A New Dawn for Syrian Refugees

The fall of Assad’s regime has left the world wondering about the future of Syrian refugees abroad who plan to return home.

Man and daughter at Syrian refugee camp. Ahmed Akacha. CC0.

The Syrian Refugee Crisis is one of the largest humanitarian crises in history and the largest refugee crisis to date, with over 14 million people both internally and externally displaced. Over six million Syrians fled the country following the civil war that broke out in 2011; the majority of refugees currently live in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and Germany. 

President Bashar al-Assad’s violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in 2011 provoked civil conflict, leading to the creation of oppositional militias and rebel groups that began to fight back by 2012. On Dec. 8, 2024, the civil war came to a head when rebel groups seized the Syrian capital, Damascus, forcing Assad to flee to Russia. Assad’s family had ruled Syria under a strict police regime since the 1960s, leading to widespread celebration across the capital as political prisoners were freed. 

Despite rebel groups declaring the country free from the autocratic regime, considerable uncertainty remains about the future of the government and Syria’s stability. Some states have expressed a concern that toppling the government may make the country vulnerable to ISIS, whereas others have noted the encroachment of Israeli forces into Syrian buffer zones. The European Union issued a statement claiming that the conditions in Syria have not yet met the conditions for the safe return of refugees, as thousands have continued to flee following the rebel takeover. However, in the days following, videos swept across social media and news outlets featuring thousands of refugees returning home from Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.

European countries hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, including Germany and Austria, have jumped at the opportunity to tighten their asylum regulations. In December 2024, both Germany and Austria paused asylum applications, and Austria announced that they would issue a “return bonus” to Syrians who decided to return to Syria. 

Providing incentives or forcing refugees to leave the country could adversely affect host countries, particularly Germany. Approximately two-thirds of employed Syrian refugees in Germany work in critical sectors of the labor force, including healthcare, transportation and food services. Whether forced or voluntary, any kind of mass exodus could negatively affect Germany’s economy by disrupting these industries and causing labor shortages. 

Following an outcry from far-right German politicians to close the country’s borders and begin the expulsion of non-naturalized Syrians, current Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Syrians who are “well-integrated remain welcome in Germany.” However, the Chancellor’s statement may prove unstable, presenting no active policy arrangements if the far-right parties gain control in the upcoming elections and creating further uncertainty for Syrians currently living in Germany. 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees advised that countries housing refugees should not forcibly deport them, as Syria is not yet deemed politically stable, and it is estimated that over one million Syrians will return to Syria of their own accord in the first few months of 2025. 

Despite this monumental step forward, considerable humanitarian and governmental uncertainty remains surrounding the future of Syrians worldwide, a resolution that may take years to completely unfold. 

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Zoe Lodge is a student at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is studying English and Politics, Philosophy, & Law. She combines her passion for writing with her love for travel, interest in combatting climate change, and concern for social justice issues.

Barring Basic Rights: Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Regulation

Modern anti-gay regulations continue to threaten the lives and safety of Ugandan LGBTQ+ individuals. 

Group Marching in Support of Uganda’s LGBTQ+ Community. Alisdare Hickson. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Known for having one of the world’s harshest LGBTQ+ rights records, the Ugandan parliament has pursued longstanding efforts to diminish same-sex activity within the country. As a result of 19th-century British colonization, the severe criminalization of homosexuality set the stage for modern homophobic sentiments. This culminated in the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023, which was later upheld by the Ugandan parliament in April 2024. 

The 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act was signed into law by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in May 2023, enforcing strict restrictions against LGBTQ+ individuals. Implementing harsh penalties, the act demands life imprisonment for consensual same-sex activity and the death penalty in cases of “aggravated homosexuality,” a term that denotes any same-sex act that involves people under 18, older than 75, those with a disability, or when consent is not given or cannot be given. This act is not the first attempt to limit LGBTQ+ rights in Uganda. In 2010, the Ugandan parliament passed a bill introducing similarly anti-gay legislation that was eventually ruled illegal by the constitutional court due to its lack of necessary quorum. In 2021, however, the president succeeded in passing a sexual offenses bill that criminalized same-sex relationships and sex work in Uganda. 

While the Ugandan government has praised such legislation as acting in the country’s best interest, the persistent condemnation of same-sex actions has negatively impacted the lives of LGBTQ+ Ugandans. This has not only promoted anti-gay views but has also threatened lives through the reduction of HIV prevention and perpetuation of societal abuse. In an interview with Amnesty International, Ugandan activist and founder of the gay and intersex rights organization Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG), Jacqueline Kasha described the new law’s impact on her community. She contends that advocacy and visibility for LGBTQ+ individuals have sharply diminished with the aggressive crackdown: “Several LGBTI persons have since gone underground which is now impeding all our efforts, especially in the health sphere in the fight against HIV, mental illness and economic disparities.” The 2023 Act has allowed anti-gay groups to accuse or arrest people with little evidence or reasoning. As such, LGBTQ+ individuals are vulnerable to attack when outside the safety of their homes, forced to hide their identities under the threat of violence. Furthermore, those in need of HIV services have become disproportionately vulnerable to health risks, driven away from receiving care due to fear of criminal punishment or discrimination. 

The first case of “aggravated homosexuality” has already come into effect: 21-year-old Michael Opolot was arrested in August 2023 after allegedly participating in public sexual activity with another man reported to have a disability. While the new act permits this arrest, there has not been any evidence submitted by police to substantiate claims that the alleged victim is disabled and therefore could not give consent. Opolot’s case has provoked Ugandan activists to challenge the law's constitutionality, citing the act’s contradiction of citizens’ freedom from discrimination and rights to privacy and health. Moreover, they have noted that Opolot’s case demonstrates the senseless oppression of LGBTQ+ individuals. Ugandan activist Clare Byarugaba affirmed that this mistreatment not only violates human rights but also suppresses advocacy, as “activists, public health workers, and others face long prison sentences and hefty fines” for attempting to voice support.  

As a result of such political, social and health persecution, the LGBTQ+ population in Uganda has been left unprotected and endangered by intimidating threats. Although Uganda’s government views the recent passing of anti-homosexual legislation as a “step forward” for the country, many in the LGBTQ+ community have experienced the opposite result in their daily lives. Several international organizations and governments have commented on the bill, with United States President Joe Biden describing the act as a “tragic violation of universal human rights,” and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) explaining that “criminalizing populations most at risk of HIV, such as the LGBTQ+ communities, obstructs access to life-saving health and HIV services.” Despite such international criticism, anti-homosexuality continues to loom largely over Uganda and LGBTQ+ existence within the country.

TO GET INVOLVED

Those looking to support LGBTQ+ communities in Uganda can do so by getting involved with organizations dedicated to supporting individuals inside the country as well as those who have fled. Such organizations include: Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, Universal Coalition of Affirming Africans Uganda (UCAA - UG), a human rights organization advocating for human rights and marginalized people, and Global Black Gay Men Connect (GBGMC), a group collaborating with Uganda Key Populations Consortium (UKPC) and SMUG to launch an emergency response fund to support LGBTQ+ Ugandans.

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Julia is a recent graduate from UC San Diego majoring in Sociocultural Anthropology with a minor in Art History. She is passionate about cultural studies and social justice, and one day hopes to obtain a postgraduate degree expanding on these subjects. In her free time, she enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with her friends and family.

Racketeering in the Rainforest: How Gangs and Illegal Gold Are Taking Over the Amazon

Gangs in the Amazon Rainforest are increasingly finding that money does grow on trees and the local flora, fauna and Indigenous groups are paying the price.   

An aerial shot of the deforestation caused by illegal mining in the Amazon Rainforest. Planet Labs, Inc. CC BY 4.0. 

Covering 6.7 million square kilometers of South America, the Amazon Rainforest has long been heralded as one of the world’s most beautiful natural wonders. But recently, as gang activity, illegal gold mining and deforestation continue to rise, this natural beauty is under threat. 

Although concentrated mostly in Brazil, the Amazon spans nine different countries, including Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador. The world’s largest rainforest, the region contains 10% of Earth’s known species, making it a hotspot for wildlife and biodiversity. Scientific American notes that the Amazon is also a beneficial carbon sink; absorbing a significant amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the rainforest helps mitigate the effects of climate change. Further, the Amazon is home to nearly 2.7 million Indigenous Amazonians, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Among almost 400 Indigenous ethnic groups, the WWF reports that 60 live in voluntary isolation in order to protect their land and ways of life from outside influences. 

Tukanos, an Indigenous Amazonian group. James Martins. CC BY 3.0.  

