Participants at a conference on 'Islam and Women' at European Parliament headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, November 2017. Wiktor Dabkowski/Press Association. All rights reserved. Recently, for the first time, the women’s rights committee of the European Parliament discussed the situation of Muslim women in Europe, including dress restrictions and how recent developments have undermined women’s rights. A collective of more than 100 Muslim women are responding by calling for a real European model of inclusion and pluralism that ensures everyone can have access to employment and education and that doesn’t place an extra burden on women. According to a recent report by the Open Society Justice Initiative, nearly one in three…

Jack London grew up an impoverished, illegitimate child in the slums of Oakland, CA, to become arguably the most successful writer of the early 20th century. His experience as a prospector in the Klondike gold rush led him to write “White Fang” and “The Call of the Wild,” which first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post as a five-part serial in 1903. Among his numerous short stories is the classic “To Start a Fire,” which captures the despair of a man trying to build a fire in a snow-bound wilderness to save his life. London wrote over 25 novels and 65 short stories, in addition to an assortment of essays,…

It’s 2018 and a lot of people still think periods are something to be ashamed of instead of a punk rock reminder that your body can literally CREATE LIFE. But times they are a changin’! Thanks in part to heroes like Stephanie Góngora, a yoga instructor with a popular Instagram account, who posted a stunning video where she does various difficult poses while bleeding through her white pants. “I am a woman, therefore I bleed,” she wrote under the video, which has been viewed over half-a-million times. You can watch here: Góngora explains in the caption that she’s not intentionally “free bleeding,” but the blood stain is from a “leak” (which has happened to…

Blocking demonstration of the Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaune) in Lille, France on November 17, 2018. Sylvain Lefevre/ Press Association. All rights reserved. Commercy's Yellow Vests offer a political solution to the movement: autonomous local committees, direct democracy, sovereign general assembly, delegates with precise mandate, revocable at any time, rotation of responsibilities. They call on the federation of local groups on these bases to avoid political recovery, self-proclaimed leaders, or delegates without an imperative mandate from the grassroots. The spontaneity of the movement of yellow vests, its heterogeneity and disarray, can cause drifts of fear without anyone knowing where they hail from. But is this any reason for those who appeal…

“What did he do this time, Emma?” John the plumber asked. A handsome man near my age, John had visited my home more times than I could count during the previous couple of years, and he always greeted me with a smile. I wondered if it was because he genuinely liked seeing me, or if he just liked the steady work my son and I provided. The last time John had been to my house was to remove a stuffed bunny Austin had tried to flush down the toilet. The time before that, my son had emptied his marble collection into the kitchen sink and the marbles had rolled into…

Jailed presidential candidate for Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition, Selahattin Demirtas, makes his first television appearance in over a year and a half on June 17, 2018. Depo Photos/Press Association. All rights reserved. The upcoming presidential election in Turkey is another interesting example of the global populist zeitgeist, albeit taking on diverse forms in different countries in southeast Europe, the east Mediterranean and the Middle East. Turkey has been subject to the power of the right-wing conservative populist, Justice and Development Party (AKP) for the last 16 years under the former football player Recep Tayyip Erdogan (who is in some sense a charismatic leader). The AKP’s hold on power has created a…

On the Asian side of the Bosphorus Strait linking Turkey to Europe, residents of Istanbul’s Kadıköy district marched in rallies in the rain and screamed “rights, law, and justice” in a last-ditch effort for change. But on the night of June 24, they said farewell to democracy. Hope morphed into a sense of doom as election results were tallied on Turkish television and the realization sank in that fair or not, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, had won once again, beating five other candidates with 53% of the vote. The usually bustling sidewalks of Kadıköy were silent, as Erdoğan supporters flashed Turkish flags from cars driving to one of the president’s hilltop houses…

My cat has no sense of rhythm. No matter the strain of music rocking our walls at two in the morning — be it Bacharach, Buzzcocks or Beyoncé — she lurches uncertainly and ungracefully, perplexed and perhaps even a little annoyed as I clutch her forepaws, trying to teach her a basic box step in our cramped living room. Now you could say I don’t lead well, and you’d surely be right, or you might blame the substantial and awkward height difference. But the way she totters about on her hind legs without regard for tempo or time signature, you’d think she was the one who was drunk. Now, naturally,…

While the fate of children detained at the U.S.-Mexico border ultimately lies in the hands of Congress, House Republicans have fumbled their latest attempt to pass immigration reform. After a more conservative immigration bill failed on June 21, the House has pushed a vote on a “compromise” bill, originally scheduled for June 22, to the last week of the month. If passed, the bill would allow children to be detained along with their parents in facilities provided by the Department of Homeland Security while going through criminal proceedings. Although the bill would keep families together, it also appropriates $25 billion for President Donald Trump’s long-promised border wall (not to mention, detaining families is still inhumane).…

Illustration by Hannah Kirmes-Daly. Radio Hakaya is a community radio project started by Brush&Bow in a refugee camp in North Lebanon. Radio Hakaya's podcasts feature individuals whose communities have been directly affected by the war in Syria and the displacement of Syrians to Lebanon. Each podcast presents a subjective opinion that, combined with the rest of the series, provides a mosaic of differing perspectives and experiences, exploring the reasons why people fled Syria, the living conditions in Lebanon and what the future might hold. All recordings are taken, translated and edited with the help from members of the local community. Interviews and Editing by Roshan De Stone & David L.…