Two decades ago, France introduced a law banning the hijab and other religious symbols in public schools. Today, with French athletes prohibited from wearing any religious items while competing at the summer’s Olympic Games in Paris, the issue is more divisive than ever.
When ISIS was in power, between 2014 and 2019, the terrorist group recruited and trained children to take part in its fight. Some were brought to Syria by their parents. Others were born there. These children became part of the global terrorist movement. And today, five years since the group was defeated, hundreds of these minors and adolescents remain detained in Syria.
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.
When the terrorist group ISIS emerged in Syria in the last decade, some 30,000 foreign fighters went to Syria to fight for the group. Most were from Europe and Asia. About 300 Americans joined or attempted to join ISIS, including one woman who was married to an American ISIS fighter.
ISIS still conducts large-scale attacks like the one in Russia last month that killed about 130 people. In Syria, where the group originated, it continues to be active. One strategy to contain ISIS has been to hold thousands of people in detention camps in northeastern Syria.