However, as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) states, since “the 1960s, when government incentives to clear land for production coincided with more effective tools such as chainsaws and bulldozers,” the Amazon has undergone alarming rates of deforestation. Especially under former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, the emphasis on profits at the expense of environmental and/or Indigenous protections grew abundantly clear as new mining and cattle ranching initiatives took hold. “Deforestation hit a 15-year high during his [2019-2022] term,” the Associated Press reported. As President Bolsonaro “weakened environmental agencies” and “prioritized agribusiness expansion,” he left the rainforest vulnerable to outside exploitation.

In their September 2024 report “Gold, Gangs, and Governance,” Amazon Watch “highlights the increasing influence of organized crime” in the Amazon rainforest. Indeed, the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety affirmed that as of December 2024, “gangs were present in 260 of 772 municipalities in the region, compared with 178 in 2023.” The presence of criminal organizations like Familia do Norte (FDN) and First Capital Command (PCC) has escalated crime and deforestation to the point where homicides have increased by 574% and deforestation by 300%. According to Amazon Watch, both of these rates far exceed the Latin American average. Amazon Watch specifically points to illegal gold mining as a driver of much of this instability. “Due to institutional weakness” and the minerals’ “lack of traceability,” illegal gold is a highly lucrative commodity, bringing in between $800 million and $1 billion in exports for “over 500 shell companies” in 2022. Many gangs feel incentivized to then “reinvest [their] profits from drug trafficking into this activity,” the report found. Although drugs have indeed made the Amazon a violent “smuggling domain,” as The New York Times confirms, illegal mining activities are also responsible for transforming many rainforest cities into zones of conflict by escalating “territorial control disputes” and “strengthening the criminal groups that control mining enclaves.”

Deforestation in the Amazon. Free Malaysia Today. CC BY 4.0. 

These cycles of violence have detrimental impacts that reach far beyond the gangs they involve. Amazon Watch found that from  2015 to 2021, “7,495 hectares of rainforest were lost [...] due to illegal mining.” Per Reuters, this damage puts more than 10,000 species of plants and animals at high risk of extinction. This increased deforestation also threatens the rainforest’s aforementioned status as a carbon sink: “Scientists say parts of the forest now emit more carbon dioxide than they can absorb,” the CFR reports. Rather than mitigating the effects of global warming, then, the Amazon could now exacerbate them. Sarah Brown of Mongabay estimates that deforestation will ultimately generate economic losses “seven times higher than the economic gain” of commodities produced through deforestation. Therefore, Brown argues, “deforestation for commodity growth is less valuable than rainforest preservation.” 

Economics aside, the human costs of illegal mining are even higher, and they’re already rearing their head. Of the 1,519 instances of illegal mining reported between 2019 and 2024, Amazon Watch found that 46.7% occurred on Indigenous lands, disproportionately affecting the health of Indigenous Amazonians through the contamination of “rivers with heavy metals such as copper, iron, lead, and mercury.” Further, as governments try to combat these illegal activities with increased militarization, they have only provoked “increased violence in Indigenous communities” in the process. As their Amazon Watch affirms, between poisoning resources and outright death threats, gangs in the Amazon and the surrounding governments are “eroding [Indigenous] identity and threatening their cultural and physical survival.” Illegal mining in the Amazon has become a deadly enterprise on multiple fronts. 

An environmentalist protest sign that reads “My house is burning” in Spanish. Candy Sotomayor. CC BY 4.0 

To get involved, people can support Amazon Watch and their calls for greater institutional strengthening and increased awareness from the global community. The organization also notes that a societal cutback on beef and dairy consumption would help curb the strain of cattle ranching. Nonprofits including the WWF and the Amazon Emergency Fund also work to support sustainability projects and uplift Indigenous communities. From an administrative standpoint, some steps are being made toward these ends: deforestation in 2024 dropped by nearly 31% compared to 2023, and some international governments like the Biden administration pledged funds to support conservation efforts. But until there are strong, long-lasting initiatives that prioritize environmental and Indigenous protections, activists continue to urge the global community to continue raising awareness and applying public pressure on local governments. As Indigenous activist Allessandra Korap told the Associated Press, that “is our top priority, along with the expulsion of illegal miners.” 

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Bella Liu

Bella is a student at UC Berkeley studying English, Media Studies and Journalism. When she’s not writing or working through the books on her nightstand, you can find her painting her nails red, taking digicam photos with her friends or yelling at the TV to make the Dodgers play better.

Comfort or Cruelty? The Buried Truth of Imperial Japan’s Sexual Slavery

Thousands of women were forced to work in “comfort stations” during World War II and their persistent fight for justice continues today. 

A statue commemorating the Korean victims of comfort stations. Hossam el-Hamalawy. CC BY 2.0.

During World War II, the Japanese Imperial Army kidnapped and coerced tens of thousands of women into sexual slavery, placing them into discreetly named “comfort stations.” Since then, the Japanese government has gone to great lengths to obscure this history, relenting to a few petitions for justice only conditionally. As the 80th anniversary of World War II’s conclusion approaches, some victims feel that further reparations are needed. 

Between 1932 and 1945, some 400 “comfort stations” were set up for Japanese soldiers across Asia. The term “comfort station” was essentially a euphemism for brothel, established by Emperor Hirohito in an effort to prevent rape and sexual diseases and to preserve Japan’s global image. The number of stations expanded after the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, where the world was shocked to hear of the widespread sexual violence from Japan’s army. As such, these stations were presented as a tolerable alternative, with the women employed in them being participating sex workers. In reality, these operations were a lot more heinous.

The “employment” of these women and girls was overwhelmingly coercive and forceful in nature. Many of the victims from Korea struggled financially and were lured to comfort stations under the false pretenses of a better job. Others were threatened with violence and intimidated into the role. In colonies like Taiwan (Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1895 to1945), they were explicitly forced into such labor while other women were forced to work in hospitals and kitchens. Once deployed, these women and girls were treated like military equipment, systematically shipped, administered and assaulted. They endured physical pain, sexual disease, pregnancy and brutal violence if they refused to comply. 

Given the effort to obscure this history, accurate statistical information is hard to find. No official survey or report was ever done to uncover exactly how many women and girls were implicated in the violence. Researchers estimate that the number could include up to 400,000 individuals, with the majority hailing from Korea and China. They also estimate that only around 10% of victims survived till the end of  World War II. 

For decades, the Japanese government denied that such “comfort stations” ever existed, destroying any official documents that remained. It wasn’t until the 1990s that the issue was widely acknowledged. 

In 1991, victims began to come forward with their stories. They filed a class-action lawsuit against the Japanese government, demanding: a formal apology, reparations, official investigations into the crimes, revisions to school history textbooks and the construction of a memorial. The following year, a Japanese historian uncovered documents proving that the Imperial Army had in fact established and operated the alleged comfort stations. As a result, Prime Minister Miyazawa issued a formal apology and investigation in 1993. 

Since then, a myriad of other testimonies, stories and lawsuits have come out. While Japan asserts that their reactions have been sufficient — pointing particularly to their 1993 apology and 2015 reparations agreement for Korean victims — a majority of survivors are not satisfied and have expressed distrust. As part of the 2015 agreement, for example, South Korean women had to promise not to publicly criticize the Japanese government. With Japan’s efforts appearing to hinge on a desire to obscure the past, the women instead seek a sincere apology and further remembrance. 

The issue is still a point of contention, with Japan continuing attempts to conceal the details as families of victims issue further lawsuits. As the tension persists, it raises important questions about how to effectively memorialize the experiences of these victims and ensure that such history is never repeated.

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Isabella Feraca

Isabella is a junior at Carnegie Mellon University studying professional writing and music technology. In her free time, she can be found reading, making music, and playing shows with her band around Pittsburgh.

4B: Why are American Women Swearing Off Men?

American women are participating in the 4B Movement which originated in South Korea, swearing off dating, marriage and sex.

Women in South Korea at a 4B protest. Free Malaysia Today. CC BY 4.0. 

In the wake of Donald Trump winning the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, social media flooded with thousands of posts from women announcing that they were swearing off men as part of the 4B Movement. But what exactly is the 4B Movement, and what does it hope to accomplish? 

Originating in South Korea, the feminist 4B Movement derives its name from its four tenets, which all start with the Korean prefix “bi” (or “no”) and denote a denial of something. Indeed, these four “Bs” are: don’t have children (bichulsan), don’t have sex with men (bisekseu), don’t date men (biyeonae) and don’t marry them either (bihon). The movement began in the mid-to-late 2010s as a protest against rising anti-woman sentiments among the nation’s men — especially following the hate-motivated stabbing of a young woman in Seoul in 2016. By withholding heterosexual attachments and exacerbating the nation’s flagging birth rates, South Korean women hope that the movement will provoke the nation’s leadership and male population into caring more about women’s rights. “I think a lot of women, through not participating in marriage and childbearing or relationships with men see a value in dropping the numbers to show through these statistics that women are not going to participate in [any] national agenda unless you listen to where women are coming from,” as Yale sociologist Meera Choi told The Times.  

