Gabrielle Emanuel

Shamso Ahmed smiles with red lipstick and a white hijab

Massachusetts gets its first hair salon that’s exclusively for women who wear hijab

February 26, 2019

In a neighborhood peppered with beauty shops, what makes Shamso Hair Studio and Spa unique is not the silver and black décor — or even the henna body art or the hammam steam spa — it is who is allowed in and who is not.

(From right) Muhammad Anwar and Hussein Muhammad (wearing a hat) chat with Ibrahim Rashid, an intern with IINE (center), and a community member.

Two Rohingya refugees start a new life in Boston

January 12, 2018Conflict

Vietnamese Americans in Boston mark the day their country ceased to exist

May 1, 2017Culture

A caustic Trumpian tone invades Newton’s politics

January 31, 2017Conflict

Yuriy Blyakhman and Sabina Roytman own several grocery stores in the Boston area that carry international food, particularly serving people from the former Soviet Bloc.

Older Russian Americans in Boston are applauding the Putin-Trump thing. Millennials just say ‘nyet.’

January 27, 2017Global Politics

Boston's ballot interpreters work the phones at City Hall.

How Boston helps its non-English-speaking voters fill out their ballots

November 7, 2016Election 2016

As Boston gets ready for Election Day, there’s one job that’s particularly difficult to fill: interpreter.