Interview

How should we understand this new chapter in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? When and how will the violence end? And what role should the international community play? MO* spoke to anti-colonial activist Eitan Bronstein Aparicio and human rights expert Mahmoud AbuRahma.

Two years ago, the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. Women, minorities and human rights defenders are paying the price, but the militancy of many Afghans has not been broken. MO* talked to two leading women activists, Sima Samar and Razia Arefi: ‘Knowledge cannot be taken away.’

‘I did not want to remain silent when I can talk, when I can do something with the horror that happens to people in war.’ So, Bosnian-Croatian theatre maker Tea Tupajić invited a number of Yezidi women used by IS as sex slaves to tell their story in detail for one last time.

The University of Antwerp is awarding four honorary doctorates today (28 March). One is for Pakistani Roshaneh Zafar, who is trying to improve the lives of tens of thousands of women through microfinance. ‘Economic power is a lever for women to take control of their own lives and futures,’ she says.

She grew up in Libya in a conservative family and was the only girl in class wearing a hijab. Today, journalist and television pioneer Taziri al-Omrani lives in Belgium, from where she continues defending the rights of Libyan women and minorities. "I was a revolutionary from a young age," she says.