Tag: society
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Art and protest in Putin’s Russia
ANALYSIS With thanks to Liza Malyan In the past few weeks living in London I have seen the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag on every corner. As little as a ribbon pinned to the lapel is a symbol of allegiance with the oppressed. It is easy to forget that the freedom to express […]
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Arab queer film finds success: an interview with the director of Lebanon’s award-winning “Warsha”
INTERVIEW As the world marks LGBT History Month, film director of Lebanese and Syrian origin Dania Bdeir is making her mark as a contributor to queer history, with her award-winning short film, “Warsha”. “Warsha” follows Mohammed, a Syrian migrant working as a crane operator in Beirut. One morning he volunteers to operate one of the […]
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Cypriot consciousness and online spaces: can we dismantle the master’s house with the master’s tools?
ESSAY Audre Lorde once professed that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”. Indeed, as an abolitionist, I believe that the state and all its wings of carceral violence (prisons, immigration detention centres, policing) must be dismantled for liberation to be possible. Funds, resources and energy must be funnelled away from these oppressive […]
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‘And Just Like That’, queerness was mainstreamed by the Hollywood liberal elite
OPINION HBO Max is introducing its new series, ‘And Just Like That‘. The series is a sequel of ‘Sex and the City‘, one of the most well-known shows to come from the US that ran from 1998 to 2010. As a queer Arab fan of the original series, it is important to me to apply […]
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‘The Serbian state supports the glorification of war criminals’: an interview with the organisation fighting to remove Mladić murals
CN: war, genocide triumphalism VIDEO In July this year, a mural honouring convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić was painted on a building in central Belgrade. This had occurred on the same day that Bosnia’s outgoing High Representative, Valentin Inzko, imposed changes to Bosnia’s Criminal Code that would prohibit the denial of genocide and glorification of […]
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‘Clarifications are not good enough’: Poles demand abortion law U-turn after pregnant woman dies
CN: death It seems to be a never-ending epic in Poland. Though one without a comforting victory. Once again, Poles are marching against the near-total abortion ban that came into effect a year ago. Protesters have linked the death of a 30-year-old pregnant woman named Izabela, who died of sepsis 22 weeks into her pregnancy, […]
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‘Lebanon needs help’: an interview with filmmaker, Nada Raphael
INTERVIEW Two weeks ago partial power was restored to Lebanese homes. It is a victory as anticlimactic as it sounds. A twenty four-hour nationwide blackout had brought a flurry of media attention to the situation on the ground. After the partial restoration of electricity, all has gone quiet again. Are we to assume life is […]
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‘Hope is in humanity’: an interview with the activist raising thousands for Beirut’s queer civilians
CN: this interview contains detailed discussion of queerphobic violence, abuse, trauma and persecution VIDEO On 4 August 2020, nearly 3 000 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon. The explosion killed over 200 people and displaced an estimated 300 000. Within the broader humanitarian crisis that ensued, there exists another […]
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Androniki and prehistoric pottery: a look at non-binary gender expression in Cypriot culture
Support Politika News on Patreon. With special thanks to Ilaeira. ESSAY ‘It’s cultural’, people have often said to me. The tenacity of multiple systems of oppression – patriarchy, heteronormativity, racism – suggests they are and always have been endemic in Cypriot culture. As a member of the Cypriot diaspora, it has certainly felt that way. […]
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Divisive politics and Northern Ireland’s obsession with flags
Support Politika News on Patreon. OPINION Northern Irish citizens, whichever side of the political spectrum they find themselves on, have an undeniably unhealthy obsession with flags, or ‘flegs’. While these pieces of coloured cloth are used as symbols of cultural or political identity the world over, in few places have they provoked such controversy and […]
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