Durrie Bouscaren

Reporter

Durrie Bouscaren is an Istanbul-based reporter for The World. She covers migration, politics and social change in Turkey, Iran and the Middle East. Before moving to Turkey, Bouscaren covered local news for St. Louis Public Radio and Iowa Public Radio. She was the 2018 John Alexander Fellow for NPR, where she spent two months in Papua New Guinea investigating gender based violence. When not reporting, she can be found riding her bike along Istanbul’s old city walls, or figuring out how to grow grapes on her roof.


Turkish artist captures pop culture through traditional miniature techniques

Arts, Culture & Media

Murat Palta makes a splash in the Turkish art world by imagining how a 16th-century Ottoman miniaturist would depict the world today. He blends traditional miniature techniques with modern themes by drawing from pop culture.

After Assad’s fall, long-displaced Syrians begin to return home

Syria

In southern Turkey, a surf school helps earthquake survivors process trauma and loss

Lifestyle

Small businesses already feeling the pain after Instagram block in Turkey 

Arts, Culture & Media

The enduring harvest of the ‘Tears of Chios’

Lifestyle

‘It’s a lifelong injury’: From Gaza to Doha, children bear the scars of war 

Israel-Hamas war

An estimated 17,000 kids have lost or been separated from their parents in Gaza, according to UNICEF. At least 3,000 have suffered a limb amputation. The small Gulf nation of Qatar has taken in more than 1,600 Palestinians in recent months, including dozens of injured children.

Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi has been sentenced to death in Iran.

Iranian rapper receives death sentence for his work and support of human rights 

Justice

The work of 33-year-old Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi is as poetic as it is technically challenging — covering topics ranging from government corruption to the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests, he channels the voice of Iran’s disillusioned youth. This week, a revolutionary court in Isfahan overruled a previous court decision granting leniency for Salehi, and sentenced him to death.

A local soda is making a comeback in Turkey

Food

Gazoz is an old-school, hyper-local soda that’s been ubiquitous in Turkey since it was invented more than a century ago. Every town has a signature brand, often incorporating local flavors like pine, lavender, or sweet almond. The World’s Durrie Bouscaren reports from southern Turkey on why this beloved drink is having a moment.

Man cuts quartz in factory.

Lungs of stone: How Silica has sickened a generation of quartz cutters

Health & Medicine

Quartz is used for countertops in millions of homes around the world — the manmade stone is popular for its beauty and durability. But for workers who make, cut and install quartz counters, it can be deadly. The World reported from Turkey, Spain and Australia — three stops along the quartz countertop supply chain — to learn more about silicosis, an incurable and often fatal lung disease caused by inhaling dust laden with excessive amounts of a mineral called silica.

collapsed building

Parents seek justice for children crushed in collapsed hotel during Turkish earthquake

In the year following catastrophic earthquakes in Turkey, the quest for accountability has been elusive. But a group of parents whose children died in a hotel collapse have brought a landmark criminal case to court.

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