With car chases and shootouts, it may feel like a Hollywood action flick, but, as the director, Hogir Hirori, explains, the film is really about the exploited women and girls thereIn August 2014, after Islamic State (Isis) militants attacked the Sinjar…
A Syrian family finds refuge in the UK – in pictures
In the 10 years since the start of the Syrian civil war, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions forced to flee their homeland. Photographer Rich Wiles collaborated on a five-year project with Ruba and Rami al-Hindawi and their ch…
‘Still going through hell’: the search for Yazidi women seven years on
As two women are rescued in Syria after being kidnapped by Isis years earlier, Yazidis renew calls for international help to find the thousands still unaccounted forFor seven years, their families waited and hoped for news. In July, they finally receiv…
Foreign fighting: escaping the cheese bell
Thomas Hegghammer on the Cheese Bell Theory of foreign fighting: “that foreign fighting provides strategic depth – and hence longevity – to movements that would otherwise crumble under domestic repression.” “Functioning states are like cheese bells in …
‘Parents are dressing up their children to be buried’: Syria’s war on young escalates
Mural artist Hussein Sabbagh, 13, one of 27 children killed in government attacks in north-west Syria in two monthsAmid the rubble of bombed homes in Binnish, a town in north-west Syria, a brightly painted mural stands out. The image shows an intact ho…
Middle East problems stem from western and US interference | Letters
Readers critique the west’s actions in the region in response to an editorial on Arab democraciesYour editorial (29 July) is right that benevolent dictatorship is not the answer to the problems in the Middle East, but it is overly benevolent to Joe Bid…