Mariam Elba @mariamelba91

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...