Middle East

Articles

Drawing back the curtain by Amanda Sebestyen (October 2008)

Wherever he has found himself – with the freedom fighters in the mountains of northern Iraq, as a prisoner in an Iranian jail, and now filling a whole room at the Imperial War Museum – Osman Ahmed has always gone on drawing. He spoke to Amanda Sebestyen about his passionate journey to make his art bear witness for the hidden people of Kurdistan

The Devil’s tears by Melissa Jones, Michael Gillard (May 2004)

In Azerbaijan, oil is known as the Devil’s tears - a curse for the desperately poor Azeris and a blessing for their autocratic rulers. Satan cried a lot in this former Soviet satellite state on the west coast of the Caspian Sea. His tears were mostly shed offshore.

Peace forum breaks Middle East’s spell of fear by Simon Assaf (February 2004)

After decades of silence, over 1,200 dissidents and activists from across the Arab world found their voice at Cairo’s anti-war forum in December 2003.