Sara Miran, a Kurdish American real estate developer, was kidnapped while she was working in Iraq in 2014. She was held hostage by an Iranian-backed militia and eventually escaped with the help of a metal spoon. Miran’s harrowing story had been buried among secret Iranian documents, which were then leaked to The Intercept. On a […]
middle east
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Day My Wartime Cat Went Missing
“Time to leave it all behind — the people, the country, the war — and return to America, cats in tow.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Culture, Essays & Criticism, Feature, History, Nonfiction, Story
Let Me Show You the World
Almost everything you think you know about Aladdin is wrong.
Posted inBooks, Fiction, Story
If You Were a Sack of Cumin
In the midst of the Syrian Civil War, three grown siblings attempt to fulfill their father’s final wish. The journey is dangerous, but that’s no surprise; nowadays, death is always hard work.
Posted inNonfiction
Queens of Infamy: Zenobia
In third-century Syria, a widowed monarch dared to be wildly ambitious — and almost brought the Roman Empire to its knees.
Posted inArts & Culture
The Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Ethical Enjoyment of Museums
In his review for the New York Times, Holland Cotter writes that the museum fails in “truth-telling.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Fight of His Life
Afghan Noorullah Aminyar was a valuable ally to the American military. Now, after a failed defection attempt and three years in detention, his asylum claims rests on the argument that the U.S. has lost the war in Afghanistan.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Six Years Later, Over 400,000 Dead: The Graffiti Kids Who Sparked the Syrian War
Mark MacKinnon tells the story of Naief Abazid — who, at the urging of some older boys, graffitied a school wall on a lark in Daraa, Syria, at age 14. The “writing on the wall” enraged Syria’s Baathist dictatorship, and became the source of ignition in the Syrian war.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
An Imam’s Jihad Against Ignorance and Radicalization
At The Walrus, Nadim Roberts profiles a Canadian imam who is working to counter radicalization with knowledge.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Syria and the Left
Jacobin‘s Yusef Khalil conducted an wide-ranging interview with Yasser Munif, a Syrian scholar of grassroots movements, to break down the key moral and political issues feeding the Syrian war.