In South Korea, 4B is primarily a fringe movement. Its practices are so elusive and decentralized that the best estimate we have for its total number of participants is anywhere between 5,000 and 50,000, a wide range that highlights researchers’ uncertainty. However,  since Nov. 5, 2024, some women in the United States have expressed a desire to introduce the movement mainstream in the West. Immediately following the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, many expressed shock and fear that Donald Trump — a figure with a well-documented history of sexual misconduct — had again achieved the highest office in the country. Particularly, some were distressed by the sheer number of men that had turned out for Trump, believing their votes to represent endorsements of or even apathy toward Trump’s misogynistic behaviors (“Among men, who made up 47% of the electorate,” NBC News reported, “Trump won 55%”). 

Trump supporters at one of his rallies in August 2024. Greg Skidmore. CC BY 2.0. 

For these women, 4B’s appeal of sticking it to the government and an indifferent, if not overtly hostile, male population was immediate. “Young men expect sex, but they also want us to not be able to have access to abortion. They can’t have both,” Michaela Thomas told The Washington Post, referring to Trump’s first-term Supreme Court nominations who helped overturn Roe v. Wade. “Young women don’t want to be intimate with men who don’t fight for women’s rights; it’s showing they don’t respect us.” 

4B’s popularity quickly caught on across social media. “Good luck getting laid, especially in Florida! [...] Me and my girlies are participating in the 4B Movement,” user @brielleybelly123 posted to TikTok. User @rabbitsandtea also posted on the platform: “Doing my part as an American woman by breaking up with my [R]epublican boyfriend last night and officially joining the 4B [M]ovement this morning.” Some liberal men have also expressed support for 4B. “The best way to show the importance of taking away women’s rights is to make sure men are affected as much as possible alongside them,” a  Buzzfeed commenter wrote. As Instagram user @nosybystanders told her female fanbase: “Why exactly are you going to keep be[ing] subservient to a nation that [literally doesn’t] care about you?” 

An anti-Trump women’s march following his election in 2016. Fabrice Florin. CC BY 2.0.

4B finds footing in an America currently experiencing a widening political gender gap. Young women are becoming more liberal as men drift further to the right and deeper into conservatism. In October 2024, a New York Times/Siena College poll found that “young women — those ages 18 to 29 — favored Vice President Kamala Harris for president by 38 points. And men in the same age group favored former President Donald J. Trump by 13 points. That is a whopping 51-point divide along gender lines, larger than in any other generation.” As Claire Cain Miller reported, this is partly because young women have been “politically galvanized” by “tthe triple punch of Hillary Clinton’s loss to Mr. Trump, the #MeToo movement and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.” On the other hand, young men feel increasingly “unvalued” by young women and “see former President Donald J. Trump as a champion of traditional manhood.” In terms of the 4B Movement, participants know firsthand how this male-harbored resentment can manifest in internet trolls’ hate comments.

Under @brielleybelly123’s video, @user813858060727 commented, “Thanks for not reproducing. You’re doing us all a favor.” Elsewhere, beneath a separate post under the 4B Movement hashtag, TikTok user @feronity commented, “Took a fu—kin new president just to stop being wh—res.” In the context of this vitriolic pushback — coupled with increased threats of “Your Body, My Choice” among young right-wing men — it becomes less surprising that women are joining the 4B Movement. 

A protestor carrying an anti-Trump sign at the 2017 Women’s March. CC0.

Some of the online discourses surrounding women’s participation in the 4B movement are likely exaggerations: not every woman who posts about partaking in 4B is likely to completely follow through with its tenets, especially in the long term. For all of the buzz that it’s created in the U.S., 4B has never been among the top 100 trending hashtags on TikTok, signaling that hype for the movement has been largely sensationalized. But so long as Trump continues to campaign on misogynistic rhetoric and policies — and men continue to listen — the underlying sentiments of 4B will remain real, and so will their implications for increasingly fed-up women. 

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Bella Liu

Bella is a student at UC Berkeley studying English, Media Studies and Journalism. When she’s not writing or working through the books on her nightstand, you can find her painting her nails red, taking digicam photos with her friends or yelling at the TV to make the Dodgers play better. Bella is a student at UC Berkeley studying English, Media Studies, and Journalism. When she’s not writing or working through the books on her nightstand, you can find her painting her nails red, taking digicam photos with her friends or yelling at the TV to make the Dodgers play better.

CATALYST PLANET’s Best Books of 2024

2024 was a fantastic year for both fiction and nonfiction, with thousands of new and diverse narratives exploding onto the scene from all sides. We’ve collected our top picks below, featuring stories from all across the globe that highlight the struggles and victories of the many cultures that make up our world.

Fiction

1. Wandering Stars

Revisiting one of the most tragic periods in American history, Tommy Orange’s “Wandering Stars” pulls from both past and future to staunchly indict the United States’ genocide against the Native American people. The novel follows both a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre forced to conform to white culture at the expense of his heritage and a family struggling to recover from a school shooting that nearly claimed their youngest son’s life in 2018. This brilliant sequel to Orange’s  “There There” expands on the previous novel’s grim reminder of the oppression that Native Americans have faced throughout history, showing how much has — and hasn’t — changed in the centuries since.

2. Martyr

Kaveh Akbar’s “Martyr!” provides readers with an enlightening reflection on the endless search for meaning. Protagonist Cyrus Shams, a displaced Iranian immigrant with an alcohol addiction and a talent for poetry, uncovers his family’s history through his obsession with historical martyrs. This search leads Cyrus to an ailing artist at the end of her life and a painting that seems to raise more questions than answers. Akbar’s humorous and profound debut novel is exactly the kind of explosive new voice the genre has been waiting for.

3. Forest of Noise

Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha provides readers with a shocking and brutally honest window into the ongoing siege on Gaza. After the obliteration of his home forced the author to flee with his family, Abu Toha continued to write, crafting poetry confronting the chaos of war. Memories of childhood joy and air raid survival instructions mingle in these incredibly charged poems, revealing the world inside of a battered, war-torn nation.

Forest of Noise: Poems a book by Mosab Abu Toha

4. Ghostroots: Stories

Collecting twelve short stories by Nigerian author ‘Pemi Aguda, “Ghostroots” is a terrifying and gripping horror anthology. In a supernatural Lagos, Nigeria, the living are in a constant battle to escape the vengeful history of the dead. The stories center on mundane everyday events, transforming them into menacing yet gripping narratives that open one’s eyes to Nigerian mythos, history, and culture from a wholly unexpected and refreshingly original angle.

  

5. Aednan: An Epic

After winning the most prestigious literary award in her home country of Sweden, Linnea Axelsson bursts onto the American scene with an epic novel that spans a century. The novel follows a multigenerational history of Sámi culture, traversing across 100 years. The title, “Aednan” ( Northern Sámi for “the land”, “the earth”, and “mother”), brilliantly encapsulates the flexibility and durability of language, and how the Sámi culture has survived in a world eager to brush it aside.

      

6. Playground

An eye-opening visualization of humanity’s destructive expansion, Richard Powers’ “Playground” is the story of four separate lives coming together at the precipice of change. As humanity aims to launch completely self-sustaining cities in the open ocean, only the small island of Makatea in French Polynesia can decide whether the project will move forward. Four individuals will be at the forefront of one of the most promising — and possibly destructive — innovations in the history of human colonization. Brilliantly interweaving environmental fears and the endless advance of technology, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author presents an exploration of humanity’s shared nature that no reader should ignore.

7. Someone Like Us

Protagonist Mamush, a former journalist seeking a new life in Paris, finds himself in a failing marriage. Returning to his home in Washington, DC, Mamush reenters the Ethiopian immigrant community of his childhood, discovering his mother and father at the helm. But just after his arrival, Mamush’s good-natured, charming father is found dead. This begins Mamush’s quest to confront the life and memory not only of his late father but of himself. Dinaw Mengestu’s “Someone Like Us” is a vibrantly commanding glimpse into the lives of Ethiopian Americans and how the nation in which they live has treated them.

9. Rakesfall

Sri Lankan author Vaira Chandrasekera crafts a brilliant science-fiction epic that spans infinite lifetimes, where two endlessly repeating souls seek to right the wrongs enacted on their worlds since the beginning of time. Annelid and Leveret met in the wake of a massive war; their souls are bound together and thrust through centuries, continuously reincarnating as they seek to overcome the tyrants that have taken control of reality behind the curtains. A dark and gritty narrative, “Rakesfall” is a shockingly groundbreaking work that has taken its place as one of the contemporary sci-fi greats.

