Dear Deeply Readers,
Welcome to the archives of Syria Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on May 15, 2018, and transitioned some of our coverage to Peacebuilding Deeply, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on the Syrian conflict. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors contributors.
We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].
Azizah Sayah’s son died in Syria after joining the ranks of the so-called Islamic State. In the latest installment of “Women and Jihad,” she tells her story and shares her mission to prevent other French young people from leaving to fight in radical Islamist movements.
Since it began its military campaign against the Nigerian government in 2009, the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram has kidnapped hundreds of girls. But some young women join the group voluntarily, raising questions about how to help them when they come back home.
How ISIS depicts women in its official propaganda tells us a lot about the role it sees for female members of the group. In “Women and Jihad,” we speak with researcher Charlie Winter about the power of the extremist promise.
Fredrick Ogenga Founding Director, Center for Media, Democracy, Peace & Security
The phenomenon of women willingly joining extremist movements is not a new one, but the media often present the issue as a shocking novelty. Security expert Fredrick Ogenga says journalists need to learn how to report on terrorism without breeding prejudice and fear.
The role of women in countering violent extremism has gained momentum over the past few years. Next in “Women and Jihad,” we look at the people and programs challenging the male-dominated security scene and offering new ways to combat the threat of radicalization.
The latest in our “Women and Jihad” series highlights women who have committed to combating the spread of extremist ideology, from saving Yazidi Kurds in Iraq to deradicalizing Boko Haram members in Nigeria.
Leaders of the sprawling territory in Canada’s Eastern Arctic view bilingual instruction as a key way of improving lackluster education outcomes. But a proposal to standardize the Inuit language in the process may be a tough sell to some.
Outsiders see Nairobi’s second-largest slum, Mathare, as a dead end. But a program that offers kids training in photography and filmmaking gives girls the chance to dispel the myth and show Mathare as a place of hope.
Most Kosovar men who travel to Syria and Iraq to fight with ISIS are accompanied by their wives. For our series “Women and Jihad,” we talk to counterterrorism experts who believe these women could be the key to challenging violent extremism.
Every day in Tel Aviv, about 5,000 children of asylum seekers attend daycare centers run by women with little or no training. Recent reports of infant deaths at some of these makeshift nurseries have caused a public uproar, but little action from the government.
The Himalayan nation of Nepal has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. Two women tell us about their decision to marry early and reveal the challenges they face as young mothers.
With Mongolia in the grip of a winter so severe it has already killed tens of thousands of livestock, many herders choose to stay in the countryside to tend to their animals, sending their children to towns to go to school and live in homes run by teenage girls.
An estimated 40 percent of child soldiers around the world are girls, many of whom face discrimination and struggle to reintegrate into their communities once they leave the armed groups who kidnapped them.
Groundwater recharge, flood protection and wildlife habitat all depend on floodplains. Now there’s a new movement underway in California to revive them in order to ease California’s dramatic swings between drought and flood.
Next in our series, we take an in-depth look at the diverse ways in which women are affected by radicalization – as victims, perpetrators and peacemakers – while experts call for a gender shift in the way governments deal with women’s growing role in global terrorism.
Critics say a proposed Kenyan bill meant to protect the education rights of pregnant girls would unfairly punish schools. But Chi-Chi Undie of the Population Council says the law – if implemented correctly – could help thousands of young mothers stay in school.
For some, being the target of racism can lead to radicalization. For Kenza Isnasni, it did the opposite. In our “Women & Jihad” series, she says the killing of her parents by a right-wing radical inspired her to fight extremism in all its forms, political and religious.
Forced to leave school to help with the housework, Mira Rai ran away to join Nepal’s Maoist rebel group. And she’s been running ever since. Now an internationally acclaimed trail runner, Rai is inspiring a new generation of young girls to challenge expectations.
Now a mentor for girls at risk of radicalization, Yasmin Mulbocus was once a recruiter for an Islamic terrorist organization. In the first part of our series “Women and Jihad,” she says she joined as an idealistic teen drawn by the group’s utopian vision of the future.
