Fanack.com of the Middle East and North Africa

30/09/2025

The Levant has long been a mosaic of peoples. Armenians, Christians, Muslims, Druze, and Jews have shared its cities for centuries, usually within plural systems that balanced diversity without demanding uniformity.

The Levant has long been a mosaic of peoples.

24/09/2025

Alaa Abdel Fattah was granted a presidential pardon and released on 23 September 2025, reuniting with his family in Giza a day after the decree was announced. The clemency was applied to Abdel Fattah along with five other detainees.

Since President Abdul Fattah Sisi entered power in 2014, the dissident has spent the most of his time in prison or under police custody.

21/09/2025

On 16 September 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini died, two days after having been arrested for showing a lock of hair.

The problems are not new, but the artistic and coherent way in which Shervin has put them together has a huge emotional impact.

11/09/2025

Israel’s strategic use of legal ambiguity and tactical denial has successfully shielded it from accountability for decades. However, the meticulous counter-archive of verified strikes challenges this erasure.

Documentation becomes a vital form of resistance.

19/08/2025

While Jews and Palestinians have a right to exist, a state built on oppression does not.

Israel has repeatedly violated international law and ignored UN resolutions.

15/08/2025

Born and raised in Bahrain, Al-Shafei (1986) was disturbed by the rampant violations of migrant rights in her country. She held a firm belief that being silent was equivalent to being complicit, and wanted to create an initiative to document these abuses and advocate change.

Esra’a Al-Shafei envisions a society that celebrates diversity of people and ideas, and where "equality, freedom of religion and speech is the norm, instead of censorship, slavery and normalization of occupation".

28/07/2025

On 26 July 1956, Nasser announced the nationalization of the British-French owned Suez Canal Company, thereby obstructing Great Britain and France’s interests.

The unfolding and the effect of the Suez Crisis in 1956 and the June War in 1967 is examined by Arab journalists at Fanack

24/07/2025

With the fall of the Asad regime, the long-standing dominance of Alawites has come to an end. Power has once again shifted—primarily—to members of the Sunni majority, as was the case before the Ba‘th Party rose to power in 1963.

With the fall of the Asad regime, the long-standing dominance of Alawites has come to an end.

18/07/2025

What happened in July 1968, was, however, a double coup. After several army leaders overthrew the sitting administration in cooperation with the Baath Party, they were in turn swept from the stage by the Baathists two weeks later.

Fanack provides an overview of the Baath party and how it seized power in Iraq in 1963 after overthrowing Qasim's government in military coup

16/07/2025

Hafiz al-Asad maintained virtually absolute control over every aspect of Syrian life.

11/07/2025

We can all learn and benefit through making the most of our water, and we do not have to wait until necessity forces us to do so. By harnessing the combined power of innovation and collaboration, we have an opportunity to chart a course to a more sustainable water future.

Author: Ines Strohschein, Mohamed Bin Zayed Water Initiative   One Water: From life-giving force to scarce resource There is a finite volume of water on our planet and always has been—whether it was there at Earth’s inception as water molecules embedded in the rock that became earth 4 billion y...

08/07/2025

Hafiz al-Asad dealt ruthlessly with his party rivals. Many were imprisoned for long periods—sometimes until they died in detention.