Human Rights

As Israelis flocked to the polls in last week’s elections, the West Bank remained calm. The 4.1 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza do not have the right to vote. Life went on as usual while only kilometers away, Israelis elected leaders who will determine policy affecting the Palestinians’ fate. Here are […]

In a landmark verdict handed down last Monday, an Egyptian doctor was convicted of the manslaughter of 13-year-old Suhair al-Bataa, who died during an illegal female genital mutilation (FGM) procedure. Dr. Raslan Fadl was initially acquitted in November 2014, triggering a wave of anger among activists and women’s rights advocates. The new verdict provides a […]

“The Turtle’s Rage,” directed by Pary al-Qalqili, is a raw, intimate look into one man’s anguish over the loss of his homeland. That man is Pary’s exiled father, who recounts for his filmmaker daughter what it means to be Palestinian, to be in constant conflict with Israel, and what the realities of return look like […]

BY WILL DENN Fahim Muhammad believed that until the Taliban were defeated, Afghanistan, his homeland, would never be safe.1 In 2006, despite the objections of his wife and two children, Fahim dropped out of school to become a U.S. military interpreter. Because of his excellent command of English, Dari, Pashto, and the obscure Nuristani language, […]

In this installment of “Inside the Middle East: Q&A,” Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, discusses the challenges to providing humanitarian assistance in Syria, the action (and inaction) of the UN Security Council in the crisis, and the politicization of aid. You can watch the interview, conducted by Jennifer Quigley-Jones, […]

In this installment of “Inside the Middle East: Q&A,” Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, Executive Committee Member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), discusses the ongoing peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, and prospects for the future.  You can watch the interview, conducted by Colin Eide, Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and […]

Dr. Suzan Bartels is a co-author of the report ‘Running Out of Time – Survival of Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon’ that was published by FXB center last January.  She is board certified in Emergency Medicine in both the U.S. and Canada and is currently an attending physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as […]

In this installment of “Inside the Middle East: Q&A,” Maria Fantappie, Iraq analyst at the International Crisis Group, discusses the current situation in Iraq, ongoing sectarian conflict in the country, and prospects for Iraq’s future. You can watch the interview, conducted by Jennifer Rowland, senior editor at the Harvard Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and […]

In Ayn al-Hilwe, Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, you frequently hear a new term: “Death Convoys” (Qawafel al-Mawt). It refers to the extremely dangerous voyages across the Mediterranean that Palestinian refugees are resorting to after fleeing Syria and failing to find refuge in neighboring countries. In the Lampedusa tragedy in October 2013, dozens if not […]

Ms. Lise Grande has worked for the United Nations since 1994, serving in Armenia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, East Timor, Haiti, Occupied Palestine, South Sudan, Sudan, and Tajikistan. Ms Grande has worked in some of the United Nations’ largest humanitarian and peace-keeping operations and is now serving as the UN Resident Coordinator in India. […]

His Majesty Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco took the stage at Harvard’s Arab Weekend following Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan, switching the topic from education to the Arab Spring. “For decades we have internalized this feeling of defeat. It has literally kept us from doing anything…the Arab spring has shattered all that,” he said, […]

This post is the first in a series of posts summarizing events that took place at the 2013 Harvard Arab Weekend, the largest pan-Arab conference in North America. For more information about this event, please visit http://harvardarabweekend.org/ On November 9, three practitioners and academics came together at the Harvard Arab Weekend to discuss Syria’s daunting […]