BY KEVIN CORBIN Striving for a future First thing most mornings, Halima Sahim, reaches for her cell phone, usually to post an emoji-filled sunny status update. Real life isn’t as rosy for the 24-year old woman from Muslim Mindanao as…
No More Girls: How one woman is making a name for herself in Pakistan
BY CATE BROWN “My name is Noorena Shams, and my name is based on a myth.” Noorena tugs at her cascading ponytail, her fiery onyx eyes alight, “Pashtuns believe that whoever has this name for a daughter, then they will…
Want to demolish a Palestinian home? Call the American Ambassador
BY CATE BROWN The traffic was bad. Saturday night and raining. Abed Sabbagh tapped his fingers on the dashboard of our taxi, gently strumming along to the oud streaming from Bethlehem’s 89.6FM. I watched as the procession of yellow license…
An Average Mindanao Monday at Work Turns into a Death and Destruction After Bombing
BY KEVIN CORBIN I got up at sunbreak on a typical Monday morning, only to find there was no water for showering today. Not a problem, as I tossed on a formal Filipino shirt, shouted goodbye to the guards, and…
Grandma in the Frontline of Bolivia’s Gas War
BY BLANCA ARISMENDI La Paz, Bolivia 2003 The country was on the cusp of an uprising. President Gonzalo “Goni” Sanchez de Lozada’s decision to export natural gas through Bolivia’s historic enemy, Chile, triggered a nationwide rejection. Starting in February, numerous…
To Develop or To Defend
BY BLANCE ARISMENDI Cecilia stood in front of a seated crowd, both her hands gripping the microphone. With a broken but firm voice, Cecilia Moyoviri told her audience ”If this road is constructed, we as Indigenous people, along with our…
2006 Didn’t Defeat Lebanese Patriotism
BY JUANA LEE According to an IDB study conducted by the Herzliya Conference, Israeli Jews were just as patriotic following the 2006 Israel and Lebanon War. But, what about Lebanese survivors? In an interview, Nadine, now 23, recalled the strengthening…
The Day I Met My Daughters
BY TARA HEIDGER Nashik, India “Chris! We have less than an hour before we have to be there and you want to take a shower?” I asked my husband as he grabbed his soap and looked at me with a…
Endgame for Rukban
BY AMIR KHOUZAM AND TARA HEIDGER At the Rukban informal IDP camp on the Jordan-Syria border, desperation can be measured by the price of bread. This past month that price has doubled. The small markets and bakeries sustaining the 50,000…
Fleeing from Fahaheel
BY S’HA SIDDIQI On August 2, 1990, a thunderous boom rattled the streets of Fahaheel, Kuwait. It was early morning and 26-year-old Asma Ahsan had just returned to bed after nursing her infant son back to sleep. Her eyes fluttered…
Hebron Head On
BY AMIR KHOUZAM “Passports,” barked the soldier. He seemed small, smaller than the gun he held in front of him like a shield, with the muzzle pointing at the floor so he could move down the aisle of the bus.…
Neelab Yousafzai: A Journey of 6780 Miles
BY JUANA WAI SUM LEE Neelab Yousafzai, a Master’s student in Human Rights Studies at Columbia University, was raised during a particularly violent period of Afghan history. “I witnessed abductions, I saw people getting hung in front of my eyes,…
Syria’s Civil War Forces its Bravest and Brightest to Flee
BY SHRUTI MARIAN In 2011, in a square outside the Grand Mosque in Douma, WS saw a man die in front of her for the first time. The man was a protester and was shot by government security forces. His…
The Crossing
BY S’HA SIDDIQI Ajaz Khan ran, his little sister cradled in his arms as he raced through the high grass in the smoke-clogged night. His heart pounded as he barreled towards the tree line, the sound of gunshots thundering in…
The Voice of Military Humor in a Post-9/11 World
BY DOMINICK TAO Like many of the 3-million U.S. military veterans of the Global War on Terrorism, Paul Szoldra left the Marine Corps with no clue what he wanted to do. It was 2010. Szoldra was 26. The war had…
We Should Have Left Before it was Too Late
BY DOMINICK TAO Even decades after the Cambodian Civil war and the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge, Tek Hout Tao could never escape the guilt of following a friend’s decision to stay instead of run. The war crept toward…
How To Make Trolls and Intimidate People
BY SHRUTI MANIAN Part 1: The Gatekeepers Campus security and police officers swarmed the University of Hyderabad campus as students staged a protest calling for the University Vice Chancellor’s arrest. University officials barred activists and journalists from entering the public…
Legacy
BY S’HA SIDDIQI My grandparents’ story isn’t particularly novel. It is the shared experience of millions of Pakistanis and Indians who have yet to come to terms with the full extent of injury – both physical and emotional – that…
Unresolved Conflict: Political Entrenchment in Kosovo and Serbia
BY JILLIAN TIMKO In Belgrade, the party line that Kosovo is a secessionist region, rather than a sovereign nation, is clear from the moment you arrive. A banner spanning the entire block in front of the Serbian National Assembly honors…
Determined Optimism in Protracted Conflict
BY JILLIAN TIMKO I first met Liran Braude during orientation week at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. He grinned, shook my hand, and then kindly demonstrated the correct pronunciation of his name, “Lee-run,” by pumping his arms up…
“We’ve got one in the sweep”
Published in the The Appeal. By Olivia Heffernan Three Bronx friends recount their 2012 arrests in the NYPD‘s ‘Operation Crew Cut,’ experiences with the court system, incarceration and lives seven years later. At approximately 4 a.m. on Dec. 5, 2012,…
Sectarian War in East Ramapo Schools
BY SARIKA BANSAL Steve Forman, one of Ramapo High School’s assistant principals, was stunned to find on a recent morning that his town’s sectarian feud had spilled into his school. On the blackboard in an empty classroom, someone had scribbled:…
Ashoka in Monrovia
One of the first things you might notice about Monrovia is the barbed wire. It grows like vines from the top of the salt-scarred concrete battlements that ring anything of official value or importance, showing up everywhere in an endless…
Crop to Cup
BY STEPHEN SCHABER On 14th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues in Union Square, across from Jason’s Jewelry & Diamonds and next door to a Western Union, you will find Bourbon Coffee, a large café with a larger mission. This…
Tommy’s Team
BY ASHOKA MUKPO On a drizzly day in mid-April, about seven teenagers sit in a cluttered Washington Heights high school classroom, waiting to hear the recruitment pitch for a local football team. Slumping in their seats, they look distractedly out…