Evelyn Crunden @eacrunden

In a year marked by tragedy and grief, it seems August will offer no reprieve - at least not for the long-suffering Pakistani city of Quetta. Last Monday,...

The 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro have officially begun, and the stakes are high. Athletes from around the world are competing against one another in the...

Last Thursday, July 28, one voice brought the audience at the Democratic National Convention to its feet before presidential nominee Hillary Clinton even made...

Religious and ethnic minorities are routinely targeted in Afghanistan by extremist groups, and many have fled in an effort to escape the violence. Still,...

It has been a bad month for the world, and a bad month for Pakistan. On Saturday, July 16, Qandeel Baloch, a famous social media personality also known for her...

Last Friday, Abdul Sattar Edhi, one of the Pakistan’s most beloved figures, passed away at the age of eighty-eight due to kidney failure. In the days since,...

In all of the tragedy of recent weeks, it can be hard to find uplifting news. Massacres stretching from Orlando to Istanbul to Baghdad to Dhaka have flooded...

The morning of Friday, June 24, sent shock waves across Europe. After a tense month of campaigning, which saw everything from the peddling of racist tropes to...

Earlier this year, Pakistani actor Ali Hamza Abbasi announced that he would host a television show during the month of Ramadan. Special TV programs are common...

In a sea of breaking news cycles and painful tragedies, certain horrors resonate more than others for most of us. Early Sunday morning, a gunman fired on a...

Last week, Russians received some alarming news about condoms. A new study released by the Russian Institute for Strategic Research (RISR), which is...

From abortion to dress, many countries have patriarchal legislation regulating women's lives. That fact, however, cannot ease the frustration and anger many...

Outside of Eastern Europe, Susana Jamaladinova probably is not a household name. Her stage name, Jamala, probably is not either. But after this year’s...

Azerbaijan had some bad news last week. On May 10, the International Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association of Europe (ILGA-Europe) released...

Last Friday, May 6, Sadiq Khan, the son of Pakistani immigrants, was elected mayor of London, sparking delight and pride thousands of miles away in his...

This past week, Jews all over the world observed Passover, a holiday that commemorates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery, and their exodus from...

Urdu poetry, Pakistani art, and literature influenced by centuries of history and culture - these elements are staples of the annual Lahore Literary Festival...

At first glance, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Central Asia appear to be remarkably similar. Both have recently experienced colonial rule; MENA...

If attracting attention makes a protest successful, then displaying menstrual pads is not a bad way to start. On April 7 and 8, students at Beaconhouse...

While they do not represent the majority of the world, Western media and pop culture are pervasive. Domestic programming in non-Western countries can serve as...

Last Saturday, April 2, a news item began circulating on the Internet. An elderly father in Los Angeles had allegedly killed his son, presumably for being gay....

In the midst of fleeing violence and persecution, refugees crossing into Europe have a number of pressing concerns. One of them is the need for a thorough...

In a move that has already been lauded for its long-term implications as much as its immediate impact, the Pakistani government voted on March 15 to...

It says a great deal about the current state of American media that the name Mikhail Lesin has not made many headlines recently. Lesin, who is credited with...

War, intrigue, and a clash of cultures. These are the themes at the heart of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, a new film starring comedian Tina Fey. Based on American...

For months now, the 2016 U.S. primary season has been a crash-course in the nuances of racism and xenophobia. Last Thursday’s GOP debate did little to change...

An image circulating around the Internet has drawn a significant amount of attention. It features a white blonde woman, wearing the EU flag and struggling as...

On February 11, a team of scientists confirmed the last prediction from Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity: the existence of gravitational...

For those following the aviation industry in Pakistan, the past week has been suspenseful. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the country’s...

For free speech advocates in Azerbaijan, the past few years have been difficult ones. 2014 witnessed a harsh crackdown on journalists, with several of the...

One of the biggest spy mysteries of the past few decades appears to have come to a close. Last week, on Thursday, January 21, a UK inquiry into the mysterious...

The 2016 nominees for the Academy Awards, which were announced on January 14, left something to be desired. No major actresses or actors of color were...

For the past two weeks, a petition has been circulating on the Internet demanding an apology for a sensationalist op-ed trivializing rape, run by a Pakistani...

In October 2015, to the dismay of many progressives, Poland ushered in a right-wing government led by the Law and Justice party. At the time, the election was...

There is no question that 2015 was a challenging year for the post-Soviet bloc. Global financial setbacks took their toll on many of Russia’s neighbors, as...

With so many narratives of tragedy and trauma coming out of the refugee crisis unfolding across much of the Middle East and Europe, it can be hard to find...

For the last few weeks, Russia and Turkey have been expressing an unprecedented level of mutual animosity. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian...

This week, Jews all over the world are observing Chanukah, the festival of lights. Menorahs are being lit, latkes are being frying, and dreidels are being spun...

On November 22, an unknown group of individuals blew up power lines located in the south of Ukraine, which provide the bulk of electricity to the Crimean...

