Ethnic/Religious Minorities

BARBOD KHORSHIDI/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

Grenade attack on IRGC kills 2 in Iran’s Kurdistan province: What to know

The deadly assault comes amid recurring tensions and clashes in Iran’s Kurdish-majority western region.

Former senior commander of the Sudanese Janjaweed militia Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman.

In a first, ICC convicts Sudanese militia leader of Darfur war crimes

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman was found guilty of 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur between 2003 and 2004.

An election poster of Henry Hamra, a Syrian-American parliamentary candidate who is the son of the country's last rabbi and who if elected will be the first Jewish representative in the Syrian parliament since the late 1940s, is displayed on the entrance of the closed Jewish Maimonides School of Damascus, in the Jewish quarter of the old city of Damascus on Oct. 3, 2025, ahead of the upcoming vote on Oct. 5.

Syria's parliamentary elections: First Jewish candidate in 58 years enters race

Syria is holding its first parliamentary elections since the fall of the Assad regime, with a Jewish candidate running for the first time in decades in a vote conducted largely through indirect selection rather than a direct public ballot.

Women and children walk at the Al-Amal Camp (formerly Al-Jadaa), south of Mosul in northern Iraq, which houses Iraqi families who have been repatriated from Syria's Al-Hol camp, on May 8, 2025.

Pentagon pushes to accelerate ISIS detainee repatriations from Syria

Uncertainty about Syria’s long-term stability and the the US military’s future presence in the country have increased urgency among some Pentagon officials to further reduce the population of nearly 30,000 suspected ISIS-associated detainees in the camps.

Latest News

Syria holds first post‑Assad parliamentary vote: What to know

Interim Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa appears in the Citadel of Aleppo in Syria, on May 27, 2025.

New Druze militia forms in Syria as Hijri calls for autonomy

Druze religious leader Hikmat al-Hijri is pictured on Dec. 28, 2024, Suwayda, Syria.

Israel, US rift with France widens as Paris rebukes US envoy: What to know

Macron and Abbas

Nine bodies unearthed in Latakia mass grave, one of dozens found in post-Assad Syria

Workers package human remains recovered from the mass grave in Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 17, 2024.

Protesters lift placards during a demonstration in Tunis on Feb. 25, 2023.

Sub-Saharans in Tunisia fear for their lives following Saied's racist comments

A wave of violent racist attacks on sub-Saharan people living in Tunisia has spread across the country since President Kais Saied declared his belief in a conspiracy to change the demographic of Tunisia.

Rally in Jerusalem, Feb. 25 2023 Credit: Tal Kfir Shor

Handmaid's Tale inspires Israeli women battling religious coercion

Hundreds of women clad in red cloaks and sporting white bonnets have been appearing in the past few weeks in several of the anti-judicial overhaul, pro-democracy demonstrations across the country.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men bake Matzoth (unleavened bread) at a bakery in the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh, on April 11, 2022. Religious Jews eat Matzoth during Pesach holiday (Passover). According to biblical narrative, due to the haste with which the Jews left the land of Egypt, the bread prepared for the journey did not have time to rise. To commemorate their ancestors' plight, religious Jews do not eat leavened food products throughout Passover. MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox seek to prohibit Passover non-Kosher food in hospitals

Back in the coalition and in greater force, ultra-Orthodox parliamentarians exploit their political clout to advance religious legislation.

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 23: Kevin Hart attends the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix's "Me Time" at Regency Village Theatre on August 23, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

Explainer: Egypt cancels Kevin Hart’s show after ‘Black Egyptians’ reference

Hart was criticized on Egyptian social media for comments he allegedly made asserting that ancient Egyptians were black.

Jewish women pray at the women's section of the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on November 17, 2021. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

Can Israel's ultra-Orthodox punish women for 'immodest dress code' at Western Wall?

Though Israel's Shas party has been forced to back away from its proposed dress code for the Western Wall, many Israelis are still outraged by the audacious proposition.

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

In this aerial photo from a drone, a tram passes an empty road in the Karakoy district on the final day of a four-day lockdown across Istanbul, Turkey, April 26, 2020.

Church blaze kills two in Turkey's Istanbul

A blaze at an Istanbul church left two dead and two others injured, heavily damaging the historical building.

Members of the Taliban security forces arrive as Afghan women march during a demonstration they call Stop Hazara genocide a day after a suicide bomb attack at Dasht-e-Barchi learning centre, in Kabul on October 1, 2022. - (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

Afghanistan's Hazara minority increasingly fearful under Taliban

Al-Monitor spoke to members of the long-persecuted Hazara Shiite minority group in Afghanistan as restrictions on women increase and verifiable information becomes scarcer.

Shelly Kittleson

By Shelly Kittleson

In Baghdad, reporting on Iraqi politics

Erdogan xi

Turkey spars with China over Uyghurs, but is it real?

Turkey’s opposition and some Uyghur activists remain doubtful on how committed Ankara is to defending the rights of the Uyghurs despite its recent spat with Beijing.

Caretakers of the Protestant cemetery inspect vandalised graves on Mount Zion outside Jerusalem's Old City on January 4, 2023. - (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Outrage at desecration of historic Protestant Cemetery in Jerusalem

Police investigates the desecration of at least 30 tombstones by two Jewish-looking individuals at the 19th century Protestant Cemetery in Jerusalem.

Kfar Kama

Israeli Circassian village lands among UN's top tourism picks

Israel's Circassian village of Kfar Kama is featured in this year's "Best Tourism Villages," a project of the UN World Tourism Organizaiton.

Magda Shehata Haroun talks during an interview with AFP at the Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue.

Egypt's few remaining Jews celebrate Hanukkah

Hanukkah was celebrated amid tight security in Cairo's Meyr Biton Synagogue. Yet Magda Haroun, head of Egypt's tiny Jewish community, looks forward to the day when all of Egypt's synagogues will be open for prayer and celebrations.

People walk along an alley at a Christmas market in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, Jerusalem, Dec. 15, 2022.

Israel's Jews flock to Arab towns for Christmas

Many Arab towns and villages, not necessarily Christian, are now featuring Christmas markets, targeting also Israeli Jewish tourists.