Items by Anjuman Rahman
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- July 2, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
Israel’s siege and violence are damaging Palestinian children’s minds
Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip are being psychologically tortured. Growing up with periods of prolonged fear and abuse has devastating physical and mental consequences, and young people are suffering as a result. Israel’s latest military offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza inflicted lasting trauma on children, with noticeable behavioural...
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- June 30, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
Coca-Cola faces backlash for banning Palestine on customised bottles
Beverage giant Coca-Cola is being criticised for a new tool that fails to let customers personalise their own bottles of coke with ‘Palestine’ and ‘Black Lives Matter’ while allowing offensive phrases like ‘White pride’, ‘fascism,’ and ‘Nazis rule’. Troubled customers took to Twitter to share their findings after discovering that...
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- June 21, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
‘The track doesn’t know gender, the car doesn’t know gender, so gender is irrelevant’
Female racing drivers are rare, but they do exist. This is disappointing, said Toni Breidinger, who has broken through in the male-dominated sport. “My first reaction to being the first Arab-American female driver to race in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) series was honestly disappointing,” she...
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- June 12, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
'They cry all night and can't sleep,' says Palestinian mother waiting to reunite with her traumatised daughters
Having waited since July 2019 to see her children, the first thing that she plans to do when she's reunited is hug them tight...
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- June 4, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
Louis Vuitton, Fendi slammed for exploiting traditional Palestinian keffiyeh
One of the world’s leading fashion brands, Louis Vuitton, has come under fire for the sale of a luxury designer scarf heavily influenced by the traditional Palestinian keffiyeh, a symbol of Palestinian nationalism. People took to social media to accuse the designer of cultural appropriation and slammed it for failing...
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- May 30, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
It’s hard to imagine what it’s like to lose your home, but Palestinians know, says rights official
A stench hangs over Sheikh Jarrah today as its residents continue to be harassed by the occupation authorities. Palestinians in the tiny neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem are being beaten brutally and arrested by armed, combat-ready Israeli soldiers, some on horseback. Rubber-coated steel bullets have also been fired. The...
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- May 19, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
Meet the Palestinian building preschools to help children to survive and thrive
The fundamental right to education is enshrined in international law. For decades, though, the education sector in Palestine has had to contend with the oppressive and violent imposition of Israel’s illegal occupation. It has undoubtedly had a negative effect. Schools have been damaged and demolished, and equipment has been confiscated....
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- May 10, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
Celebrities in solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah
Social media users from around the world are sharing videos of Israeli soldiers and settlers attacking Palestinian families facing forcible evictions in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in which their families have lived for generations. While many have criticised the silence of celebrities and influencers on the crisis against Palestinians, the...
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- May 10, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
Israel and its illegal settlers demonstrate the reality and brutality of the occupation
Violence has become a permanent feature of Ramadan for the people of occupied Palestine. The first day of the fasting month this year began with the Israeli army breaking locks and cutting the wires to the loudspeakers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to silence the evening calls to prayer....
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- April 28, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
Cookery lessons highlight the difficulties facing refugees in the UK
No one is born a migrant. Such status depends on many factors, including the way people are treated by society, and the opportunities and possibilities they have for the future. Human rights activist and Syrian refugee Majeda Khoury made this clear to me when we spoke this week. “When I...
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- April 14, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
How one particular charity is improving the lives of Gaza amputees
Tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip have been wounded during Israel’s military offensives and incursions. Many of them have been left with life-changing injuries. For the two million Palestinians living in Gaza under an Israeli-led and Egyptian-backed siege, life is already difficult enough. With limited access...
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- April 4, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
Guantanamo's cruelty is medieval. It’s a horror story. And it’s true.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi, 50, faced beatings, electrocution mock executions and sexual humiliation in America’s notorious Guantanamo Bay prison ...
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- March 18, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
The Wandering Palestinian
“I had a politically active life and enjoyed a large circle of friends who, like me, came from other parts of the Arab world to be in Beirut, the centre of revolutionary and progressive politics of the time. But love is blind, and I thought my life could become...
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- March 8, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
‘As proud modest Muslim Saudi women, we want to champion being strong inside and out’
Dr Mezna AlMarzooqi set up the first Women’s Sports Initiative at Saudi universities to help break the taboo of females taking part in physical activity in the kingdom, she tells MEMO what inspired her...
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- February 8, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
‘Palestinians thinking of liberation, should not only learn from South Africa’s past, but also its present’
Israel’s repression of its own Palestinian citizens, as well as Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, and even African refugees, has become ever more brutal, despite decades of global solidarity efforts for justice in Palestine. Many of the solidarity achievements — including the successful Boycott Divestment...
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- January 27, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
It’s a mistake to believe that Biden will be a friend of Palestine
Palestinians are eager to turn a new page after four years of the Trump administration in Washington, which undermined the whole Palestinian cause. Trump let Israel’s right-wing government do as it pleased, and gave its illegal activities a veneer of acceptability. Joe Biden’s election win was thus welcomed, not least...
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- January 20, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
Israel will be responsible for more Palestinian deaths if it withholds the Covid-19 vaccine
Israel is refusing to provide Palestinians with Covid-19 vaccine in the occupied territories where it controls every aspect of their lives. This is in addition to helping to destroy the Palestinian health sector, especially in the Gaza Strip, with bombs and blockades. At least one vaccine dose is being provided...
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- January 12, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
Americans suffer from Trump as much as the Palestinians, says activist Issa Amro
While US President Donald Trump was busy inciting a mob to attack the Capitol Building in Washington DC, Palestinian activist Issa Amro was convicted on three counts of protesting peacefully against illegal Jewish settlements and human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He was found guilty of protesting...
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- January 4, 2021 Anjuman Rahman
‘I refused to join the Israeli army, it justifies violence and inequality’
19-year-old Hallel Rabin spent 56 days in jail after refusing to complete military service she believes it allows ‘criminals, thieves and swindlers to roam free and run the state’ To outsiders, the decision not to serve in one of the most brutal and immoral armies in the world may appear...
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- December 29, 2020 Anjuman Rahman
Everything and nothing has changed for Palestine this year
Landmark developments seem to have changed everything and nothing for Palestine this year. The flurry of normalisation deals is one of them and arguably the most significant. In advance of the US presidential election and the possibility of these being his final months in office, Donald Trump made it...
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- December 20, 2020 Anjuman Rahman
World’s first hijabi skater: 'I want to show the world that our women are powerful’
Over the past few years, the number of women from the Middle East participating in international sporting events has risen steadily. The glass ceiling appears to have been broken. One of these athletes is international figure skater Zahra Lari, who believes it is important to inspire Arab women to...
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- December 9, 2020 Anjuman Rahman
I Refuse to Condemn: Resisting Racism in Times of National Security
Muslims have become a convenient focus for the rage that the world feels after every terrorist act around the world. However, for the contributors to I Refuse to Condemn: Resisting Racism in Times of National Security, enough is enough. I agree. Muslims are being blamed too often for not...
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- December 1, 2020 Anjuman Rahman
Journalist arrested after exposing the plight of Palestinians in Israeli prisons
A Palestinian journalist and activist has been detained for the fifth time by the Israeli authorities after being released earlier this year from an eight-month term of administrative detention, when she was held with neither charge nor trial. Bushra Al-Taweel, 27, was detained on 8 November while going home...
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- November 24, 2020 Anjuman Rahman
Colorado rep: ‘As a practising Muslim, Palestinian American, you mobilise advocacy every day’
The 38-year-old daughter of Palestinian immigrants became a trained political scientist after earning a bachelor's degree at the University of Colorado Denver and then a Master’s degree in Public Policy....