Last week, an old poll began circulating on the Internet, taken from the July 1938 issue of Fortune magazine. Journalist Ishaan Tharoor highlighted its...

On November 13, a series of coordinated attacks took place across Paris and one of its suburbs, Saint-Denis. According to reports, three teams of individuals...

On October 25, Poland held elections for seats in its Sejm and Senate (Poland’s lower and higher chambers of parliament, respectively). The results were...

Last Saturday, October 31, a plane carrying 224 passengers broke apart in the air while flying over Egypt’s Sinai desert. All aboard the flight have...

Muslims have lived across Eastern Europe and Central Asia for centuries. Indeed, the region's Muslim community has deep roots in the area. While Islam has a...

Over the course of the past few years, wars have ravaged countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and neighboring regions. Fleeing...

On October 8, the 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature was announced. The winner surprised more than a handful of people. Svetlana Alexievich, a writer best...

In recent months, the intersections between the Middle East and Eastern Europe have become increasingly hard to ignore. This is due, in no small part, to...

Over the course of the past few years, wars have ravaged countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and neighboring regions. Fleeing...

With countries like Hungary and Bulgaria rightly dominating the news for their poor treatment of refugees, it has been remarkably easy to overlook other...

Over the course of the past few years, wars have ravaged countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and neighboring regions. Fleeing...

Over the course of the past few years, wars have ravaged countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and neighboring regions. Fleeing...

Over the course of the past few years, various wars have ravaged countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Fleeing violence,...

In an ironic twist, Russia and the United States may soon have more in common than either government would like to think. The two countries are long-term...

In a country where journalism is already a dangerous profession, things have gone from bad to worse for Azerbaijan’s free press. The culture of wariness and...

Built over the course of a year and viewed by some as a “great step for a new Egypt” (as reported by Fortune) the expanded Suez Canal was finally...

On July 22, Romania passed a law banning Holocaust denial  and the use of related fascist symbols. The decision was lauded by many, especially Jewish groups,...

In an article for Foreign Policy, Sarah Kendzior writes about Qorqmaymiz (or, қўрқмаймиз), a Facebook featuring pictures of Uzbek citizens holding...

History has, for all intents and purposes, been written by and for men. This fact is one feminists around the world have worked to counteract, including in...

Art can be both personal and political, and for many Muslims it has increasingly become both. Over the past few years, a seemingly endless series of events...

For over a month, protesters in Yerevan, Armenia have been demonstrating by the thousands in the city’s streets. Demonstations began after...

A new blog begun by people indigenous to the Caucasus Mountain region is trying to dispel stereotypes and preconceived notions about a word with a complicated...

“We don't look at gender in our language, so why do we look at it in life?” So runs the opening query from the "O" Campaign launched by the Azeri...

These days anything can be a political symbol, even a bicycle. For twenty three-year old Zahra Hussaini, this truism is quickly becoming evident. Throughout...

In the town of Al Qosh, located near Iraq’s Bayhidhra Mountains, Assyrian Christians are trying to do what may well be impossible. For 2,700 years, the tomb...

Passive, chaste, and subservient. These are some of the stereotypes used in Western literature, cinema, and advertising to describe Arab women. Joumana...

To visit the mellah (Jewish quarter) of Marrakesh is to be surrounded by silence. For over a century, it was an active and prosperous area of the city. Now,...

This month, Crimean Tatars marked one of the darkest periods in their history. On May 18, 1944, Josef Stalin deported Crimea's Tatar population en masse to...

Last Wednesday, on May 13, gunmen attacked a bus in Karachi, Pakistan, killing dozens and injuring many more. The bus was left littered with bullet holes and...

Tunisia is, by many standards, the most progressive and inclusive country in North Africa. The 2011 Arab Spring uprisings began in that country, and have seen...

Freedom of speech is hard to come by in Azerbaijan these days. The December 5, 2014 arrest of Khadija Ismayilova has made this situation even more apparent....

Star-crossed lovers and warring families are Shakespearean themes recognizable even to the casual play-goer. Unsurprisingly, then, William Shakespeare's tragic...

Whether performed in a back alley or doctor's office, abortion is a controversial subject. Across the world, women often face a range of legal prohibitions...

Scathing rhetoric coupled with nationalist imagery can create political victories. At least, this appears to be the case for Hungary’s Jobbik (or, Movement...

“The King of Saudi Arabia has a special place in the heart...of every Pakistani.” These were the words of Tasneem Aslam, Pakistan’s Foreign Office...

Some people really cannot take a joke. At least, that has been the experience of Bassem Youssef, one of Egypt’s most famous satirists. His critically...

Boris Nemtsov had not been dead a week when suspects in his murder were named and arrested. Assassinated on February 27, 2015, President Vladimir Putin’s...

Repression then chaos, unity then collapse. Amidst the disappointing fallout of the 2011 Arab Spring, there are few bright spots in the Middle East and North...

The year was 1995; the setting, Srebrenica. In the middle of July, at the climax of the Bosnian War, Serbian forces systematically murdered approximately...