syria – Pike & Hurricane

YNTR – May 2020: New government in Israel, Afghanistan & the Taliban, and attacks on civilians in Syria

EditorChief — Sun, 17 May 2020 15:30:13 +0000

Israel. The new government of Israel was sworn in on the 14th of May. Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz eventually succeeded in forming a government after one and a half years without a functioning government. The contract of the coalition says that for the first 18 months, Netanyahu will serve as premier. After this period, Gantz, who serves in the meantime as defense minister, will take on the role for another 1.5 years. Together they serve as prime minister and “alternate prime minister”.

Afghanistan. After attacks at a clinic and a funeral, president Ashraf Ghani orders the resumption of military attacks against the Taliban. While the Taliban deny any responsibility for the attacks, the government gave orders to the military to be rather offensive against armed groups, contrary to the defensive approach of the United States who is currently withdrawing troops. US officials had previously been in talks with Taliban and signed an “agreement for bringing peace”.

Syria. The report “Nowhere is safe for us: Unlawful attacks and mass displacement in north-west Syria” by the human rights organisation Amnesty International reports on attacks on schools and medical facilities in Syria. While civilians are targeted and massively affected, there is evidence for the use of cluster munition, which is against the international law. This puts new pressure on the ruling dictator al-Assad and the Russian military, which supports the Syrian government. The report is among others based on interviews with displaced people, teachers, doctors and humanitarian workers in aid organisations.

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YNTR – April 2020: Forest fires in Chernobyl, new fask force in Sahel, Maduro accused of drug trafficking, and more

EditorChief — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 08:50:27 +0000

Ukraine. Forest fires near the defunct nuclear plant of Chernobyl caused radation in the area to rise 16 times above the normal level. Police arrested a suspect who is accused of causing the fires that started in early April by setting grass and rubbish on fire. While the fires increased the level of air pollution in Kiev – located around 90km south of Chernobyl – making them the worst in the world, authorities claimed there was no rise in radiation levels in the Ukrainian capital. While reports said the fires were getting dangerously close to the nuclear power plant and waste storage facilities, the government assured that the fires were contained and under control.

Sahel. Eleven European states have formed a new task force, named “Takuba”, to fight terrorism in Mali and the Sahel. The states supporting the project are Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden. The French-led task force is also supposed to support the French “Barkhane” mission in the Sahel as well as the joint troops of five Sahel states.

Venezuela. The United States are accusing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as well as other high-ranking politicians of drug trafficking and narco terrorism and offered a bounty of $15 million for the arrest of Maduro. According to US federal authorities, Maduro cooperated with dissident FARC members to “flood” the US with cocaine. The US government, which supports Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guidó, already imposed sanctions against Venezuela under Maduro for human rights abuses and argues that Maduro is responsibile for Venezuela’s economic and political crisis.

WHO. US President Donald Trump has accused the World Health Organisation (WHO) and European states of knowingly allowing covid-19 to spread beyond China. Consequently, hesuspended funding for the WHO. The UN agency had declared a global health emergency on Janaury 30. The day after, Trump announced a ban on all foreign nationals entering the US from China. He said: “Tragically other nations put their trust in the WHO and they didn’t do any form of ban and you see what happened to Italy […]”. Meanwhile, New York Times data suggests that almost 40 000 Americans and authorised travellers were able to enter the US from China since the travel ban was put into action on February 4 whereas Italy introduced a complete ban on all people travelling from China on January 31. The WHO criticised Trump’s travel ban for “increasing fear and stigma, with little public health benefit”, and Democrats and disease experts claim that the travel ban has little effect as the coronavirus had already started to spread within the US as well as internationally.

WFP. Due to fundig shortfall the World Food Programme (WFP) was forced to reduce their support for refugees in Uganda by 30% and for Yemen by 50%. In Uganda, 1.4 million refugees rely on food rations distributed by the WFP. Activists fear that these cuts will make refugees’ lives in midst the nationwide shutdown due to the coronavirus even more complicated. A speaker of the WFP said that due to a critical lack of finances they had no other option but to reduce their aid for Yemen by half, despite the humanitarian crisis in the country. According to the UN, about 80% of the Yemini population is dependent on aid. Starting in mid-April they will receive support every second month as opposed to every month.

