Samuel Ching Mother and 6-year-old son in a hospital in Hodeida, a Red Sea port city. Source: Abduljabbar Zeyad/Reuters As our attention to the Middle East appears confined to Saudi Arabia’s alleged murder of Jamal Khashoggi and to the Islamic State (IS), not many seem to notice that Yemen, in the southernmost of the Arabian…
Category: The Middle East
Why Gaza’s Water Crisis Cannot Be Depoliticised
Emma Faverio A strip of land where 97% of the water has been deemed unpotable. Where citizens must pay exorbitant market prices for bottled water in order to fulfil their basic needs. Where those who cannot afford it, being the majority due to skyrocketing unemployment rates, have to resort to contaminated water. Where the quality…
Mohammed Bin Salman and the Guise of the Reformer
Emma Faverio Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) was supposed to be the Middle Eastern reformer the West had been waiting for. Since his power grab in 2017, the Western media has depicted Salman as the young and charismatic figure who would finally modernise Saudi Arabia; some journalists even went so far as…
Iran Speaks: The Regime’s Time Is Up
Saffy Mirghani Over the last few decades of Iran’s political history, the country has periodically experienced surges of social unrest that have developed into either riotous insurgency or full-blown revolution, respectively dissolved by the iron fist of the regime or appropriated by high-handed political groups. The most recent waves of revolt that have seen tens…
Yemen: A Forgotten Humanitarian Catastrophe
Eshitha Vaz UCL Population Health Student When a country is experiencing the worst public health crisis since 1945, it is a crime in itself to turn a blind eye – to ignore the suffering of its civilian peoples and to be complicit even through silence, in the destruction of its character. Yet for the last three…
How Do We Restore the Syrian Economy?
Sophie Mangal explores potential ways for Syria to start rebuilding its economy, with the help of some neighbours Sophie Mangal Investigative correspondent at Inside Syria Media Center Last Monday, the EU Council extended its restrictive measures against the Syrian government by a year, until June 1, 2018. The event occurred against the backdrop of the…
What Hinders Deep Discussion Of the New Syrian Constitution?
So this Tuesday, we’ve decided to suspend our central health piece in place of this article shared by Sophie Mangal, Editor of Inside Syria Media Centre, all the way from West Chicago, Illinois. ISMC does a lot of important work, mainly centred around dispelling the myths about the current situation and advancements in Syria through…
Speak Out, but Watch Your Back: Freedom of Speech and the United Arab Emirates
An Oasis of Tolerance? The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is widely considered the most liberal and tolerant of Middle Eastern countries. Women are allowed to drive, there is a more liberal dress code, there are freedoms of speech, religion and communication. This is a paradise for equality compared to other Arabic countries and this was…
Education in Palestine: the Vision and the Reality
Last week Palestinian human rights activist Mai Abu Moghli spoke of the significant gap between the vision and harsh realities of the educational system for schools in Palestine and life under Israeli occupation to UCLU Amnesty International Society and UCLU Friends of Palestine. Currently living and working in London, she is studying for her PhD…
