War in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region of the South Caucasus has been going on for more than three decades.
EPA-EFE/Sargsyan/OC media handout
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been contesting this region of the South Caucasus since before the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Family members of American citizens detained overseas participate in a Bring Back our Families rally on May 3, 2023, in Washington.
Anna Moneymaker/via Getty Images
The hostage swap between the U.S. and Iran may be an important step in a new nuclear deal between the West and Iran.
Protests happened all over the world, calling for change in Iran, after Mahsa Amini’s death.
Philip Yabut/Alamy
People are gearing up for a potential resurgence of protests, while the state is preparing to suppress any sign of dissent.
Protesters in Milan, Italy march in solidarity with Iranians.
Piero Cruciatti / Alamy Stock Photo
Social movements around the world use music in their struggle for freedom and equality.
Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool/AP
Russia is not only looking for much-needed ammunition, it is trying to counter Western influence wherever it can.
Hoda Afshar ‘Untitled #88’, from the series ‘Speak the wind’ 2015–22, pigment photographic print, 80 x 100 cm © Hoda Afshar, image courtesy the artist.
Hoda Afshar is one of Australia’s most significant photo media artists. A Curve is a Broken Line at the Art Gallery of New South Wales is her first major survey exhibition.
‘While the teachers are detained, the classrooms will be closed,’ reads one artist’s painting on a wall.
Khiaban Tribune via Instagram
Iranian artists are showing renewed determination to promote freedom as a cultural necessity in Iran, even in the face of a government crackdown.
Unrest: the murder of Mahsa Amini sparked an explosion of protest on the streets of Iran, which has been met with brutality by the country’s security forces.
EPA-EFE/stringer
After seven decades of oppression, Iranians yearn for democracy and are willing to risk their lives to win it.
Kurds and their sujpports demonstrate in Lausanne to protest the 100th anniversary of a treaty which denied them a homeland.
EPA-EFE/Jean-Christophe Bott
While analysts fret over what Iran and Russia are up to in Syria, Kurdish aspirations continue to be overlooked.
Getty Images
The Security Intelligence Service needs public support and trust to do its work well. Adding a degree of transparency to it’s annual threat assessment should help.
New best friends? Syrian president Bashar al-Assad greets Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in Damascus, May 2023.
Syrian Presidency via Facebook via AP
Despite initiatives which appear to be normalising Suria’s relations with Arab states, Damascus remains isolated and insecure.
Pro-resistance social media pages share photos of graffiti like this.
Provided by Michaela Grancayova and Aliaksei Kazharski.
From the Arab Spring to the Belarus Awakening and the ongoing Iranian protest Women, Life, Freedom, female-centered imagery and social media are battlegrounds of resistance and oppression.
Iranian women are still ditching the hijab despite buital punishments for women who disobey laws over head coverings.
Tutatama / Alamy Stock Photo
Iran’s savage use of executions and prisoner rape has failed to quell the “women, freedom, life” movement.
A Houthi fighter patrols an area during Yemen’s civil war.
Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images
Yemen’s brutal civil war has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. But a recent Beijing-brokered rapprochement between two regional powers could unlock a path to peace.
Yahya Arhab/EPA
After eight years of bombs, missiles, destruction and hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, it is the Yemeni people who have lost the most in this war.
Israelis opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan set up bonfires and block a highway during a protest in March 2023.
(AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Despite Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent backtracking to ease civil unrest, Israel’s ability to deter external foes has already been weakened by wounds that are self-inflicted.
Saudi Arabia has moved closer to China as an ally.
Associated Press/Alamy
Saudi Arabia is edging closer to China and away from the US, says an expert.
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran/AP
The pattern of slow, cautious decision-making in Iran is a critical factor in the Iran nuclear negotiations that has widely been ignored.
An unmanned U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan, on a moon-lit night several years ago. Drone strikes are now a major feature of modern warfare, including in Ukraine and Syria.
(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
As Russia’s war in Ukraine illustrates, the use of lethal automated weapons, or LAWS, can always be justified. Their ability to desensitize their users from the act of killing, however, shouldn’t be.
Iranian women protesting the death of Mahsa Amini gather outside the Iranian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on Oct. 17, 2022.
(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Narratives that pit secular protesters against a religious regime do not necessarily explain the protests in Iran or what they are calling for.