 10. Praiseworthy

An epic story set in northern Australia, Alexis Wright’s “Praiseworthy” is a scathing criticism of the oppression and pain inflicted on Aboriginal peoples. In a village beset by the climate crisis, the members of a fractured family each seek to find solace at the expense of their own people. A father seeks to solve the Aboriginals’ dependency on donkeys. His wife scours the Internet in search of a way to emigrate her half-Chinese family to their other homeland. One son is fixated on ending his own life, while the other goads him on to pursue his own goal of becoming white. Wright’s novel is an impassioned cry of outrage against a world that has forgotten its people and a grim prediction for the end of all.

11. The Silence of the Choir

This expansive and emotional story from award-winning author Mohamed Mbougar Sarr follows the lives of 72 immigrants deposited in the middle of Sicily. Their arrival throws the small town into chaos, as the men are faced with an unfamiliar culture that is struggling to adapt to in turn. With absolutely no control over their new home, the men are forced to simply stand by while the community is thrown into turmoil. Sarr sweeps up a chaotic cacophony of voices and characters that must each reflect on their cultural conflicts and the underlying humanity that connects them all.

12. You Dreamed of Empires

Reinterpreting Aztec history, “You Dreamed of Empires” by Mexican author Alvaro Enrigue reimagines the fate of Tenochtitlan as a colonial revenge story. The invading Hernan Cortés and his army are welcomed into the Aztec capital by the emperor Moctezuma II, who is hopelessly addicted to hallucinogens and awaiting guidance from silent gods. As the time of conquest nears, Enrigue discards history in favor of a fiery, fantastical counter-attack that brilliantly portrays the anti-colonial resilience of the Aztec population.

13. Smoke Kings

Jahmal Mayfield’s “Smoke Kings” invites readers to imagine the consequences of reparations in a world without justice. After Nate Evers witnesses the murder of his cousin, his devasting grief transforms into a desire for vengeance. Evers and three friends embark on a journey of revenge, kidnapping the descendants of those who once committed hate crimes and forcing them to pay reparations. But when the four friends accidentally kidnap the wrong man, they are beset by a white supremacist organization, a corrupt lawyer, and the reality of a nation that still refuses to acknowledge its own mistakes. Mayfield’s work provides a glimpse into the injustice that perpetually faces Black Americans, while also inviting us to imagine what would happen if justice was taken into the hands of a few.

14. Godwin

A novel about a soccer agent seeking out the next Lionel Messi might be the last place one would expect to be confronted with colonialism and the history of transatlantic trade, but Joseph O’Neill’s “Godwin” masterfully combines modern-day sporting with hundreds of years of injustice. Mark Wolfe, a technical writer living in Pittsburgh, is dragged on a cross-continent adventure with his soccer agent half-brother Geoff in search of a well-hidden prospect by the name of Godwin. O’Neill simultaneously examines the history of colonialism, migration, and the ties of family in this masterpiece of global proportions.

15. Behind You is the Sea

Susan Muaddi Darraj’s debut novel presents the world of Palestinian immigrants through the lens of three families in Baltimore. The wealthy Ammar family employs the Baladis to clean up after their teens, as Marcus Salameh struggles to confront his father in his sister’s defense. Brilliantly encapsulating the struggle and conflict between these generations, Darraj confronts stereotypes and prejudices against Palestinian culture. Pulling together a tapestry of family narratives, Darraj reflects an overall sense of unity despite division. Funny, touching, and inspiring, “Behind You is the Sea” is one of the best debut novels of 2024.

Non-Fiction

1. Patriot: A Memoir

A stoic, outspoken, and shockingly resilient critic of Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny penned a gritty and enlightening memoir. Following his youth and early marriage to the many attempts on his life by a global superpower intent on silencing him, Navalny’s last words are a passionate reminder that the fight for individual freedoms is one of the most righteous causes in history. Recounting his own triumphs and tribulations for the world to see, Navalny calls for the next generation to pick up where he left off and continue in the fight for freedom.

2. The Message

A collection of three interconnected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s brilliant novel examines the lasting effect of centuries of racism and division. Journeying from Senegal to South Carolina and finally to Palestine, Coates narrates his own journey through various stories surrounding the strained relationship between cultures. Penned at a charged period in global life, Coates’s “The Message” forces readers to confront the reality of history and the world’s resistance to the change.

3. Whiskey Tender: A Memoir

A descendant of the Quechan Nation and the Laguna Pueblo tribe, Deborah Jackson Taffa was born in a California reservation and raised among the Navajo in New Mexico. Her memoir chronicles the path by which she discovered her identity, shaking off her parents’ expectations for her to assimilate. She wrestles with ideas of individualism and assimilation, the dichotomy of belonging and resisting oppression, and the United States government’s endless enterprise to destroy Native culture. While lighthearted and humorous, Taffa’s memoirs are nonetheless a sharp analysis of how the US has treated Indigenous peoples and the struggles inflicted upon them .

4. Madness

Chronicling 93 years of missing history, award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton’s “Madness” offers a glimpse into the struggles of Black mental health patients during the Jim Crow era. Maryland’s Hospital for the Negro Insane has been uninvestigated for over a century; Hylton shines a light on the treatment that its patients endured during their time as essentially slaves to the system. Most importantly, Hylton not only brings to light an unjustly obfuscated history but also invites consideration into how society classifies health and who is and isn’t deserving of treatment.

5. Twenty Years: Hope, War, and the Betrayal of an Afghan Generation

Sune Engel Rasmussen, a correspondent with The Wall Street Journal, collects over a decade of reporting to chronicle the fallout of 9/11 from the view of Afghans growing up in the early 2000s. Freedom and safety were tangible concepts when they were born and disappeared before they had the chance to truly experience them. This novel chronicles the titular twenty years following the initial attack against the United States to the failed pullout of American troops that allowed the Taliban to retake Afghanistan. Rasmussen uses two narrators to tell the story in full: Zahra, who returned to Afghanistan just as the Taliban were regaining control, and Omari, who joins up with the Taliban and is confronted with the trauma of war. Through these characters and others like them, Rasmussen gives us a deep insight into a country betrayed, first by the United States and then by the Taliban.

6. The Sullivanians

In the 1950s, the Sullivan Institute for Research in Psychoanalysis opened in New York City. Seeking to destabilize the nuclear family and promote freedom from societal norms, the institute quickly became a hub of polyamory and creativity among patients. By the 1970s, however, it had devolved into a quasi-cult, with therapists exacting complete control over patients. The Sullivan Institute has long been notoriously secretive, but Alexander Stille’s novel has shone a light on its inner workings. Utilizing interviews and long-forgotten personal papers, “The Sullivanians” provides readers with the untold story of a perfect world’s complete collapse.

6. Private Revolutions

This enlightening glimpse behind China’s propaganda curtain reveals the impacts of the country’s industrial revolution. Massive advancement in the 1980s and ‘90s brought about a market vaguely similar to capitalism, generating tremendous gains for China’s economy. But the rapidly ascending market belied a world of mistreatment, authoritarianism, and financial injustice. Following the lives of four young women, author Yuan Yang compiles seven years’ worth of reporting to display the secret humanitarian cost behind China’s economic growth.

7. The Rebels’ Clinic

Frantz Fanon is one of the most renowned postcolonial activists, providing the framework for radical movements around the world. Adam Shatz’s biography examines Fanon’s shockingly novel-esque life, from his time in the French army during World War II to his work as a strategist and spokesman for the Algerian independence movement. An existentialist who practiced what he termed “dis-alienation,” Shatz’s ensuing works have gone on to influence Black radicalism worldwide. This biography contextualizes Fanon’s writings, informing today’s movement against white supremacy.

8. Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here

A massive, moving epic from New Yorker writer Jonathan Blitzer, “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here” details the intense and ongoing humanitarian crisis at the United States border with Mexico. Combining stories of Central Americans driven from their homes by violence and those of the government officials directly involved in a hopelessly fraught immigration policy, Blitzer crafts a narrative of resilience in the face of oppression and ostracization. Driven from their homes in the search for freedom and safety, many have been met instead with turbulent and needlessly complex politics, as their stories are inextricably tied up in the future of the nation in which they seek asylum.

9. The Achilles Trap

Best-selling author and historian Steve Coll presents a comprehensive and heavily researched history of one of the most costly and least justified geopolitical conflicts in history. The 2003 invasion of Iraq was initially explained as a means to prevent Saddam Hussein from using weapons of mass destruction and from obtaining nuclear weaponry. After it was discovered that Iraq in fact had no such weapons, the operation was uncovered as an intelligence failure on a global scale. “The Achilles Trap” unravels the impossibly intricate web of power, personality, and persecution that surrounds the invasion and its consequences, striving to answer the one question that has lingered for decades: why did Hussein allow the world to believe he possessed nuclear weapons capability when none existed?

