The murder that didn’t happen

It felt like daytime under the lights outside Arkady Babchenko’s apartment block. It was a late May evening in 2018, and television crews were trying to force their way into the apartment block on Kyiv’s left bank, but the police had closed off the entrance. Medics carried out the body of the famous Russian journalist […]

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Europe’s vote and Italy’s right-wing bloc

Flat tax, privileges to rich regions, restrictions on migrants, emphasis on "security". This is Matteo Salvini's agenda for the Italian government in the aftermath of the European elections. The ‘Lega’ (League), the party he leads, now running the country in coalition with the Five Star Movement, has won big on May 26 obtaining 34.3% of […]

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#Colombia the ghosts of war threaten peace

Political uncertainty, the objections towards the peace process and the ghosts of war haunt Colombia. The country faces the challenge of complying with the peace accords and moving forward if it is to consolidate the post-conflict stage that is yet to occur despite 2 years having passed since the historic agreement was signed by ex-president […]

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Veiling and revolutions: from Algeria to Sudan

In his famous essay, ‘Algeria Unveiled’, Frantz Fanon (1959, p. 35) writes: ‘The way people clothe themselves, together with the traditions of dress and finery that custom implies, constitutes the most distinctive form of a society’s uniqueness’. Protesting former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s absurd bid for a fifth term, Algerians flooded the streets angrily – yet […]

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Under public stigma, families often force young women in Azerbaijan to marry those who raped them

The issue of women’s rights in Azerbaijani society is often discussed in superlatives, whether by the government or the local media almost uniformly under their control. Pro-government women’s rights organisations often pat themselves and the national leadership on the back for the enormous strides women have purportedly made in the 28 years of independence. Almost […]

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