Radio Intifada by SWANA (South and West Asia and North Africa) Region Radio

Regular listeners to SWANA Region Radio are familiar with our claim to give a voice to the voiceless of the SWANA region. Among those most in need of a voice are the countless victims of state and corporate human rights violations who are usually too poor and systematically disempowered to take on such powerful entities as, for example, an oil company or the US Department of Defense. In this...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to dominate the news. Join SWANA collective members Nyma Ardalan and Hamoud Salhi as they highlight what is happening in the region and the events that may have important impact on the future of our region. India, for example, had a state election last week, and Modi won; next door in Pakistan, the Prime Minister is facing pressure to resign. The Parl...

Join SWANA collective with guests Aisha Jumaan and  Jehan Hakim, as they offer us an update on the several man-made crises  that have compounded in Yemen since 2015. In the past seven years, Saudi Arabia has imposed a land, air, and sea blockade on Yemen with the intent to prevent the flow of weapons to Houthi rebels. The result of these blockades, which are supported by the U.S., is the devastati...

Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, speaking to us from colonized East Jerusalem, a city occupied by Israel as part of its ongoing war of expansion against the Palestinian people. We focus  in particular on the case of Ahmad Manasra, a Palestinian child arrested at the age of 13, tortured physically and mentally, and held in solitary confinement. He has been held for six years in violation of eve...

SWANA collective members learn about and from Full Potential, a transnational, anti-colonial project working to empower female agency, created by SWANA women for SWANA women. You can find Full Potential on Instagram and at their website . Our guests today are Sara Azmoudeh (Founder and Director), Janelle Jajou (Executive Director and Contributing Writer), and Gamze Sanli (Art and Activism Director...

SWANA Collective members Nyma Ardalan and Hamoud Salhi focus on Iraq and the discussion continues about voting for a new president. This is proving to be a difficult task as 25 candidates are running for the position. This is occurring while there is still an effort led by the Sadr coalition, which has the majority in the Parliament with 73 seats, to form a government. Last week the Parliament vot...

SWANA collective members cover the military coup in Burma that began a year ago on February 1, 2021. On 1 February 2021, Myanmar’s military seized power over the government in a coup d’état by arresting the nation’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and members of her party, the National League for Democracy. Following the coup, civilians, activists, and journalists have engaged in uprisings and acts of c...

A lot is happening in the Gulf region. On the one hand, we are seeing an escalation in the Yemeni conflict. Following the Houthis’s attacks on the UAE, Saudi led deadly air strikes in Yemen. On the other hand, we are also witnessing several diplomatic moves that may suggest a de-escalation.  Which way is the Gulf and the Yemeni conflict in particular, heading? Join SWANA collective members Ny...

SWANA collective members discuss Iran with insight from Dr. Abbas Vali. Iran’s economy has been hit hard, which translates into the working class or the working poor suffering the consequences. Iran had requested IMF loans that were blocked by US  sanctions. How do Iranians cope with the economic crisis? At the beginning of 2022, we saw the resumption of Iran-Nuclear talks. With the US assassinati...

SWANA collective members discuss the past year in Palestine and prospects for the future with Ahmad Abuznaid , Executive Director of the Washington-based US Campaign for Palestinian Rights . Ahmad Abuznaid is the Executive Director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. After completing law school Ahmad went on to co-found the Florida-based Dream Defenders in response to the killing of Trayvon...

In this live show, SWANA collective members are reviewing 2021 and look ahead for what we can expect in 2022 with a focus on Afghanistan, Yemen, and Northern Africa. In Afghanistan, U.S. President Biden’s decision to withdraw troops was catastrophic. More so,  it came in contrast to his calls for global cooperation. Months ahead of that withdrawal, how has that decision affected Afghanistan and ho...

SWANA collective members focus on a recent development in Sri Lanka. On October 26 of this year, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa released a gazette announcing his appointment of a 13-member “One Country, One Law” task force. The task force is headed by Galagoda Aaththe Gnanasara Thero, the extremist Buddhist monk who is the leader of Bodu Bala Sena, or Buddhist Power Force, a break-away organisation...

