Jordan’s ‘other’ refugees stuck in limbo with frozen asylum claims
MIDDLE EAST EYE (3/7/2022) Before he fled Sudan, Ahmed was an award-winning runner. Now, as an undocumented asylum seeker in Jordan, he mostly runs away from the police. “But I’m not a criminal,” he says as he opens his backpack to show his seven medals – gold, silver and bronze – won at junior championships in three […]
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Com o ódio à janela
SETENTA E QUATRO (28/1/2022) “Hoje acordámos com o ódio escrito nas nossas janelas.” Foi assim que os donos de uma mercearia árabe em Lisboa denunciaram terem sido alvos de um ataque xenófobo. Numa madrugada de outubro, a mercearia do Médio Oriente Zaytouna (azeitona em árabe) foi vandalizada com uma mensagem ofensiva contra o islão, e […]
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Inside a new feminist platform that dares to be funny
MIDDLE EAST EYE (5/11/2020) Surrounded by books on feminism and portraits of women’s rights activists, Maria Elayan, the star of a new web-video series, holds up an illustration of human evolution to the camera, where Beyoncé represents the most evolved form of the homo sapiens. “There is not even one image that shows the evolution […]
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The murder of Bruno Candé has put racism – and colonial amnesia – under the spotlight in Portugal
EQUAL TIMES (11/9/2020) On a sunny Saturday in July, Bruno Candé sat, as he did every day, on a bench with his labrador, on a busy street in the Lisbon suburb of Moscavide. At around one in the afternoon Evaristo Marinho, 76, approached Candé with a gun, opened fire and shot him four times at […]
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Meet Qahera, the Muslim superheroine fighting bigots instead of comic book villains
WASHINGTON POST/THE LILY (22/6/2020) “I can hear it! The sound of … misogynistic trash!” says Qahera. Carrying a sword as sharp as her wit and wearing a veil that is sometimes used to conceal her identity, the Muslim superheroine is out to fight against injustice. Her “super hearing” helps her detect misogynists, but also racists […]
Read →How domestic workers protect and support each other in Jordan
EQUAL TIMES (16/6/2020) When she left the Philippines to work in Jordan, Rosa took two mobile phones with her. She knew that one of them would be confiscated by the recruitment agency that brings women like her to the Middle East to work as housekeepers, nannies and caretakers. The other one she kept hidden in […]
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Detained in Jordan for disobeying men, girls use art to tell their stories
OPENDEMOCRACY (21/5/2020) Madeleine is seventeen and dreams of being a chef. But her ambitions have been curtailed. She is behind bars in a juvenile detention centre in Jordan, waiting to be released into the care of a male family member. “This is the story of a girl in prison: me,” wrote Shahed, another teenage girl […]
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Gentrification and grassroots resistance in Amman’s historic district
AL ARABY (3/4/2020) ‘STARBUCKS OPENING SOON’, announces a large billboard placed next to an unfinished building just off the main square of Jabal al-Weibdeh, in central Amman. With no cars on the streets since the Jordanian government implemented a curfew to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the neighbourhood feels unusually quiet. Forced to stay indoors, residents of Weibdeh can’t wait for life […]
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‘He just wanted dignity’: the tragedy that captured the mood of a nation
THE GUARDIAN (27/2/2020) Anas al-Jamra carried more burdens than he could bear. As the eldest of 16 children, the fruit and vegetable vendor was the main provider for his parents, brothers and sisters, in addition to his own four young children. But continuously harassed by police and city officials, who confiscated his stock, the 28-year-old […]
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Jordanians voice concerns over imports of Israeli gas
AL JAZEERA (30/1/2020) With her clenched fists raised high, Ibtisam stands at the vanguard of hundreds of protesters who have gathered in Amman to rail against a gas deal. “The people of Jordan do not compromise! What a shame, what a shame! An agreement full of shame,” the protesters chant in unison. It’s Ibtisam’s second […]
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