Voices of the Middle East and North Africa

This week, we speak with Paris-based Iranian historian Nasser Mohajer about the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in Iran in the summer of 1988

Later in the program, award-winning Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki will talk to us about her new film Capernaum, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes film festival this year.

VOMENA Nov 23, 2018 by VOMENA Team at KPFA

The images of starving Yemeni children have become the face of the brutal Saudi-led, US supported war against Yemen

We speak with Hussein Mohsen co-founder of Yemen Relief Project about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and what’s being done to bring some relief to the war-stricken country.

Later in the program, Syrian filmmaker Talal Derki speaks about his award-winning film, Of Fathers of Sons, which won the prize this year at the Sun Dance film festival-

On 2 October, Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi regime Insider and self-exiled critic of Mohamad Bin Salman walked into his country's consulate in Istanbul and never came out.

After initial denials and claims that he had left the consulate shortly after arriving, Saudi Arabia admitted that the Mr Khashoggi was dead and it was some rouge elements who committed the murder.

Soon after the disappearance of Mr Khashoggi, media outlets close to Mr Erdogan started leaking out details that Mr Khashoggi had been tortured, dismembered and disposed of by an elite hit squad sent from Saudi Arabia

Turkey's authoritarian leader Recep Tayyib Erdogan - himself one of the biggest jailers of dissidents and journalists - promised to name those involved in this heinous crime, but so far has not released any names. In a recent op ed in the Washington post, Mr. Erdogan wrote, "we know the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government.” He added “I have no reason to believe that his murder reflected Saudi Arabia’s official policy.”

But beyond the superficial rhetoric, what has been the impact of Mr. Khashoggi’s murder on relations between the two countries? Shahram Aghamir put this question to Sinan Birdal, visiting assistant professor of International Relations and Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California

Nine months after a group of environmentalists affiliated with the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation were imprisoned in Iran without any evidence of wrongdoing and denied due process—and after the death of the organization's founder, Kavous Seyed Emami - five members of this Foundation have been charged with national security crimes carrying the death penalty. We speak with Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran about the crackdown on environmentalists in Iran. Also this week, Amman-based activist, fiction writer and poet Hisham Bustani joins us to talk about two of his latest poems just translated and published in English.

VOMENA Oct 26, 2018 by VOMENA Team at KPFA

Ever since a fishmonger was crushed to death in November of 2016 by a garbage compactor in El Hoceima, The northern Rif region of Morocco has been the scene of social unrest and protest against the Moroccan government, a movement that has been spreading to other parts of Morocco over the past two years.This week, we get an update on the protest movement in Morocco with Moroccan anthropologist Miriyam Aouragh.

Bay Area based activist and after school teacher Heather LaMastro speaks with us about her her pen pal project connecting kids in the Bay Area with kids Gaza living in the besieged Gaza strip, and also about her humanitarian visit to the besieged Gaza Strip.

French President Emanuel Macron recently broke a long held taboo by recognizing the culpability of the French government in the kidnapping and murder of anti-colonial activist Maurice Audin in 1957 in Algiers.

We look into the possible motivations behind this bold and historic act by the French president with UC Santa Cruz’ history Professor Muriem Haleh Davis, whose research focuses on the French colonial empire and the post-colonial world in the Middle East and North Africa.

Why would a celebrated Chilean playwright decide to bring attention to a human tragedy all the way back in Syria that has been unfolding for the past 7 years?

Bay area based artist and director of Guillermo Calderón's play Boosa or Kiss, in Arabic, Evren Odcikin tells us about his decision to direct this play and about the role that art and theater can play in addressing pressing cultural and political problems.

But first we'll hear a conversation with Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, about Israel’s deportation order against him and the challenge to this decision - and to the draconian law it is based on - which Human Rights Watch has mounted in Israeli courts. Vomena contributor professor Bassam Haddad spoke with Omar Shakir about Israel’s passage of the Nation State Law, enshrining Jewish supremacy over Palestinians as a constitutional mandate, and how shifting regional dynamics may impact the human rights situation on the ground.`

This week, we bring you the the second part of an indepth conversation about the root causes of the protests in Iraq with Balsam Mustafa, a PhD researcher in Modern Languages & Politics at the University of Birmingham

Also this week, we remember the great palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish who passed away on August 9th 2008, following complications after major heart surgery in Houston, Texas. He was just 67.