Mariam Elba

This year January 25 passed like any other day. There were no demonstrations, or any public reminder of protests that happened seven years ago. It was easy to...

Stories about the Afghan resistance to Soviet invasion and occupation of the country (1979-1989) often essentialize the mujahideen fighters as a homogenous...

Early last week, the National Authority for Elections (NAE) in Egypt announced the timeline for the upcoming presidential election. Originally slated for the...

In its latest step to ban travelers supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Israel's Strategic Affairs Ministry confirmed last...

A little over a year ago, I saw Erica Garner as she was getting ready for an interview with Amy Goodman on "Democracy Now!." While I never personally...

Grassroots, Palestinian resistance continues in the West Bank and Gaza, in response to President Donald Trump’s recent recognition of Jerusalem as the...

Over the past week on Twitter, Wael Abbas, an independent, award-winning Egyptian journalist, and Amina Ismail, a journalist for Reuters based in Cairo, had...

In the wake of Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to...

Popular culture is a lens through which we can understand the nuances of societies and how its members choose to engage with one another, and often with the...

Mashrou’ Leila is one of the most controversial and popular independent bands in the Middle East today. The group’s music tackles heavy, socio-political...

In a report last week that broke news about U.S. Special Forces in Somalia killing over a dozen civilians, The Daily Beast used a header image that depicted...

I am not sure how to find the words to make sense of what happened last Friday, November 24, in Egypt. It is hard to overstate the magnitude of the attack on...

This past week, a number of high-profile charges and arrests took place against long-time human rights activists, as well as a widely admired pop singer in...

Saudi Arabia has been making headlines for various reasons over the past couple of weeks, not least because former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is...

As conversations surrounding sexual harassment are continuing to make headlines in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal last month (and the dozens of...

Last week, Egyptian President, Abdelfattah El Sisi, met with French President, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris to discuss security and extremism. During a joint...

Earlier this month, Egyptian President Abdelfattah Al Sisi officially announced that the first stage in constructing the country’s proposed, new...

In one of the most significant, recent displays of solidarity with the Syrian revolution, Syrian activists organized a day of protests around the world, as...

This past Sunday, the Egyptian national soccer team won in a match against the Congolese team, confirming their place in the 2018 World Cup in Russia. It is...

Egypt has long had a policy of institutionalized homophobia, punishing anyone suspected of being queer. In the latest and most high-profile example of this...

Yemen is undergoing one of the most devastating humanitarian crises in the world, as a result of the Saudi-led blockade and bombing campaign on the country....

Earlier this month, a group of twenty-four Nubians, an ethnic minority indigenous to Upper Egypt, was arrested and held in detention, according to a recent...

Enforced disappearances, in which a state arrests an individual without notifying anyone as to their whereabouts, are continuing to happen frequently in Egypt....

Large, dark-blue, prisoner transport vans are an everyday sight in Egypt. I remember walking with family in Alexandria last year when one of these vans passed...

When it comes to English-language podcasts about the Middle East, there is a dearth of content. There are almost no podcasts that have hosts from the region...

Over the past few years, major U.S.-based digital media outlets have announced their intention to “pivot” away from written journalism to video, in some...

Over the past month, the Egyptian government has sent 275 civilians to military trials, based on overblown charges. Late last month, 235 members of the Ultras...

Terrorist acts committed by “lone wolves” and white supremacist groups have consistently been the biggest threat to minority groups in America. Early...

Forced disappearances in countries across the Middle East have become a common occurrence over the past decade as popular resistance has emerged throughout the...

The Egyptian state has yet again proved intent on pursuing its own moneyed interests at the expense of the lives and livelihoods of its most vulnerable...

After hearing that Jack Shaheen had passed away last week, I began reflecting on when I was first drawn to his work as a high school student. At the time, my...

Throughout 2011, the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, and Syria, were defined by footage of protesters singing and chanting slogans like...

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court partially reinstated the Muslim Ban. The measure is a temporary one, until the ban is reviewed on the merits this fall. Even...

This past week, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi finalized an agreement ceding sovereignty of the Tiran and Sanafir Islands in the Red Sea to Saudi...

Ramadan is a time of giving to the poor, especially in Egypt. During the holy month, groups of young people volunteer to distribute meals to families who...

As Ramadan approaches each year, my mother often recalls what celebrations were like during her childhood, in 1960s and 70s Alexandria, Egypt. She tells...

During one of my recent visits to Egypt, I was sitting with family and friends in an apartment in a middle-class neighborhood of Alexandria. As we were...

“I’m sure of one thing: history will not spare anyone, it will be written and the truth will come out sooner rather than later.” A well-respected...

Press freedom in Egypt is under renewed attack. Last Thursday, May 25, the Egyptian government blocked access to over twenty news websites, including Al...

Several countries around the Middle East, most recently Iran, have held pivotal elections over the past few months. But, there is another important election in...

In one of the deadliest years so far for refugees fleeing violence and destitution, over 1,300 people have died trying to reach the safety of Europe in the...

Over the past week, a dance group called “Nassim el Raqs,” or the Breeze of Dance, held a series of public performances in frequently trafficked, public...

This past Saturday, the musical collective, The Nile Project wrapped up its three-month, U.S. tour in front of a packed house in New York. While most audience...

As we’ve covered previously, Syrian grassroots initiatives continue to build alternative social and civic institutions against seemingly impossible odds....

Last week’s attacks on Coptic Christian churches in Tanta and Alexandria, Egypt were the deadliest acts of violence against the Coptic community in the...

I first found out about last week’s chemical attack in Idlib, Syria not through reading news alerts, but from seeing dozens of images and videos of dead...

This year’s Muslim Protagonist conference at Columbia University in New York City opened last weekend with an empowering and much-needed panel entirely...

Just a few weeks ago, the New Urban Communities Authority in Egypt announced it will begin further developing a "tourist strip" in a new city called "New...

Last week marked six years since the first demonstrations of the Syrian uprising began in Deraa, a provincial city in the country’s south. As months passed...

Local governments in the United Kingdom are putting pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May to increase the number of refugees allowed into the country. The...

A few weeks ago, on February 18, a large and unprecedented demonstration took place in Barcelona, calling upon the Spanish government to accept more refugees....

  As the camp at Standing Rock was forcibly evacuated last week, I immediately thought of the film, The Battle of Algiers (1966). Seeing North Dakota...

After Donald Trump’s disastrous first solo press conference on February 16, Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show...

It has been an eventful couple of years for a certain group of writers. A string of up-and-coming authors has been releasing unique and critically acclaimed...