, are white. Her face is flush. Her gaze fixed. Huda Salem, 20, exhales loudly — twice — into the already sweat-saturated air. Her face contorts. Then, a shout as she lifts 70 kilos of cast iron. Behind the young woman’s massive, muscular figure, […]
In villages in Minya, Christians and Muslims are confined to separate districts, a condition that feeds into sectarian dynamics.