10. Our Kindred Creatures

Just after the Civil War, the United States experienced a massive shift in how it perceived animals. In “Our Kindred Creatures,” New York Times editorial director Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy chronicle the rich history of the movement for animal rights. From circuses to meat processing plants, Wasik and Murphy investigate and examine the various stages on which this conflict took place. This moral war that began back in 1866 endures to this day, and never has there been a more comprehensive and enlightening history of the movement and the battles that it spawned for over a century.

11. The Survivors of the Clotilda

The Clotilda was the last slave ship that ever made landfall in the United States, long after the importation of slaves became illegal. Through intensive research by author and historian Dr. Hannah Durkin, readers are presented with the history of the last enslaved people in the United States. The novel documents Black American life during one of the most tumultuous periods in United States history, highlighting the small instances of hope in the face of overwhelming oppression. Dr. Durkin forces readers to look into a historical mirror, acknowledging and confronting the series of injustices that make up American history.

12. Soldiers and Kings

Jason De Leon provides readers with a never-before-seen glimpse into the current world of human smuggling in Latin America. Over seven years, De Leon embedded himself within a community of smugglers in Mexico, shuttling migrants across the country and connecting with the very human individuals at the heart of the market. “Soldiers and Kings” eschews the stereotypical image of smugglers as warlords and bounty hunters in favor of showing the lives of people simply trying to get by, highlighting their humanity. De Leon has created not only the first true examination of the human smuggling trade but also a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.

13. Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses

A gripping, tense recounting of the events of August 6th, 1945 (the day on which the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima), “Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses” collects the testimonies of the last living witnesses and survivors, known in Japan as hibakusha. Author M. G. Sheftall spent years interviewing hibakusha and collecting their stories to present this minute-by-minute retelling of the dawn of the nuclear age. With stories as personal as they are scarring, “Hiroshima: The Last Witnesses” is an intensely human version of an insurmountable tragedy.

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Ryan Livingston

Ryan is a senior at The College of New Jersey, majoring in English and minoring in marketing. Since a young age, Ryan has been passionate about human rights and environmental action and uses his writing to educate wherever he can. He hopes to pursue a career in professional writing and spread his message even further.

Sacred Duty: Religious Groups Fighting Fossil Fuels

As the climate crisis continues to worsen, religious climate justice organizations are taking a stand against environmental degradation.

GreenFaith protesting outside of BlackRock in 2022. Felton Davis. CC 2.0.

Over the past few years, the environmental crisis has begun to spiral out of control. As droughts and wildfires compete for attention with raging hurricanes across the United States, sometimes it can feel like the world is ending. But in the face of these natural disasters, people have started to come together, calling for an end to policies aggravating the climate crisis.

Religious teachings surrounding the sanctity and sacredness of Earth have long been folded into protests against the warming climate. Since the 1970s, religious organizations in the United States (primarily Christian and Jewish, although a few Islamic groups have also begun to speak out) have decried humanity’s destruction of the planet. Some, like the National Association of Evangelicals, have gone so far as to denounce those engaging in climate change-fueling activities as sinners.

It is important to note that many religious institutions remain largely disconnected from the climate crisis, with several organizations and churches denouncing it as a hoax. The groups mentioned in this article, and those like them, are largely outliers. Climate change continues to be a divisive topic at best in larger religious dialogues, as many consider the crisis a part of God’s plan or even an outright lie. However, religious climate change advocacy has grown in recent years, with small groups cropping up all over the United States.

Over the past few decades, these groups have grown more and more vocal. From organizing movements to protect the Endangered Species Act to founding an interfaith collective for climate justice, religious leaders and organizations across the United States have continued to take environmental action over the past four decades. Recently, in the summer of 2024, Christian and Jewish protesters in New York City made some of the greatest progress so far.

GreenFaith, an interfaith climate justice organization based in New Jersey, spent much of the summer of 2024 on Wall Street protesting against Citigroup. One of the largest banks in the United States, Citigroup released a statement in 2021 pledging to reach net zero emissions in 2050. However, independent researchers have pointed out that in the years since this pledge, the corporation has instead become the second-biggest investor in fossil fuels.

In response, several organizations joined together in the Summer of Heat demonstrations. Forty major protests were held outside Citigroup’s headquarters, led by a collection of religious leaders from  GreenFaith, Dayenu (a Jewish organization comprised of longtime activists), and several other groups. The protests were held according to religious practices — songs replaced chanting, many of the protestors brought candles and demonstrators gathered in the early morning to block the doors of the banks. In an inspiring moment, a group of protestors arrived with signs displaying various religious symbols, representing the star of David, crosses and Islamic peace symbols.

These protests ultimately caught the attention of Citigroup’s administration, culminating in a sit-down between Citigroup’s chief sustainability officer and four leaders of the involved religious groups. According to reports, Citigroup rejected the protester’s proposals outright, refusing to answer whether or not they would change their commitment to funding fossil fuel companies.

However, this rejection does not diminish the Summer of Heat’s influence. These organizations gathered together and staged one of the longest climate protests in recent history. In addition, the actions of GreenFaith, Dayenu and the other involved groups gave a tremendously loud voice to their concerns, capturing the attention of many major news networks and eventually working their way into Citigroup itself. While their efforts may not have produced the results the groups hoped for, the Summer of Heat has nonetheless called an immense amount of attention to the climate crisis and the multicultural, interfaith movements working to protect the planet.

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Ryan Livingston

Ryan is a senior at The College of New Jersey, majoring in English and minoring in marketing. Since a young age, Ryan has been passionate about human rights and environmental action and uses his writing to educate wherever he can. He hopes to pursue a career in professional writing and spread his message even further.

Israel and Palestine: Divergent Histories of Travel and War

One year after the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel and Palestine’s respective travel landscapes reveal just how differently the two countries are experiencing the ongoing war.

A street vendor in Jerusalem. Ronen Marcus. CC BY 4.0

Boasting ancient holy sites like the Western Wall and natural attractions like the Dead Sea, Israel brands itself as a popular travel destination for both the spiritual and the secular tourist. In 2023, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism reported over 32 million travelers. Palestine, meanwhile, saw 2.5 million visitors between January and early October 2023, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. While disparate, these numbers reflect a larger pattern in the long history of travel to the region.

Before the Zionist movement (an effort to create a Jewish state through colonization) emerged in the late 19th century, trips to historic Palestine, “the Holy Land,” were almost exclusively religious in nature. After several failed attempts to create a Jewish state, Zionists set their sights on historic Palestine due to the area’s alignment with the biblical land of Israel. To bolster their efforts, Zionists turned to tourism, recognizing that travel to Palestine could help boost immigration and help establish a Jewish presence in the majority-Arab region. Further, Zionists gathered that if they kept promoting tourism, they could perhaps convince secular visitors that this Jewish presence was inherently more valuable and historic, thereby granting it a perception of legitimacy and therefore protection. Desiring to entrench themselves in Palestine, Zionists spent the early 20th century advertising access to biblical Jewish sites, propaganda that continues to prove effective even after Israel’s establishment in 1948.

Posters promoting travel to historic Palestine. (L) 1936. (R) 1940s. CC BY 4.0

Israel enjoys a lucrative tourism industry, seeing more than 32 million travelers and $5 billion in revenue in 2023 alone, according to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. However, following the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, these numbers plummeted. Flights to Israel were canceled as international airlines and government officials raised safety and security concerns. Traveler rates dropped accordingly. “When the war began, everything stopped,” Israeli tour guide Moshe Benishu said, as reported by The Jerusalem Post. “Not a single tourist arrived in Israel.” Reuters reported 99,000 traveler entries to Israel for the rest of October 2023 and just 39,000 that November. To put this slump into context, the number of monthly entrants into Israel before Oct. 7, 2023, averaged above 300,000. 

In recent months, Israel has seen its traveler rates partially recover, tallying 68,100 tourist entrants in February 2024 and 79,500 in March. “Since the beginning of 2024, 400,000 tourists entered the country,” Keren Setton reported for The Media Line in May 2024. During the same January-May period in 2023, Israel saw two million entrants. But still, the monthly rates of 2024 so far mark an increase compared to the last quarter of 2023. “We Israelis are good at reinventing ourselves,” Benishu said. Slowly but surely, things are returning to form in Israel. The same cannot be said for Palestine. 

Since the onset of the war, Palestine’s territories, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, (both occupied by Israel since 1967) have been devastated with next-to-no reprieve. As of Sep. 29, 2024, Palestinian health authorities have attributed more than 41,500 Palestinian deaths to Israel’s air and ground campaign in Gaza alone, though violence in the West Bank has spiked as well. 

