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Middle East

Saving Scholars Who Become Victimized in the Middle East

August 20, 2015 
by Chris Chaky
Khalid al-Asaad, an internationally recognized Syrian scholar of antiquities, was beheaded by ISIS on Aug. 18 for refusing to disclose the location of archeological treasures apparently removed for safekeeping from Palmyra, one of the Middle East’s most important archeological landmarks and a Unesco World Heritage Site in Syria. This latest tragedy inflicted by ISIS highlights …

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This Palestinian Policewoman Has Zero Tolerance for Domestic Violence

July 16, 2015 
by PassBlue
RAMALLAH — As the head of the Palestinian Civil Police Family and Juvenile Protection Unit, Lieut. Col. Wafa Muammar is the highest-ranking female officer in the Palestinian police force and a role model for women trying to find their own space in what has been considered a man’s profession here. Among the first generation …

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Tunisian Women Feel Their Rights Eroding

July 9, 2015 
by Johanna Higgs
TUNIS — Tunisia has possessed the rare reputation of being progressive in gender equality in the Middle East-North African region. Yet with the rise of an Islamist political party in Tunisia after its relatively placid revolution in 2011, the question is, how have women fared in the post-Arab spring landscape? In Tunis, the cosmopolitan …

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Sacking of Iraq’s Cultural Heritage Takes Yet Another Turn

March 4, 2015 
by Barbara Crossette
The shocking scenes of irreplaceable centuries-old treasures being smashed and toppled from their pedestals in a museum in Mosul — with the rabid acts of destruction proudly videotaped by fighters who call themselves the Islamic State — has provoked global outrage. But for Iraqis, who have seen decades of losses over centuries of intermittent …

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The Noose Tightens on Money Flows to Jihadists in Iraq and Syria

February 12, 2015 
by Dulcie Leimbach
The Russian-sponsored resolution to fight more precisely the financing of the Islamic jihadists who control swaths of Iraq and Syria passed unanimously in the United Nations Security Council recently, expressing the entire council’s dread, at least for now, of the two main protagonists terrorizing the region — Islamic State (ISIS) and Al Nusra Front. …

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Yazidi Women in Iraq Describe ‘Unspeakable Brutality’ Under IS Rule

January 4, 2015 
by Barbara Crossette
The news from Syria and Iraq is most often dominated by besieged cities and airstrikes on the strongholds of the Muslim extremists of the Islamic State. What those fighters are doing to women they abduct is often hidden by the terrorizing captivity under which they are held. The daily horror of torture, rape and …

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Palestinians Move Fast to Join the ICC as Bid for Full Statehood Fails at the UN

December 31, 2014 
by Dulcie Leimbach
The Palestinians’ failed proposal to formally establish a state and end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories by late 2017 through a vote in the United Nations Security Council on Dec. 30 continued to reflect the immense influence of the United States on the Palestinians’ ability to assert themselves through the world body. The …

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With Mali in Political Turmoil, High FGM Rates Persist

November 20, 2014 
by Dulcie Leimbach
BAMAKO, Mali — In the primarily Francophone and Anglophone region of West Africa, Mali is said to have one of the highest rates of female genital mutilation, with about 91 percent of girls and women having undergone the circumcision — a rate that has not only stayed stubbornly high but may also be inching …

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The Lure of Violent Extremism for Women: A Terrorism Specialist Explains

November 9, 2014 
by Shiwani Neupane
Liat Shetret
Liat Shetret is the director of the New York office for the Global Center on Cooperative Security, a nonprofit group that helps governments and other organizations develop responses to international security issues. Shetret’s work — currently in Africa — focuses on community engagement in terrorism prevention, countering violent extremism, the use of Internet for …

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Islamists Systematically Destroying World Heritage Sites in Syria and Iraq

October 29, 2014 
by Barbara Crossette
Beyond the horrific executions, the deadly assaults on Christian and Yazidi communities and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing towns to avoid their terror, fighters of the Islamic State movement sweeping through Syria and Iraq are deliberately demolishing or damaging ancient historical sites in some of the world’s oldest towns and …

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Will All of Syria’s Arsenal of Chemical Weapons Be Destroyed?

October 24, 2014 
by Alexander Brotman
After an extraordinary effort from the United Nations, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and about a half dozen countries, including the United States and Russia, 96 percent of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal has been destroyed, acting on a UN Security Council mandate. The remaining 4 percent of the arsenal consists of …

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Lakhdar Brahimi: When Will the US Learn From Its Mistakes in the Middle East?

September 26, 2014 
by Barbara Crossette
More than two decades of American naivety or misunderstanding of Arab and other regional societies, astonishingly poor planning and post-conflict miscalculations that undercut claims of success have left a deep mistrust and lack of confidence in the United States in the Middle East, in the view of the United Nations’ most experienced and savvy …

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US to Convene a Summit at UN on Stopping Extremists

September 3, 2014 
by Dulcie Leimbach
President Barack Obama will hold a summit late this month in the United Nations Security Council to try to counter the surging power and strength of the Islamic terrorists that have seized parts of the Middle East this summer and other violent extremists worldwide. The summit, to convene on Sept. 25, will occur during …

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Women’s Voices Must Stay ‘Alive’ in ISIS-Controlled Regions

August 31, 2014 
by Yermi Brenner
The extremist Sunni militant group called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which recently declared a caliphate in parts of the Middle East, now controls an area of 13,000 square miles in Iraq and Syria. Testimonies coming out about daily life in the ISIS-controlled region depict an agenda of fear and intimidation being imposed, …

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