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.
In Turkey, refugee children face hurdles to school enrollment
Many Syrian families in Turkey face school enrollment challenges due to a Turkish law that says no more than 30% of schoolchildren in a single class can be foreigners. Families in border cities like Gaziantep say their children are being turned away with few alternatives.
Desperate pet owners turn to illegal drug markets to cure a rare cat virus
Stuck without passports in Kazakhstan, Russians who avoided the draft face a ticking clock
In Kazakhstan, timeless Korean recipes are loved and maintained
Long before electricity, wind catchers of Persia kept residents cool. Climate-conscious architects are taking notes.
'How long will this continue?': People in Istanbul see their rents double as inflation soars
This summer, Turkish inflation reached levels not seen since the 1990s, and nowhere is it more clear than the rental market. Tenants are seeing their rents double, or even triple, in just one year.
'I'm being strangled here': Refugees returned by Turkey to Syria say conditions are bleak
In the Turkish city of Istanbul, police have continued a stepped-up campaign of random ID checks in immigrant neighborhoods. This week, officials acknowledged that 19,000 people have been deported over the past eight months. It’s not clear how many of them are Syrians.
These monks are on a mission to protect Lebanon's sacred cedar trees — before it's too late
Lebanon’s old-growth cedar forests have been decimated by centuries of logging. Now, rising temperatures from climate change are set to take the rest.
Solar power is the 'only business that's booming' amid financial and electricity crises in Lebanon, experts say
As people faced with electricity blackouts install solar panels on their rooftops, they say they're seeing some relief — but it comes alongside frustration with the government's inability to power the country.
‘They’re hurting themselves’: In Lebanon, women risk their lives to get an abortion illegally
In Lebanon, a pregnancy can only be terminated if three doctors agree that a woman's life is at risk. But this doesn't stop abortions from happening.
A spate of dolphin deaths in the Black Sea prompts scientists to search for answers
Since February, hundreds of dolphins have been found dead off the coasts of Ukraine, Bulgaria and Turkey. Scientists have pointed to the war in Ukraine as a possible cause. Navy sonar systems used to locate other vessels create powerful sounds that may be disorienting the marine animals.
This Turkish lab is turning algae into jet fuel
Scientist Berat Haznedaroğlu is the director of Türkiye’s first initiative to turn algae into fuel for airplanes — but scaling up is a challenge.
‘I feel quite desperate right now’: In leaked databases, Uyghurs search for names of the missing
Uyghurs in the diaspora are now going through the lists from leaked documents to try and identify their missing relatives. For many, it’s the first time they’ve been able to confirm what happened to them.
At the mouth of the Black Sea, a ship spotter watches for clues amid Ukraine war
Turkey’s ship watchers observe traffic in Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait to understand geopolitics — including the comings and goings of Russian ships amid war in Ukraine.
Navigating war without sound: Ukraine’s deaf refugees
Romania's local deaf community in Botoșani has welcomed at least 200 deaf people from Ukraine since the war began. They are focused on getting people to safety and ensuring that up-to-date information is available for sign language speakers.