Features

As he speaks, Emirjon’s eyes are brimmed with hope, typical of those with burning passions and dreams to chase. Sat in the dim light surrounding a stage in an East London venue, Emirjon, along with his colleagues, is taking a break from a play rehearsal. “Trust...

My child was born 20 weeks ago. Rafael Marley Rounseville Molano came to this world with his right fist up, on an early morning after 26 hours of contractions and a natural birth. 80% of the men in the world will become fathers in their lifetime,...

Her photographs are famous worldwide. From the Guardian to the New York Times, the media have taken an interest in her inspiring work. She is often invited to hold talks on the power of photography and resilience, and her Instagram profile counts thousands of followers. Fati...

Murray Cooper was one of the most famous specialty coffee farmers in Ecuador. I’m using the past tense because he’s now bankrupt. Specialty coffee is touted as a way to give more money back to producers in exchange for higher quality coffee and environmentally and socially...

A man walks out a men-only bar in downtown Tunis. Suddenly he looks extremely small. Next to him is an unusual sight in town, a mural encouraging women to be bold, fearless and self-loving. This feminist mural, the first of its kind in Tunis, features two...

People fight for social justice in many different ways. Some get involved in communities that are victims of injustice, others go into the street to join a demonstration. What may seem more unusual is fighting for social justice through performing arts, like Justice in Motion Company...

On a late and cold Sunday evening in Tunis, it was too late to find a café that stays open long enough for two women to settle in for a long talk. When we met Tunisian street artist Sangoura, we went from one café to the...

And God made me woman, with long hair, eyes, nose and a woman’s mouth. With curves and folds and soft hollows and dug into me, and made me a workshop for human beings. God delicately wove my nerves, carefully balanced the number of my hormones, composed...

Boy, my body is not your home. You are a guest.   These powerful words fill the room of Bowery Poetry Slam on a cold New York Monday evening in February, words of toxic masculinity, female empowerment and the pain of abortion fill the air. How...

As the people streamed into the Institut français in downtown Tunis to attend to the first queer film festival in Tunisia and the Maghreb their faces reflected everyone’s excitement and emotional turmoil. To have such an event take place in a country where homosexuality is still...

This article was written by Virginia Vigliar and Magdalena Mach   When she was 18 years old, Wai Wai Nu, her mother, her sister and one of her brothers heard a loud bang on the door in the middle of the night. 15 security forces arrested...

Bulldozers fed at one of Rio’s historical favelas decreed as an “an area of special social interest” while residents clung to their houses in protest and used creative forms of activism to resist the unwanted changes. The reason? Building a stadium for the 2016 Rio Olympics....

When science and logic are used to debunk misconceptions, stereotypes, and to promote tolerance and open-mindedness, you might end up changing someone’s perceptions. This was the goal of Baha Lajmi and Fahd Baaziz, two 16-year-old Tunisian high school students from Soussa, when they started a YouTube...

I met Sana Jlassi and Chouaib Brik, the masterminds behind Art Solution, the pioneering Tunisian association for urban culture and art founded in 2011, in the creative base of the association in Tunis. This space for creative expression and innovation, the Tag Store, made for a...

“My marriage was arranged against my will. It took practically a few days to make it happen. A few weeks into the married life my husband started beating me…” This is the story of Nodira, a young Tajik woman who has suffered abuse from those who,...