The politics of aesthetics: Mussolini and fascist Italy
For politics not to be a dirty word that reflected the failing political class’s capacity for endless debates and conservative behaviour, it had to play a role much more active and daring; politics...
View ArticleAfghan Voice Radio: The frontline of a ‘new’ Afghanistan
All around the world, Afghan youth who have fled abroad are investing in online media and sports as vehicles for civic participation and peace, says Zubair Gharghasht.In recent years, new forms of...
View ArticleSeeking asylum, ending destitution
If "destitutes" across the UK can stand up and act together we can make a difference: we are ready to meet the authorities at the negotiating table, says Nancy Bonongwe.It has been seven and a half...
View ArticleFeminist voices in Islam: promise and potential
Religion is back in public space, and the thesis that modernization means the privatization of religion has been seriously questioned. Some religious and feminist dogmas need re-examination. What do...
View ArticleVotes for British prisoners: now is the time
The UK needs to bring forward plans to enfranchise prisoners by Thursday.The dilemma regarding the enfranchisement of prisoners is becoming a constitutional issue. There are two opposing moral...
View ArticleThe not-very-convincing victory of Mr. Yanukovych
By means fair and foul, the ruling Party of the Regions came out top in Ukraine’s recent parliamentary election. President Yanukovych is far from home and dry, however: to control parliament he needs a...
View ArticleBritain’s great betrayal: some inconvenient truths about children’s health...
Leading politicians and health professionals meet in London tomorrow to discuss the future of child health in the UK. Ahead of the Westminster Health Forum seminar— ‘Improving children’s and young...
View ArticleUnwanted: a failed crossing from Damascus to Gaza
For Abu Khalil, at least Gazans have the honour of being terrorised on their own land. There were three more kilometers for Abo Khalil and his family to reach the Jordanian border. Members of an FSA...
View ArticleA non-violent 24-year old gets Sudanese intelligence mobilising
They pressured his father into revealing his whereabouts, warning that otherwise they would also arrest his younger brother M.As a member of the non-violent resistance movement in Sudan, “Girifna” (We...
View ArticleThis week's window on the Middle East - November 19, 2012
Arab Awakening's columnists offer their weekly perspective on what is happening on the ground in the Middle East. Leading the week: A non-violent 24-year-old gets Sudanese intelligence mobilising A...
View ArticleLonging for ‘normality’: women’s experience of post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina
Returning to Bosnia-Herzegovina after 17 years, Cynthia Cockburn finds Bosnian women criticizing their country's nationalist political culture. Longing for civil 'normality', they hark back to the...
View ArticleWait! Leveson must delay his report on the UK press
Lord Leveson's public inquiry into UK press standards is about to report. But the unfolding crisis shaking the BBC will muddy the waters. This is a call for delay.This is a plea to Lord Leveson not to...
View ArticleRuNet: Russia on the Chinese road?
A new internet law came into effect in Russia this month. Ostensibly designed to tackle extremist websites, the list of banned sites has already cast a much broader net. Things are likely to get even...
View ArticleThe trouble with Fortress Europe
To prevent illegal immigration, the EU has built a set of far-reaching border control and enforcement policies. But it doesn't work: today's 'Fortress Europe' is an inefficient, immoral and costly...
View ArticleSpain: from ‘los indignados’ and ‘15 M’ to the first strike by society
400,000 evictions, a hunger strike by Carmen Armaña, and the suicide of Amaia Egaña as the eviction police came up the stairs to put her family out on the street, have brought mass anger and fury at...
View ArticleWalking the tightrope: Al Wefaq’s quest for relevancy in post-uprising Bahrain
A call for foreign intervention is a cry for help by an embattled opposition walking a shaky tightrope with a tough choice ahead.In a recent interview, Mr. Matar Matar, a US-based ex-MP belonging to...
View ArticleUK: the power of the women’s vote
Resistance to viewing women as a homogenous block can all too often provide politicians with an excuse to ignore women altogether. Women hold half the electorate’s voting power: which party will be...
View ArticleChange put on hold in Nazarbayev’s Kazakhstan
President Nazarbayev has been head of state in Kazakhstan for 23 years (before, and since, independence in 1991). The 2011 election effectively confirmed his life tenure, which has put the country into...
View ArticleGaza and Israel, the way ahead
The latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be traced to decisions made since 2004. Its solution lies in a recognition of strategic reality, says Eóin Murray.Some years ago, in Gaza, a journalist...
View ArticleWomen bishops: rejection harms Church of England’s mission
One of the first women to be ordained as a priest in the Church of England bitterly regrets the General Synod’s vote against women bishops.My 12-year old daughter suggested yesterday that I should go...
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