In May 2018, the Pakistani parliament passed the Transgender Person (Protection of Rights) Act, enacting strong protections for transgender rights. Pakistani society, as well as South Asian society more broadly, contains individuals of a third gender called Khwaja Sirah, who are born with male anatomy but wear clothing generally thought of as female. To the west of […]
Tag: Iran
Basra in Flames, with No Water to Put out the Fire
Basra is a city located in the southeast of Iraq, bordering the countries of Kuwait and Iran. Basra is known as the oil capital of Iraq, yet despite the abundance of wealth, the whole country, and especially Basra, has been suffering from a stagnant economy. Government corruption, financial mishandling, and high unemployment took the Basrawis […]
Legalizing Trafficking: Iran’s Unjust Organ Market and Why Legal Selling of Organs Should Not be The Resolve
Celeste Lee has been patiently waiting for a kidney for over 20 years. She was just 17 when an autoimmune disease wrecked her kidney Function, and since then has been relying on a transplanted kidney to keep her alive. Celeste’s story is not uncommon. Around 4,500 people die annually waiting for a kidney transplant. Along […]
Nothing is Fair, Sanctions or War
At the ripe age of 12, most American kids are concerned with making friends at school or convincing their parents to let them see R rated movies. When Joseph Kim was 12, he was solely concerned with survival. Joseph grew up at the height of North Korea’s decades’ long drought in the 1990s. Before even making […]
Iran’s Private Sector: Putting Up a Fight on an Uphill Battle
By the end of this year, you will likely see Tehran displayed on the departures list in the airports of many major European cities. With the passing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the official name of the Iran nuclear deal, Iran has had an influx of business inquiries from Western companies. Headlines […]
Yemen on the Brink of Civil War
Yemen is on the brink of civil war, after the Houthis, a well-organized group of Shia rebels, put current interim President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi under house arrest, leading to his resignation. Hadi fled the capital city Sana’a in late January and settled in his hometown of Aden, where he claimed the legitimate government resided. He […]
The Deal of the Decade
Many thought this day would never come. In an interesting turn of events, negotiations between the United States and Iran over a developing nuclear deal are currently underway. Secretary of State John Kerry has led negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif over a deal in which sanctions on Iran would be lifted on […]
Sectarian Strife in Yemen
February 10th, the U.S. Department of State announced a formal withdrawal from its embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, in response to mounting Houthi power in the capital. This departure marks a new political direction for Yemen, from the American-backed government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi to a new regime dominated by the Houthis, a Shiite […]
Apocalypse Tomorrow
Part 4 of a series on U.S. cybersecurity. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -Albert Einstein The age of cyberwarfare is finally upon us. This transformation is irreversible; former Defense Secretary Chuck […]
The Great Game
Part 3 of a series on U.S. cybersecurity. Part1. Part2. Part 4. By 2010, the Iranian nuclear program was clearly behind schedule. Despite dire predictions from the world powers, Iran seemed little closer to acquiring the bomb. The reasons for the delay were somewhat puzzling: perhaps the IR-1 centrifuges used at the nuclear facility at […]