Seen through Zahra Hankir’s eyes, Eyeliner becomes a portal to history, proof both of the stunning variety among cultures and our shared humanity.

Through intimate reporting and conversations—with nomads in Chad, geishas in Japan, dancers in India, drag queens in New York, and more—Eyeliner embraces the rich history and significance of its namesake, especially among communities.

Listen to our conversation with Hankir about Eyeliner and its cultural history. 

About half of the world deals directly with bloody menstruation, and the other half endures it indirectly. Yet, we do not know much about the blood women lose every month for years to come. In this episode, Kate Clancy, a scientist and researcher at the University of Illinois-Champaign, ucovers the truth for us.

Louis Place de Vosges is a garden at the hart of Paris that was built by Henri IV. It is a true square and one of the European programs of Royal City planning. I was there to take a rest in late Afternoon in Paris. Everything was so peaceful and divine. 

Sofia Rehman, Muslim scholar and avid book reader suggested the following books for us to  read this summer.

Read more here.

I saw a man picked a trash from the ground and put it in a trash can at Long Boom Park at Lake City.  I walked by the same piece of trash, never bothered to bend. He was kinder! Thank you. 

I talked with Dr. Sofia Rehman, an independent female scholar of Islam, about her book A Treasury of Aishah: A Guidance from the Beloved of the Beloved. We talked about the slander that Aishah had to endure, her wisdom, her wit, her intellectual capacity, and the Prophet's believe that Muslims should take half their deen, or religion, from Aishah.

I was utterly sad about something. I decided to take my sadness into nature. What happened next was unbelievably extraordinary.

Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi were among the first journalists to cover Mahsa Amini’s death, the 22-year-old woman who was detained by Iran’s morality police for improper hijab, and then died in the hospital. Niloofar Hammadi broke the story by publishing photographs of Amini lying brain-dead in the hospital. Elahe Mohammadi wrote about Amini's funeral. Hamedi and Mohammedi’s reporting and photos subsequently led to their arrest. Six months later, they remain in jail because of their journalism.

Time Magazine named Hamedi and Mohammadi "two of the most Influential People of 2023". They are also awarded by Nieman Foundation's Lyon Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism at Harvard University. One must ask: Does the attention the two are receiving worldwide help or hurt them in prison?

In the new episode on Peacemindedly, Nazila Fathi, author of The Lonely War and former New York Times correspondent based in Tehran for 18 years, Kiran Nazish, journalist and founding Directo of Coalition for Women in Journalism or CFWIJ, and Barbara Slavin, former Director of the Future of Iran Initiative and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, will discuss the danger of being a journalist in Iran with Sara Jamshidi.

I've been obsessed with eco-friendly, minimal, or what we often call these days: green living. My obsession is not new. I've been invested in this topic as long as I can remember. 

Back in the mid-1980s I lived in Tehran when Iran was defending itself against the U.S.-supported Iraq attack. The war went on read more here.