On a Japanese island famous for long life expectancies, elderly women are at the forefront of the continuing protest movement against U.S military installations.
Around 70 percent of street sellers in Zimbabwe are women, struggling to support their families in the face of continuous police raids against unlicensed trade. But advocates say local authorities should be working to support women vendors, not running them off.
Morocco’s policy toward migrants is more generous than most, issuing work permits and refusing to evict undocumented refugees. But it does little to account for gender, leaving women living in refugee camps vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
In one village in Tanzania’s Kurya community, an estimated 80 percent of girls have undergone FGM. Hoping to eradicate the practice through education and collaboration, one NGO has found an alternative way for girls to celebrate their transition to adulthood.
Young Syrian refugee women have been learning to juggle, walk on stilts and hula-hoop as part of a new scheme in Turkey designed to break down language and social barriers and help the girls make friends.
By encouraging its alumni to volunteer as mentors for newer members, a program in Sierra Leone aims to provide a sustainable support network for girls facing challenges that keep them out of school, such as early pregnancy and female genital mutilation.
The documentary “Nobel Nok Dah” explores the journeys of three female Karen refugees who fled their homes, experienced forced labor in Thailand and were finally resettled in the U.S. Refugees Deeply spoke to the filmmakers about understanding resettlement through a gender lens.
As Colombia’s Marxist FARC rebel group prepares to demobilize after five decades of conflict, one former child soldier explains why so many have been drawn into joining the revolutionaries.
Trump’s ban on the citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. threw lives into chaos. Even with the ban suspended, three women describe here the uncertainty that has gripped their lives, not knowing what will happen next to their jobs or families.
Shunned by their own families, thousands of Hindu widows make their way to the holy city of Vrindavan in northern India to find solace. But most also end up impoverished and neglected.
A new project in Lesotho combines a mobile healthcare app, a mobile payment service and a fleet of traveling clinics to help HIV-positive women in remote areas get lifesaving medication and support.
Thailand’s tourism minister recently said she wants to shut down the country’s sex industry. While the move might be good for the country’s image, it threatens the livelihoods of thousands of women who are often the primary breadwinners for their families.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a new law that cuts the penalty for some forms of domestic abuse from jail time to a fine. The bill has provoked outrage since it was first proposed, with activists calling it a step backwards in the fight for women’s rights.
In light of a new U.N. report documenting atrocities against Rohingya in Myanmar, photojournalist Allison Joyce profiles Rohingya refugees who recently fled to Bangladesh, relaying their harrowing stories to Refugees Deeply.
Zimbabwean MP Ruth Labode was recently booed for suggesting sexual-health services should be available to girls of all ages, not just those over 18. She explains why current policies are having little success in slowing the rate of early pregnancies or child marriages.
In parts of the Middle East and Africa, courts can let rapists walk free if they marry their victims. Alia Awada of gender-equality campaigners ABAAD wants Lebanon to abolish the law, saying that, far from protecting a survivor’s honor, it treats them like a criminal.
Lots of rain and snow have pulled most of California out of drought conditions, but a small area near Santa Barbara is still experiencing severe drought and communities are adopting different strategies to tackle water security.
Focusing on the disadvantaged Isaan region of northeast Thailand, the Better Me program encourages girls to reach for the job of their dreams and teaches them how to make the right decisions to get there.
As the bombs continue to drop on parts of Syria, doctors struggle to give even the most basic medical care to women who, if they survive the airstrikes, still face malnutrition, an inability to breastfeed and a lack of any kind of preventative healthcare.
Intimate partner violence among lesbian couples in South Africa is underrepresented in research and trivialized by police, leaving victims unwilling or unable to access the protective services, says Ingrid Lynch of LGBTI support organization the Triangle Project.
Over 940 million people globally have to defecate outside because they lack access to toilets. In a nomad camp in Pakistan, women tell of how relieving themselves behind bushes or in fields puts them at risk of health problems, harassment and sexual assault every day.
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