Syria. For the first time, the UN’s Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) explicitly names the Assad regime as those responsible for the poison gas attacks of 2017. They accuse the Syrian air force to have used sarin and chlorine gas in attacks on Syrian cities in late March 2017. Human rights organisations see the OPCW’s report as a milestone in the investigation of war crimes.

Israel. On the way of forming a new government, opposition leader Benny Gantz, who holds the mandate to form a government, has been asking for more time. This was denied to him by President Rivlin. The possibility of a unity coalition that was in sight is slipping away. Since no party has a clear majority, the mandate goes back to the parliament and a fourth election round in Israel could be the consequence.

USA. Senator Bernie Sanders ended his campaign for the nomination as presidential candidate, saying “the path toward victory is virtually impossible.” Thus, Joe Biden is the only remaining candidate of the Democrats. Sanders wants to leave his name in the ballot, but assured that he is supporting Biden in the political fight against Donald Trump. Sanders is known to not only run a presidential campaign, but to mobilise the US American progressive left and to have created a movement concerned with social and environmental justice.

Photo Credits

pi-IMG_5623, zhrefch, CC0 1.0

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She’s Still Here: Muslim Women on the Frontlines

Mariah Katz — Wed, 10 May 2017 13:05:58 +0000

How Islamophobia Took Root

What have you heard about Muslim women recently?

“They are meek.”

“They are oppressed.”

“Their hijab is a barricade.”

“Feminism is unknown to them. Equality is denied.”

But what if I told you these are gross generalities? There is a rich fabric of various women’s movements throughout the Middle East and the Muslim communities around the world. It is a revolution, though, quite apparently, an underground revolution. Being misunderstood or simply written off, it is a flower blooming in a dark room.

Before today’s events like the Arab Spring or the Syrian Civil War, Western interventionism killed millions of civilians, made wastelands out of cities, complicated international affairs to the point of proxy wars. It is questionable if interventionism is what solely caused the politics in today’s Middle East. I would say it is the reason why Islam has radicalized and Islamophobia persists in response. People are still trying to make sense of the aftermath of the War on Terror to this day. The United States sunk trillions of dollars into it for various reasons, either myths of weapons of mass destruction or patriotic visions of democratization in the Middle East. Throughout the early 2000’s, former president, George W. Bush, and his wife, Laura Bush, made claims that intervening would also liberate Muslim women. But do Muslim women really need saving? More so than other demographics? This assumption that Muslim women need to be saved has spurred prejudice against Muslim communities. The logic being that Muslims are supremely oppressive toward women. What can be made certain, Western countries are conflicted with how they respond to Muslims in their own borders: headlines calling for hijab and burqa bans from Germany to France. There is rampant Islamophobia. War can create peace, but it more often creates hatred.

Muslim Women Reclaiming Respect

Syria is an ongoing war for seven years. It all started with the idea for a ‘revolution of dignity.’ A people’s movement. By and large, it is still a people’s movement. Those who still remain in Syria have taken up arms, learned first aid, teach children left behind, care for abandoned animals. They are the ones who tend to Syria and protect its people against President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, ISIS and other terrorist groups.

Made up of about 7,000 volunteer fighters between the ages of 18 and 40, the YPJ–or “Women’s Protection Unit”– is the all-female Kurdish military branch. Around 80 YPJ fighters are stationed in the Kurdish region in Syria, Rojava Kurdistan. The YPJ is trained to protect the area from ISIS, Assad’s Syrian Army and various terrorist groups, such as Al Qaeda. In 2014, the YPJ made headlines when they rescued a large Yazidis community from ISIS on Mount Sinjar.