Casualties in Gaza. Saleh Najm and Anas Sharif. CC BY 4.0

Infrastructure, too, has been decimated in Palestine. With hospitals, water/electric systems, houses and schools reduced to rubble, entire Palestinian communities have been destroyed and families killed in scores. As David Leonhardt summarized for The New York Times, “Israel has dropped 2,000-pound bombs on densely populated neighborhoods” with little consideration for less fatal alternatives. 

Destruction in Gaza. Saleh Najm and Anas Sharif. CC BY 4.0

As mentioned previously, the West Bank enjoyed a burgeoning tourism industry before Oct. 7. Despite Israel’s control over the flow of travelers, the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities still reported 2.5 million visitors to the occupied enclave between January and early October 2023. Since then, however, the West Bank has not been able to recoup even 1% of this number, with the region’s tourism sector currently experiencing losses of around $2.5 million every day. In Bethlehem especially, where “tourist dollars” are “the cornerstone” of the economy, according to Haaretz, the financial hit has severely strained people’s livelihoods. “Life has been hell,” said Palestinian merchant Mahmoud Falah Sleiman. “The situation was bad even before the war started, but it was better than now. We were able to pay for electricity, food, water.”

In the Gaza Strip, tourism has been virtually nonexistent since 2007 — a consequence of Israel’s land, air and sea blockade imposed after Hamas took root there. Before Israel’s occupation of the region in 1967, Gaza was a hotspot for traveling Egyptians and Lebanese merchants. But after 1967, and especially since the 2007 blockade cut off food, water and humanitarian aid from Gaza’s two million citizens, (conditions some have likened to “collective punishment” and an “open air prison”) there’s been next-to-no tourism. Given the mass destruction of life and infrastructure in Gaza since Oct. 7, there won’t be anytime soon.

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Bella Liu

Bella is a student at UC Berkeley studying English, Media Studies and Journalism. When she’s not writing or working through the books on her nightstand, you can find her painting her nails red, taking digicam photos with her friends or yelling at the TV to make the Dodgers play better.

Dry Spell: Drought Endangers Lives Across South America

With rainfall still scarce, Colombia has begun taking drastic measures to conserve what little water they have left.

The parched earth characteristic of a drought. Pmau. CC BY-SA 4.0

2024 has been one of the driest years in Colombia’s history. The summer months are usually the rainiest in the country, but this year has seen an alarming lack of precipitation and a drastic reduction in rivers and reservoirs. As the country slowly dries up, officials have started implementing policies to ration water, which will only become more severe as the drought continues.

In the last three months, the Chuza Reservoir (one of the largest in Bogota, Colombia) has lost a huge portion of its water supply. During the 2023 dry season, the reservoir was reduced to 58% capacity; as of mid-September 2024, it dropped to just 36%. This led to the second implementation of water rationing this year (the first was enacted in April 2024) but as rainfall remains scarce, these regulations have grown even more stringent. Currently, citizens are prohibited from washing their cars, irrigating gardens, and using fountains or other water decorations. However, as water supplies continue to dwindle, the city has also enacted a system by which residents will have to spend 24 hours without water once every nine days.

Colombian officials have stated that the nation’s only real hope is the return of regular rainfall. Reservoirs cannot fully recover without precipitation, and without reliable water stores, cities will be forced to reduce their water consumption even further. The severity of this drought has also inspired fears of reaching “Day Zero,” the point at which a city’s water supply falls below the necessary amount to support daily life. As of Oct. 10, 2024, Bogota’s Chuza Reservoir is just 7% above this cutoff point.

Columbia is not the only South American country experiencing drought. The majority of the continent is drying up, generating a variety of other crises, including a drastic increase in wildfires. Additionally, the Amazon River is experiencing an alarming dry spell, jeopardizing the lives of the communities that depend on it for food and water. Endangered species such as river dolphins are also threatened by the mass evaporation, which has reduced the river to about 10% of its previous size.

Although officials have stated that there is little that can be done for Bogota (and Colombia at large), several nonprofits around the world have taken action to provide aid for affected civilians. These include WaterAid, a company that focuses on providing clean water for underprivileged communities. During this drought, their efforts are more needed than ever. Interested parties can donate to their various projects here. Another such organization is Water Fund Bogota, which focuses specifically on restoring and maintaining natural sources of clean water like rivers and lakes.

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Ryan Livingston

Ryan is a senior at The College of New Jersey, majoring in English and minoring in marketing. Since a young age, Ryan has been passionate about human rights and environmental action and uses his writing to educate wherever he can. He hopes to pursue a career in professional writing and spread his message even further.

The Direction of Iran’s Woman, Life, Freedom Movement

With tensions high domestically and internationally, women both inside and outside of Iran are cynical that things will change. 

A mural in support of the Jin, Jiyan, Azadi (Woman, Life, Freedom) movement. Herzi Pinki. CC BY 4.0

For many in Iran, history can be broken up into two epochs: before 1979 and after. Women, in particular, find significance in this demarcation because Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution brought the expansion — and then constriction — of their rights. These tensions surrounding women’s role in Iranian society came to a head in 2022, when the widespread Woman, Life, Freedom movement put them on global display. But the Woman, Life, Freedom movement didn’t spawn out of nowhere, and it’s important to look at its past when considering its future.

Women at the 1979 International Women’s Day protests in Tehran. Mohammad Sayad. CC0

Prior to the Iranian Revolution, women saw their rights and opportunities gradually expand as part of the country’s modernization efforts. The state wanted to Westernize itself, and this manifested in women being mandated (sometimes violently) to not veil themselves, per a 1936 decree. But the revolution saw the nation shirk its Western influences  — thanks in large part to women. While some mobilized public demonstrations, others acted as nurses and first responders. Few fought in guerilla conflicts, but many wore hijabs to protest the monarchy's 1936 ban on veils, linking modest dress with the revolution’s vision of a new Iran. 

However, after the revolution succeeded and the pro-Western monarchy was overthrown for an Islamist theocracy, women’s roles became more limited. In an interview I conducted with  Iranian Circle of Women’s Intercultural Network steering committee member Ruja Kia, she affirmed, “Adding the religious components of private life to the law of the land never makes things easier for women.”  

The revolution placed nearly all Iranian state power in the role of “the supreme leader,” where it still remains today. As both a religious and  political authority, the first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, sought to curb women’s post-revolution rights and professional opportunities in favor of a return to traditional domesticity. Further, after revolutionaries associated modesty with the new Islamic Republic, Khomeini mandated women to cover themselves with hijabs. What had once been a symbol of dissent and autonomy became a violently imposed law. 

The 1979 hijab mandate notably came under international scrutiny in 2022, following the death of Mahsa Amini. Iran’s Guidance Patrol, or morality police, arrested Amini for an “improper hijab.” She died in their custody three days later —  officially of a heart attack but allegedly of police brutality (In our interview, Ruja Kia also noted that Amini was Kurdish, an Iranian ethnic minority that often faces discrimination). 

A man protests in support of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement following Amini’s death. Ilias Bartolini. CC BY 2.0

Amini’s death sparked mass protests — not only in Iran but also around the world. Internationally, the rallying cry was “woman, life, freedom,” a translation of the Kurdish feminist slogan “Jin, Jiyan, Azadi.” For its criticisms against the compulsory hijab, the morality police and the Islamic Republic in general, the Woman, Life, Freedom movement has been intensely repressed by Iran’s current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian security forces have killed more than 500 demonstrators and arrested thousands across the country.

“I say explicitly that these [Woman, Life, Freedom] riots and this insecurity were a design by the US and the occupying, fake Zionist regime [Israel],” Khamenei said in 2022, as reported by Al Jazeera. On a broader scale, Khamenei believes that the hijab is a religious and therefore, moral obligation. He further contended that gender equality is a Western plot designed to weaken Iran: “[The West] feel[s] that [Iran] is progressing towards full-scale power and they can’t tolerate this.” Because of and in spite of Khamenei’s deadly response, the Women, Life, Freedom movement gained international prominence, making the future of women’s rights in Iran an unavoidable and salient issue in the recent election. 

Two women attend a Woman, Life, Freedom protest wearing past versions of the Iranian flag. Taymaz Valley. CC BY 2.0

Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s newest president, campaigned on a reformist platform, asserting a desire to steer the nation toward greater peace. Now, after taking office in July, he has a chance to do so. For many nations that have tensions with Iran, having the moderate Pezeskian in office is cause for cautious optimism. Inside Iran’s borders, however, women are still reeling from the pushback Woman, Life, Freedom received two years ago and are thus more cynical about the promise of Pezeshkian’s election. “Although we might see more moderate approaches in bigger metropolitan areas, women across the rest of Iran will stay controlled by family customs and norms,” said Ruja Kia. 

As the only reformist in a field of six candidates, Pezeshkian’s positions on women’s rights stood out as the most progressive. Frequently invoking his daughter, a chemist, and the memory of his late wife, a gynecologist, he spoke of increasing women’s presence in the professional sector: “A woman is not a servant at home,” Pezeshkian wrote on X. 

