workers

By Sahar Maranlou, University of Essex | – Iran’s execution of protester Mohsen Shekari is the first after a huge wave of unrest swept around the country in the autumn of 2022. Shekari was found guilty by a Iranian Revolutionary Court of “moharebeh” (enmity against God), news sources reported. Human rights groups say Shekari and […]

Democracy

Living Politics, Embedding with Workers, Standing up to the Lies of the Rich

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – “Welcome back!” read my friend Allan’s email. “So happy to have you back and seeing that hard work paid off. Thank you for all that you do. Please don’t cook this evening. I am bringing you a Honduran dinner — tacos hondureños and baleadas, plus a bottle of wine.” The tacos […]

Authoritarianism

In Escalation, Iranians in 23 Provinces join in National Strike, as Truckers, Shopkeepers Walk Out

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Protesters in Iran, including political prisoners had called for three days of national strikes beginning Sunday, and if reports and videos posted to social media can be believed, there was substantial buy-in to the strike, as shopkeepers closed their establishments and workers in key industries stayed home. So report Patrick […]

Ethiopia

Half a million Ethiopian Migrants have been Deported from Saudi Arabia in 5 years – what they go through

The Conversation

By Girmachew Adugna, Addis Ababa University | – (The Conversation) – Tens of thousands of migrant Ethiopian workers have been forcibly repatriated from Saudi Arabia each year since the early 2010s. Although this is carried out as part of a crackdown on illegal migrant workers, legally documented workers have frequently been caught in the dragnet. […]

Feminism

Headwear and Hegemony: how ‘Turban Tossing’ Protests are threatening Iran’s ruling Clergy

The Conversation

By Negar Partow, Massey University | – (The Conversation) – The ongoing protests in Iran over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the country’s “Guidance Patrol” (or morality police) have made world headlines. But there is another form of protest that has received less mainstream attention in Western media. Whereas […]

Authoritarianism

Iran’s Creative Resistance: From Hugs and Kisses to Tossing Turbans

Global Voices

By Fred Petrossian | – ( Globalvoices.org ) – It has been eight weeks since protests erupted across Iran on September 16 in response to the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, who was detained by the country’s morality police for allegedly violating hijab regulations. Despite harsh repression, the killing of at least 360 people, including […]

Immigration

Is the Controversy over Qatar’s World Cup just More Orientalism and Islamophobia?

Mohammed Samaana

Belfast (Informed Comment) – The entire Arab world is excited as one of the world biggest sports events, the FIFA World Cup is held in an Arab Muslim country for the first time. This excitement is because of decades of collective feeling of frustration with being portrayed by Western media as backward, uncivilized and savage. […]

Authoritarianism

Social Media shows Iranian Crowds setting fire to Khomeini’s House, in Generational Rejection of Islamic Republic

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Reuters reports that social media sites carried video allegedly from Thursday night in the small town of Khomein in Iran, which appeared to show protesters setting fire to the childhood home of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Khomeini died in 1989. The house had […]