Regional Voices: Fear and frustration echo through a trapped community. The scent of dust and desperation hangs heavy in Qusra. Old Man Khalil, a farmer with hands like gnarled olive branches, sits on a plastic chair outside his home, watching the road. For days, it has been blocked by figures in military garb and determined […]
Regional Voices: Fear and resilience in the Red Sea & Gulf. The scent of diesel and salt hangs heavy in the air around Aden’s small fishing port. Old Man Hassan, a wiry Yemeni man with eyes that have seen too much, sits mending nets, his movements slow and deliberate. He hasn’t taken his boat out […]
Regional Voices: Uncertainty ripples through everyday lives in Shiraz. The scent of cardamom and rosewater hangs heavy in the Vakil Bazaar of Shiraz, Iran. Old Man Hossein, his face etched with decades of brewing tea and witnessing history, adjusts the samovar. “Business is… quiet,” he says, pouring a dark amber liquid into a delicate glass. […]
Regional Voices: Lives resuming amidst changing powers on the coast. The scent of salt and diesel hangs heavy in the air around Tartous port. Old Man Khalil, a fisherman who’s cast nets here for sixty years, watches the cranes with a weary eye. “For a while, it felt like a foreign city within our own,” […]
Regional Voices: A fisherman’s nets hang empty, mirroring a stalled peace. Old Man Tariq sits mending nets on the Omani shore near Musandam, the rugged peninsula overlooking the Strait of Hormuz. He hasn’t put to sea in weeks. “The sea… she feels angry,” he says, his voice raspy from sun and salt. “Always, there are […]
Regional Voices: A longing for calm, a fear of wider war. The scent of dates and cardamom hung heavy in the air as old man Hassan adjusted his prayer beads outside the Al-Rahma Mosque in Jeddah. He’d seen tensions rise and fall across decades, but this felt different. “Everyone talks of defence now,” he said, […]
Regional Voices: A fragile peace, built on shifting allegiances. Old Fatima carefully arranges dates on a chipped plate. Her hands, roughened by years of work and worry, move with a practiced grace. We meet in a small tea shop on the outskirts of Qamishli, northeast Syria – a city increasingly caught between the promises of […]
Regional Voices: Lives suspended between sea and shadow. Old Man Tariq casts his net from the Omani shore near the Strait of Hormuz, as he has done for sixty years. But the familiar rhythm is broken. Fewer ships pass, and those that do are shadowed by anxiety. “The sea feels different now,” he says, his […]
Regional Voices: A child’s burden, a mother’s hope The dust still hangs heavy in the air of Jabalia refugee camp. Ten-year-old Rami carefully balances his little sister, Fatima, on his back, navigating the maze of rubble that was once their street. Buildings lie fractured, skeletal against the pale sky. Fatima clutches a worn teddy bear, […]
Regional Voices: A fisherman’s wait for calm seas and open trade. Old Man Hassan carefully mended his nets on the dusty quayside in Bandar Abbas, a port city on the Strait of Hormuz. He’s been fishing these waters for sixty years, watching empires rise and fall, and now, another conflict casting a shadow over his […]
