Iran
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Kurdistan + 100
Stories from a future republic
"Kurdistan + 100" is the third anthology in Comma Press's "future past" series, and a fourth – Egypt + 100 – is set to be published next year. Writers are asked to imagine a moment in the future connected to an event in their shared past
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War in the Middle East
Israel's shaky emergency alliance
Opposition politician Benny Gantz has been working together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the Hamas attacks. But it's only a matter of time before he pulls out of the war cabinet
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Iran-Pakistan tensions
What was behind the Balochistan strikes?
Tit-for-tat attacks between neighbours Iran and Pakistan are linked to separatists fighting for independence of the mineral-rich Balochistan region that spans their borders
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Sunnis and Shias in Islam
How the Sunni-Shia split shaped the Islamic world throughout history
Toby Matthiesen's new book, "The Caliph and the Imam", explores both the origins of the Sunni-Shia divide, what the two branches of Islam have in common and how the split has shaped the Islamic world
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Best of Qantara.de 2023
The top ten most-read articles on Qantara.de
As 2023 draws to a close, the team at Qantara.de once again takes a look at the stories that really stood out over the past year. Here is a list of the ten articles published in 2023 that piqued your interest most over the past twelve months. Happy New Year to all our readers!
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Iran: a graphic novel
The making of a revolution
Nothing has been the same in Iran since Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, was murdered by the morality police in September 2022. Cartoonist Marjane Satrapi's new book takes its name from the protest slogan, "Woman, life, freedom", and offers an easy-to-grasp take on the complicated background to the current situation
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Iranian music
Mitra Sumara's "Dream": Seventies retro
Recalling pre-Islamic revolution Iran, Mitra Sumara's second album offers a collection of jazz-infused retro Persian hits that will get everyone on the dance floor
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Palestinians in Iraq
Between sympathy and rejection
Palestinians living in Saddam Hussein's Iraq were courted until his overthrow in 2003, after which they suffered widespread harassment. Ever since the onset of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, however, Iraqis have been keen to show their solidarity
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Hezbollah and the Gaza war
Caught out by its own propaganda
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has a penchant for using strong words. His terrorist organisation has no interest, however, in the Israeli war escalating uncontrollably
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Regional perspectives on the Gaza war
The Middle East conflict is back
In recent years the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had gradually become uncoupled from the other lines of conflict in the Middle East. This "encapsulation of the Middle East conflict" may be off the table for now, but it does nothing to change the parameters of the larger regional struggle for dominance
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Arab popular support for Gaza
How pro-Palestinian protests threaten Middle East autocrats
In some Middle Eastern countries, pro-Palestinian rallies recall pro-democracy protests from 2011. Now, the region's authoritarian leaders are worried the conflict in Gaza could alter the political status quo at home
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A history of Hamas
The unpredictable enemy
The Islamist Hamas has been waging a "holy war" against Israel ever since the movement was founded in 1987. After assuming autocratic rule in the Gaza Strip in 2007, it began arming itself for military action. The brutal large-scale attack on the Israeli border territory was a way for Hamas to demonstrate its clout, writes Joseph Croitoru