Regarding the mandatory hijab, Pezeshkian has expressed support for relaxing the mandate:  “The behavior of Iranian girls will not change. Just as the previous [1936 laws] could not forcibly remove the hijab from the heads of our women, you cannot force them to wear the hijab by passing a law,” he wrote in another X post. But some, like Kimia Adibi, the President of UC Berkeley’s Iranian Students’ Cultural Organization, believe that  Pezeshkian’s words are empty promises. “[Pezeshkian’s] not actually pushing for women’s freedom and change because if he were, he never would’ve been allowed to run,” Adibi said to me. “Anyone who’s an actual radical reformist and believes in women’s freedom and not forcing the mandatory hijab… like, they’re not even going to make it to the candidacy level.”

A woman at a Woman, Life, Freedom protest. Matt Hrkac. CC BY 2.0

Pezeshkian’s parliamentary record shows that he’s supported restrictions on women’s rights in the past, and alongside the posts he made calling for women’s rights, he also posted to X, “All of us move towards dignity and power according [...] to the general policies of the supreme leader.” 

For Iranian feminists, the zeitgeist has not shifted. While it’s not impossible, they say, for Pezeshkian to achieve some reform — “little shifts,” as Adibi put it — so long as religion and politics remain married to an ultimate authority who violently rejects gender equality, women’s rights in Iran will not improve much under the new president. 

A Woman, Life, Freedom protest sign in Kurdish, English and Persian. Pirehelokan. CC BY 4.0 

“I’ll speak for myself,” Adibi said, “but I think most Iranians are not super optimistic about the direction of women’s rights under this president. And they won’t be under the next president, or the next president, under however many presidents until the supreme leader is removed from power.” 

When speaking with an admin from the Instagram account @irans.feminist.liberation, I found this feeling re-affirmed. “The future for women and minorities in Iran remains bleak,” she said, “unless there is significant internal pressure for change.

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Bella Liu

Bella is a student at UC Berkeley studying English, Media Studies and Journalism. When she’s not writing or working through the books on her nightstand, you can find her painting her nails red, taking digicam photos with her friends or yelling at the TV to make the Dodgers play better.

The Truth about Geisha Tourism in Japan

Japan’s geisha have survived war and the turn of the century — unruly travelers may be the dying art’s final blow.

A geisha-in-training looks out at Gion, Kyoto. Satoshi-K. CC BY 2.0 

With her milky-white oshiroi, silky kimono and glossy bouffant, the geisha’s dramatic flair has left a lasting impression within the cultural imagination of Japan. Geisha, Japanese female entertainers, are regarded as icons of their country’s rich artistic heritage — it’s often said they exist in a sphere separate from the rest of us, in the dreamy, gossamer “flower and willow world.” However, from serving as factory workers during World War II to being popular (and controversial) visitor attractions today, there’s more than meets the eye to these revered performers, and they’ve come a long way from their medieval origins. 

“Japanese women in reading and writing” by Katsukawa Shunshō. The New York Public Library. CC0 

In Japanese, the word “geisha” literally translates to “art person.” Indeed, traces of the geisha tradition can be traced back as early as Japan’s Heian period in 794, when the country began to place a larger emphasis on poetry and beauty. This newfound appreciation for the fine arts set the aesthetic stage for the geisha’s forerunner, the courtesan, to come onto the scene. Courtesans were female performers well-versed in song, dance, conversation — and sex. Sex work proliferated throughout Japan as men illicitly sought connections outside of their wives, who were still held to Confucian ideals of virtue and modesty. In the 1600s, however, the ruling samurai outlawed prostitution to “clean up” Japanese society, confining sex work to “yūkaku,” or “pleasure houses.” But boxing courtesans out of mainstream society did not kill the industry — rather, consolidating these trained performers gave rise to a new, distinct culture of art and ceremony. 

Yūkaku evolved into spaces of entertainment, with women increasingly making their trade in song, dance and music rather than sex. A former prostitute first called herself a “geisha” around 1750, and many women followed suit. It is important to note that although many (both consensually and nonconsensually partook in sexual exchanges, geisha were not sex workers then and are not today. Geisha instead focused on being entertaining hostesses and conversationalists for their upper-echelon clientele and adept in traditional arts like the tea ceremony, calligraphy and flower arranging. 

The increasing popularity of geisha persisted well into the 19th century as the profession organized into a highly structured working class involving exclusive apprenticeships and patronages. Training started at a young age, as early as six years old (some children were sold by their parents to geisha houses or “okiya”). Girls spent years as “maiko,” or geisha-in-training, rigorously learning the traditional arts before making their debut. Old-fashioned courtesans declined in popularity as wealthy men increasingly found company in geisha, whose public perception became glamorized as a result. Until World War II.

Like nearly every aspect of Japanese life, the geisha industry was irreversibly changed by WWII. After leaving to aid in the war effort, many “maiko” did not return to their “okiya” after the war, instead choosing to remain in their industrial jobs. With the onset of WWII, becoming a geisha was no longer a girl’s only way out of poverty. Geisha dispersed, and the few that remained grew increasingly protective over their traditions. Some aspects of the trade changed — the training age was raised from six to 16, for example. But this general reclusion from Westernization and modernity contributed to geishas’ decline in the mid-20th century as men shifted their preference to other female entertainers like models and bar girls. But geisha remain popular among travelers, even receiving a popularity boost among Western audiences from Arthur Golding’s (in)famous 1998 novel “Memoirs of a Geisha.” 

Two geisha with a businessman. Herb Gouldon. CC0

There are still dozens of geisha districts, or “hanamachi,” across Japan that travelers can visit to experience traditional geisha entertainment and hospitality. In Tokyo, travelers can sample sake and listen to a “samisen” performance, while in Niigata, they can watch “geigi” dancing. But recently, geisha have called out visitors for overstepping boundaries, citing predatory behavior ranging from unsolicited photography to sexual harassment. As a result, Japan’s geisha mecca, Gion, banned non-residents from parts of the region this past March. 

“There will be a fine of 10,000 yen [$67 USD]” for nonresidents caught wandering Gion’s streets, Kyoto district official Isokazu Ota told the Associated Press. “Kyoto is not a theme park.”

As COVID precautions have been lifted over recent years, it’s as if people have forgotten how to act now that they can travel again. Several countries have reported instances of traveler misbehavior since easing travel restrictions. Some popular destinations have even implemented tourist bans of their own. However, Japan’s situation is unique as the misbehavior concerning geisha is rooted in a historic misconception laden with sexist undertones. 

Geisha are not sex workers. This widespread misunderstanding largely originates from World War II, as men returned home and spoke of their dalliances with “geisha girls.” Given that geisha were and are prohibited from offering sexual services, these men were likely talking about prostitutes and not actual geisha. But by conflating geisha with sex workers, these men began a lasting hypersexualization of geisha, degrading the women and debasing their culture in one fell swoop. Although some geisha did have sexual relationships with their clientele — both by choice and coercion — the misconception that all geisha did so still persists. These lingering sentiments contribute to the harmful thinking and behavior seen today, with visitors believing that it’s okay to treat geisha like zoo animals because they exist to please others, specifically men. 

In truth, there has been debate in recent years surrounding the sustainability of Japan’s geisha industry regarding its perceived incompatibility with feminist ideals. Some argue that geisha entertainment is contingent on the male gaze and that its business model is thus outdated and problematic. 

“I had clients slip their hands through the side openings of my kimono to fondle my breasts, and when in private rooms they’d open the hems of my kimono so as to touch my crotch. ” ex-geisha Kiritaka Kiyoha wrote on X.  “When I told the house mother about these incidents, she directed her anger at me, saying I was at fault.”

When considering their job description at face value, geisha are not inherently feminist. They wear intricate makeup, they learn art and conversation — all to please men. While there may be a self-empowerment aspect to it, they are ultimately catering to and capitalizing off of male interests. But therein lies the paradox: they are capitalizing. Geisha are some of Japan’s most financially independent women. Yes, perhaps this independence wouldn’t be possible without men there to buy their company, but geisha represent a distinctly female tradition of economic self-sufficiency, a feminist ideal some Western countries are still aspiring toward.

Of course, as Kiyoha reminds us, geisha being a time-tested practice doesn’t justify the predatory behavior that props it up: “I would like you to consider if [abuse and harassment] is truly what one would call traditional culture,” she continued on X. 

Gion’s traveler restriction is intended to protect geisha and restore dignity to their traditions, but there’s also a fear that it will expedite what many view as the dwindling profession’s inevitable extinction. It’s estimated a mere 1,000 geisha are still practicing in Japan, a far cry from its pre-WWII peak of 80,000. This steady decline, coupled with the bans, leaves many wondering where geisha and their dying art go from here. 

