Femonationalism: White saviour feminism in Afghanistan

“Western” feminists often discuss and offer solutions for the position of women in Afghanistan, however as Munazza Ebtikar writes, these viewpoints are often stripped of the context of decades of military devastation and silence the voices of Afghan women who are fighting for change Featured image – member of Aghan parliament Fawzia Koofi Cheryl Benard… Read More

Three times a widow in Afghanistan

Hizbullah Khan in Kabul relates the harrowing story of a woman who has been widowed three times by war in Afghanistan and what it means for her life now. Sitting in her first marital room, looking down at a picture from her childhood, an anguished Marzia Umeed* remembers her happy life before marriage. She doesn’t… Read More

The Orlando shooting comes down to only two things: gun control and homophobia

by Ali M Latifi  Almost immediately after Omar Mir Seddique Mateen’s identity was revealed the media’s focus turned to his religion, Islam, and the country of his parents’ birth, Afghanistan. His US citizenship, (Mateen was born in New York and lived in Florida) was essentially wiped away. He is one of the few mass shooters… Read More

When did Britain ever truly ‘stand alone’?

by Priya Atwal ‘Project Hope’ should be the right and proper name of the Brexit campaign, says Michael Gove. The British Justice Secretary made this declaration on Friday night during a live TV interview on Sky News, in which he also lambasted the Remain campaign for belittling Britons and telling them that their country is… Read More

Is the U.N fit for purpose?

by Chimene Suleyman Who defines how the peace is kept? How can it ever happen without any bias? First you would have to remove any circumstance that shapes our understanding of race – the bits that make us like and trust some nationalities, then despise others. A well-varied group of internationals, gender and class. And so… Read More

Broken News: How To Save International Bureaus

by Ban Ibrahim “The bureau is a beautiful old Kabul house with a beautiful green lawn. However, that old house is only for the foreign journalists,” says Ali M. Latifi, an Afghan-American journalist living in Kabul, about the New York Times bureau in the city. “They work and live there. The local staff work in… Read More

A Public Life of Intimate Violence

Touched by Patsey’s struggles in the Oscar winning film ’12 Years a Slave’, Karen Williams describes how the film helped her to recognise and articulate the depths of latter day racism in her own ‘Public Life of Intimate Violence’  I have spent decades challenging women to have public lives, and for dark women to insist on their right to it, even with the abuse… Read More

Drones: the international system of force and collusion is alive and well

by Dr Rohail Ahmad The BBC revealed on 24th October 2013 that Pakistan was fully aware of the drone attacks on its territory by America: “Secret memos show Pakistan endorsed US drone strikes”. This is a confirmation and continuation of the international system of force and collusion that is both the origin and perpetuation of the… Read More

Malala Yousafzai and the White Saviour Complex

by Assed Baig When Malala Yusufzai was shot in the head by Taliban gunmen simply because she wanted to gain an education it sent shockwaves around the world. The Western media took up the issue, Western politicians and the public spoke out and soon she found herself in the UK. The way in which the… Read More