They also made headlines for the death of 22-year-old Kurdish fighter, Asia Ramazan Anta, because she was beautiful. The headline was from pop culture juggernaut, The Sun. Their article’s message ignores the actual importance and bravery of YPJ fighters. Anta died on the frontlines protecting her community. To focus on the beauty of a fallen fighter objectifies and trivializes the fighter and her work.

Therein lies the hurdle Muslim women have to face: Western media, sexism and misunderstanding.

Nesrin Abdullah, the spokeswoman for YPJ, said to the Independent UK, “War is not only the liberation of land. We are also fighting for the liberation of women and men. If not, the patriarchal system will prevail once again.”

There is not another feminist movement like YPJ: a group of women who carry guns and train themselves to protect their communities against violent and patriarchal terrorist groups. All-female fighter groups are a startling and rare phenomenon. The YPJ is not representative of the entire Muslim feminist movement, but the YPJ is worth mentioning as a reminder that Muslim women in the Middle East cannot be stereotyped as “weak” and “docile.”

And yes, some of them do fight in hijabs.

Muslim women in the Middle East have various political leanings, values and religious beliefs that are on a spectrum, like any other demographic of women on any other corner of the planet. YPJ fighters are on one end and maybe a stay-at-home mom in a burqa living in Abu Dhabi is on the other end of the spectrum. Yet, there is a feminist movement in Abu Dhabi as well.

Again, media and prejudice overshadow these stories.

Deborah Williams at the New York Times recently penned an article about her time teaching at New York University’s portal campus in Abu Dhabi. It is titled, “Discovering Feminist Students in the Middle East.” Williams was the professor of a literature class where all of the books were by female authors. Her students happened to be all women as well. They came from Pakistan, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and other areas of the world. The diversity created a globalist perspective of what it means to be a woman. Often, feminism came up in class discussion alongside the question of what it means to be a woman. The students from Abu Dhabi dubbed themselves feminists. As well as the woman from Hong Kong. Also, the woman from Pakistan. It seemed a necessity for most women in the class who were told to be married, keep quiet and be subservient. The students came to one conclusion they agreed on: the patriarchy is still very much alive everywhere. If they kept facing setbacks simply because of their gender, if their mothers kept telling them to get married and that their education at NYU seemed excessive and unecessary, then they say feminism is vital.

Moving Forward Together

In a world that is imagined to be divided and constructed along gender and ethnic lines, it is a more nuanced approach to have a globalist perspective that is open to pluralities and contradictions. Yes, there is sexism in the Middle East, but there is sexism in your home country, too. Yes there are Muslim women in the Middle East, but there are Muslim women in Western countries too. Some are even blonde, some are African, but all are Muslim in their own way. It may be difficult to stretch one’s mind to accept and appreciate each person in a group of nearly 2 billion, but it is at least correct to assume not all Muslims are the same in a group that large. In this diverse group of 2 billion, feminism exists despite an overwhelming bias that says otherwise.

Some Muslims see an overarching cause for this bias, or Islamophobia, that has taken root in the West. There is the abovementioned theory that much of the bias occurred because of Western interventionism. From Canada, Fariha Róisín, a writer and feminist, wrote about her Muslim culture and identity:

“Lots of people talk about the misogyny of Muslim culture, without examining the overwhelming patriarchal blunder of the West, without questioning why the Muslim world has been radicalized in the last fifty years, which has led to the stern crackdown on women…This is a time where I encourage all of us to try and understand context, and understand the beauty of Islam. I hope that we can decolonize together. When I was kid I wanted to be anything other than Muslim, today, with tears in my eyes, I say: ‘Mashallah, I am so lucky to be a Muslim woman.’”

Being Muslim is interpreted by its followers in diverse ways. This diversity lends itself to many iterations of Muslim feminism as well. Outsiders and Western feminists all over the world can benefit from seeing beyond prejudice to learn from their Muslim counterparts about the sacrifice, bravery and intellectualism of Muslim feminism.

If Westerners can look beyond prejudice and media, a great lesson on feminism can be brought out from the shadows and illuminated.

By Mariah Katz

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