As far back as Homer’s Iliad, poets have chronicled the wars of men. Pound, Larkin, Whitman, Rilke, e.e cummings, and more recently poets like Ocean Vuong. In this podcast, the SWANA collective is joined by co-host Christopher Atamian to interview poet Shahé Mankerian. With his 2020 debut poetry collection, History of Forgetfulness, Mankerian has written what one critic hailed as “definitive verse...

In this episode, we discuss the Kurdish administration in N. E Syria. We review U.S. President Biden's administration policy on Kurds alongside the impact of Turkey's  continued shelling and drone attacks on Kurdish civilians. It has also  been weaponizing water supplies in northeast Syria, worsening an already  bad drought that contributes to Syria's humanitarian disaster. We also dis...

Since last year, Lebanon has been under severe economic crisis topped by the collapse of  the nation’s electric power grid, a catastrophic failure of the banking  system and widespread poverty. The country is under a huge economic  meltdown that has impacted the entire Lebanese population. Today SWANA collective member Ankine Antaram and guest Roupen Avsharian consider why Lebanon i...

Join us in conversation with Pakistani-American novelist Sana Balagamwala about her debut novel, House Number 12, Block Number 3 published by Hidden Shelf Publishing .  House Number 12, Block Number 3 follows the story of Nadia as she mourns the loss of her father, Haji Rahmat, and grapples with both the national anxieties of political turmoil in Pakistan and Nadia's personal struggles i...

Join SWANA collective members as they discuss the plight of Palestinian poltiical prisoners on hunger strikes. They are joined by prison activist Charlotte Kates to discuss the larger context of Israel’s regime of incarceration, its draconian repression of Palestinain civil society, and the work of prisoner solidarity. To declare your solidarity with the six Palestinian human rights organizations...

This show is dedicated to the people of Afghanistan, and is hosted by SWANA collective members and featuring our guest, Mariam Hotaki. Mariam Hotaki is Afghan-American, born and raised in Kabul. She moved to the US as a teenager. Her academic background is in international peace and security and social policy. Currently, Mariam works in Big Tech. Mariam can be found on Twitter and Instagram . Regu...

SWANA Collective members focus on the Iraqi elections and what implications it will have on the future of American presence in Iraq. They also review the latest developments in Lebanon following the clashes between the Christian and Hezbollah factions that killed eight people and injured several others.

SWANA collective members devote our weekly half-hour to discussing the situation in Tunisia where—as we mentioned in August—the President Kais Saied dissolved Parliament and took the government into his own hands. Last week, he appointed a new Prime Minister, a fellow academic and a woman, Najla Bouden. We will discuss what the implications of this move are and whether Saied’s autocratic rule is b...

SWANA Collective members focus on two historical events in the Arab world: the first legislative elections in Qatar and the appointment of the first woman to be a prime minister in Tunisia. Then we will shift to another major development in the Western Sahara, where the European Union Court ruled to annul two European Union treaties with Morocco because they did not have the consent of the Western...

We invite you to take a musical journey with us as we speak with Palestinian oudist, Clarissa Bitar about her debut album, “Hassan Sabi” released by Levantine Music Group last month. We will speak with her about her music, listen to some music together, and discuss her creative process. The music you hear throughout our show today will be from the album, Hassan Sabi. This live broadcast will be ac...

On  the anniversary of the 44-day war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabagh, Ankine Antaram, with guest co-host Adrineh Gregorian, are joined by Anna Ohanyan, Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Stonehill College, to assess the war and look at the strategic importance of South Caucasus region where Armenia and  Azerbaijan are located. Dr. Oha...

SWANA  collective members cover two segments: the  new interim government in Afghanistan and the Morocco-Algeria Crisis.  They review how the development of the interim government has been  interpreted. The  Taliban appear to have reneged from their commitment to establish an  all-inclusive government. First, we ask why  an interim government and not a permanent government? Second, the  interim go...

This show, dedicated to hosting at-risk scholars, and especially scholars from Afghanistan at this critical time. We turn to the plight of Afghan refugees, both those who did manage to exit and those who have been internally displaced or are in hiding due to the nature of their work and their opposition to the fundamentalist mores of the Taliban and the restrictions they have already begun to impo...