Jordan has long been a peaceful center in a tumultuous region. But the Syrian crisis has forced it to revisit a thorny social problem: child marriages. This article is the first of a six-part series on women’s rights in the Middle East. Winner of first prize in our...
A female face in a sea of mustaches and beards: We went looking to document women’s rights and found a street vendor selling bread in Amman. (All photos were taken in Amman, Jordan on February 14, 2019.) When we chose the topic of women’s rights for our photo...
The kingdom is spending billions on its entertainment industry, hosting the likes of Mariah Carey, Cristiano Ronaldo and golf pros. What’s in it for Saudis? An aerial view of a Saudi development (Photo courtesy of Bernd Debusmann Jr) I was sitting on a lush...
Revolutions lead in uncertain directions. Today, the effects of Iran’s revolution are still being felt on geopolitics, women’s rights and global conflict. An Iranian soldier during a demonstration in Isfahan, Iran, December 1979 (AP Photo/Michel Lipchitz)...
John Rogers, one of News-Decoder’s correspondents, was a young reporter for Reuters in 1979 when events in Iran changed the face of that country, the Middle East and the world. Rogers witnessed the collapse of the Shah’s royal regime, which crumbled when...
Instead of having too many babies, China is now having too few. A declining population is increasingly referred to in apocalyptic terms. Indians commuting in Bangalore, 11 July 2018 (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi) The year 2018 saw a “historic turning point” in China’s...
Yemen is the poorest Arab nation, caught in the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. But can UN-brokered talks in Sweden stave off mass starvation? A malnourished boy rests on a hospital bed in Hajjah, Yemen, 1 October 2018 (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed United...
Israel is the most gay-friendly nation in the Middle East. But it’s not perfect. Listen to two activists discuss their work to uphold gay rights in Israel. Interested in identity and gender, Giuliana Nicolucci-Altman spent a summer studying in Jerusalem trying...
By Nadia Dala Both Islamic jihadist movements and Islamic governments that are trying to counter jihadism are relying on women to win over the hearts of Muslims. Women in jihadist circles are child-bearing, silent recruiters, while governments in some parts of the...
The killing of Jamal Khashoggi adds to Saudi Arabia’s grim human rights record. But don’t expect America to sacrifice arms deals. Human rights activists protest against the death of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, 9 October 2018 (AP...