Middle East

IRAQ: In Iraq, young people trust neither the politicians nor the parties. MODERN TIMES has met the director and producer of the film Baghdad on Fire, which deals with the mobilization of the youth fighting for change in the bad governance of the country's leaders. Karrar Al-Azzawi says the following about the US invasion in 2003: "They brought 'democracy', but we got only chaos and corruption – with politicians who only wanted to steal. The religious leaders were also involved in this."

AVERAGE: What about Gaza and the media? WikiLeaks was early on an important source for revelations about Israel. The dream of driving all non-Jews out of ancient Palestine governed Israel's policy long before there was a Hamas.

50 YEARS AGO: Why has the Middle East been a powder keg for 25 years? What is the background for the irreconcilable attitude between Israel and the Arab states? And what happened to the Palestinian Arabs when the state of Israel was established?

SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGIST: With topics such as forced marriage, child marriage, rape and honor killings, Professor Unni Wikan has studied people all her life, but not least – the Muslim. She has had to avoid that.

THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL: Katharine Gun leaked information about the NSA's request to the British intelligence service GCHQ to spy on members of the UN Security Council in connection with the planned invasion of Iraq.

PRIORITIES: Many who question the legitimacy of the US wars seem to be pressured by research and media institutions. An example here is the Institute for Peace Research (PRIO), which has had researchers who have historically been critical of any war of aggression – who have hardly belonged to the close friends of nuclear weapons.

PORTRAIT FILM: War Reporter Robert Fisk has the courage to monitor and challenge. He is known for reporting from the front lines in violation of the official line of politicians and authorities.

OPTIMISM: By taking positive ideas more seriously, we can give them the same attention that toxic ideologies receive today.

21. 2. 1970 Leather

In The Poetess, we get to follow the only female participant in the most popular talent show in the Middle East, who through her poetry exhibits an extraordinary courage against gender segregation.

Talal Derki's new documentary provides a rare insight into how the sons of al-Nusra warriors in Syria's Idlib province are being raised to become the next generation of jihadists.

American Reese Erlich and Syrian Yassin al-Haj Saleh go in depth and depth in their books on the war in Syria, respectively.

Water has political and security aspects in the Middle East, and future wars in this region will be about just water resources.

How independent and critical can one be? In Part 2 of the double interview with Johan Galtung, we talk about Norway's relationship with the United States, Sweden, Muslims, anarchism and Marxism.

An oppressive summer, a crisis in Qatar and a rationing in Gaza – about two million people are the victims of politics. It goes from bad to worse, and the sound of war can be seen in the distance.

After more and more terrorist attacks in Europe, NATO and the West believe that more use of force is the way to go. This suggests little understanding of how organizations such as IS work.