Apparently, there’s a whole range of animated sketches about Jordanians (and Arabs in general) up on Youtube. Now, I’m not saying they’re not humorous at all—a lot of people think they’re absolutely h...

Marriage over here (in Jordan)—it’s been bothering me ever since I first started to understand it. This doesn’t happen with everyone, but it’s the way most religious or conservative families go about ...

                Assiya Rafiq of Pakistan was sold at 16 by a female family friend to two criminals who were related to prominent politicians. The men beat and raped her for the next year, un...

A little over a month ago, The Huffington Post put up an Associated Press article entitled “Sarkozy: Burqas Are ‘Not Welcome’ In France.” The gist of the article was that French President Nicolas Sar...

I’m fifteen, and I live all the way in Amman, Jordan. I do get a lot of, “Jordan? Is that, like, behind California?” but that’s not the point. Jordan is a Middle-Eastern country—“Wow. Do you rid...

Being that I am ethnically Turkish, to grasp precisely what the "Western" view of its social attitude toward women is, poses a number of difficulties. In casual conversation, people are far more comfo...

The hot, sunny days of summer always remind me of what it was like to be a kid – scrapes on my knees, no school, that familiar sound of the ice cream truck, sand in between my toes, shorts, tank tops,...