Sofia Kounti
July 1, 2025
Israel’s ethnic politics don’t just define relations between Jews and Arabs, they have also shaped the lives of Israelis whose heritage challenges the idea that these two identities are mutually exclusive. When second-generation Jewish immigrants from North Africa and West Asia came of age in the early 1970s, a movement born in a Jerusalem slum exploded into national politics, challenging Zionist ideology at its core.
A crisis in maternity care, revealed through the eyes of the women who experienced it.
Facing ecological degradation under climate change, some in Kenya are looking back on traditional indigenous knowledge that prioritizes sustainable harmony with nature over short-term profits. Now, these customary rules may become laws on paper as well.
Saffron production in Kashmir is at an all-time low. In the push and pull between traditional practices and modern methods endorsed by the government, Kashmir’s most coveted crop is losing out to climate change and unplanned urban development.
The sudden demise of a long-running car-parts factory outside Florence was just the beginning of a different story. Protesting relentlessly and demanding a chance to rebuild from the ground up, the workers’ struggle changed the law throughout the region, and created a model for a new kind of factory.
Shepherds and their flocks are integral to the history of European culture and ecology. Now, a new generation of pastoralists – from migrants escaping underpaid care work, to science graduates looking for tangible ways to protect the planet – are rewriting patriarchal traditions to preserve it for the future.