“I don’t want the geisha occupation to disappear,” Kiyoha said, but “the industry should rebuild, oriented in a better direction.”  

Geisha walks through Kyoto. Tawatchai Prakobkit. CC BY 2.0

Geisha are enigmatic by design, and it is crucial that the public remain interested in the culture and history underlying their time-honored trade. But more than relics of a bygone era, geisha are cultural guardians, and they are people. If/when travel to geisha districts opens back up, it is important to remember that their shroud of mystery is not an invitation for travelers to poke and prod and investigate — there are ways to learn about the culture without violating these women’s boundaries.

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Bella Liu

Bella is a student at UC Berkeley studying English, Media Studies and Journalism. When she’s not writing or working through the books on her nightstand, you can find her painting her nails red, taking digicam photos with her friends or yelling at the TV to make the Dodgers play better.

Tourism Set to Reopen in North Korea

The controversial and most isolated country plans to resume tourism this December.

Panoramic view of Pyongyang. Joseph Ferris III. CC BY 2.0

After five years, North Korea is set to reopen its doors to foreign tourists. The country closed its borders in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but plans to welcome visitors again starting in December. Currently, only the northern city of Samjiyon will be open. Known for its winter activities, Samjiyon is still undergoing reconstruction. Located near the Chinese border and close to Mount Paektu—a sacred mountain claimed to be the birthplace of Kim Jong-Un’s father—Samjiyon was established in 2019. The town, which Kim describes as an “idealist socialist village”, was likely built with forced labor disguised as “volunteers”, given North Korea’s history of enslavement and trafficking. While Samjiyon is reopening, the capital city of Pyongyang has remained closed to tourists.

U.S. tourism to North Korea has been prohibited since 2017, following the death of Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who was imprisoned in North Korea for stealing a propaganda poster. Warmbier traveled to North Korea with a tour group in 2016 and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. He was released 17 months later and died in a U.S. hospital just six days after returning home in June 2017. U.S. law reserves the right to revoke citizens’ passports upon attempted entrance into North Korea. While everyday citizens are forbidden from entering North Korea, visitation is not entirely banned, as the U.S. occasionally grants validation passports to professional journalists, Red Cross representatives and other citizens whose jobs serve national interests. South Koreans are the only nationality directly banned from North Korea, as the neighboring countries have been in a state of war since 1950. Today, approximately 5,000 Western tourists visit North Korea each year. Tourists from Russia and China—countries harboring more “friendly” relations with North Korea—are expected to make up the majority of foreign tourists.

Between 2010 and 2017, Americans could travel to North Korea year-round. Many have shared their experiences in Pyongyang through YouTube videos, articles and blog posts. As noted by several American tourists, self-guided tours are not an option in North Korea; itineraries are strictly followed. A recurring theme throughout these tours is the guides’ continual stress on their solidarity to the country's leaders, particularly Kim Jong-Un. The North Korean government uses tourism as a tool to showcase the country’s self-reliance, prosperity, talent and citizen happiness by guiding visitors through monuments, schools and museums. 

View of Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang. (stephan). CC BY-SA 2.0

Increased tourism could potentially lead to heightened political tensions. Many countries discourage travel to North Korea, not simply due to the inherent dangers, but because tourism revenue supports Kim Jong-Un’s regime rather than the local population. As of 2020, it was estimated that 60% of North Korea’s population lived below the poverty line. If tourism resumes, North Korea could earn nearly $200 million—a significant amount for a country with an economy largely isolated from international trade and exports. Koryo Tours, the most popular gateway to North Korea, is a travel agency based in Beijing that provides group tours to the country, sharing its history, politics, and culture. The tours are capped at twenty people per group, and tour leaders are claimed to have a “passion and interest for the country.” The debate surrounding the ethics of traveling to North Korea remains ongoing. As of now, we are left to observe what the future holds for one of the world’s most isolated countries.

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Agnes Volland

Agnes is a student at UC Berkeley majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies and minoring in Creative Writing, with a research focus on road trip culture in America. She currently writes for BARE Magazine and Caravan Travel & Style Magazine. She is working on a novel that follows two sisters as they road trip down Highway 40, from California to Oklahoma. In the future, she hopes to pursue a career in journalism, publishing, or research.

Mistimed Migrations: Climate Change is Disrupting Birds

The rising global temperature is having some strange effects on the migratory patterns of birds around the world.

A flock of redwing blackbirds in Kansas. Jerry Segraves. CC0

Warming temperatures, glacial melts, ocean acidification and dozens of other crises are all clamoring for the attention of the global public. Although many are already exhausted by the near-constant onslaught of bad news, there’s still one more factor to add to the pile.

An astonishingly high number of bird species are annual or semiannual migrators, heading from cold to warm weather to follow their insect prey during fall and winter. While far from the only animal to migrate, birds are perhaps the most famous ever to do it. Now, scientists are discovering the ways in which climate change has even managed to wreak havoc on their yearly vacations.

Although birds migrate annually, their departure and arrival times vary based on weather conditions. Their exodus does not follow an arbitrary determination of season but simply begins when the weather turns cold. Scientists have argued that rising global temperatures are causing spring to arrive earlier in the year. This change has a few effects on the more transitive part of the world’s bird populations.

Studies conducted on 90-year-old data have suggested that birds are now leaving later in the year, as warm weather lingers well into the fall. This means that birds frequently arrive too late for peak insect season, missing out on the food they have come to rely on for the winter. This also disrupts their egg-laying patterns, resulting in birds breeding further north and gradually shifting the population.

Other migratory birds have been traveling far from their typical homes, with some traditionally “tropical” birds appearing much further north than they have ever been documented. Between this location shift and delayed egg-laying, scientists have suggested that migratory changes could cause many bird species to run out of land to migrate to in the next few decades.

More recent studies have shown a rising variance in departure times compared to 23 years ago.  Researchers attribute the abnormality on the East Coast to substantial atmospheric disturbances called Rossby waves, which shift warm air from tropical areas up north to the poles while returning cold air down towards the equator. As temperature changes occur worldwide, these waves have become weaker over time as the poles warm.

Other scientists have suggested a connection between the recent increase in severe weather events and migration disruption. In 2023, a pair of flamingos was spotted in a small Ohio town after being blown off-course by a hurricane. These birds typically travel from Cuba to the Yucatan Peninsula, but after being swept up in the storm, around 150 were documented across the southern United States. Similar natural disasters disrupting migratory patterns have cropped up in recent months as what experts have called “the worst hurricane season on record” kicks into high gear.

Birds are one of the most iconic and beautiful animals in the world, and their annual migrations are seen as a symbol of seasonal change and the arrival of autumn. However, with the climate in crisis, even a seemingly consistent rule of nature is thrown into turmoil. In the next few decades, some scientists have hypothesized that birds might run out of room and simply stop migrating altogether.

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Ryan Livingston

Ryan is a senior at The College of New Jersey, majoring in English and minoring in marketing. Since a young age, Ryan has been passionate about human rights and environmental action and uses his writing to educate wherever he can. He hopes to pursue a career in professional writing and spread his message even further.

Casting Lines and Breaking Barriers: Women Redefining Fishing

Creating global change by empowering women through fishing.

Woman holding a fish she caught offshore fishing in Rhode Island, USA. Courtesy of Take Me Fishing. 

Many of us have nostalgic memories of learning to fish with our grandparents. They took us to the pond, put the bait on our hook, and gave us our first casting lesson. However, there is a noticeable disparity between male and female children who continue their fishing experiences. According to a study by The Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF), only 19% of female anglers between the ages of 13-17 continue fishing after age 12 opposed to 30% of their male counterparts. Additionally, the RBFF found that only 19% of women “see themselves” represented in the fishing industry. As of 2024, 37% of all anglers in the United States are female-identifying—the highest number on record.

In August 2024, I proudly joined those numbers. I was lucky enough to accompany a crew of fisherwomen on an excursion with Take Me Fishing (TMF) in Rhode Island. TMF is a nonprofit that creates opportunities to introduce women to fishing by providing resources and hosting educational events.

My time on the water was spent learning the ropes of offshore and flyfishing. After cruising ten nautical miles out to sea to try my hand at offshore fishing, I learned some valuable lessons in resilience. Admittedly, I spent a good portion of the day leaning across the vessel, seasick. However, the excitement and upbeat spirit of other eager fisherwomen made it all worth it. By the end of the day, I could confidently set up my own pole, bait a hook, and even handle some of the gnarly-looking sea creatures we caught.

The next day, I swapped my action rod for a fly rod. With instruction from a kind guide, I began getting the hang of flyfishing's active nature. Mimicking the motions of an insect on the water, there was something both peaceful and powerful about handling a rod. I felt I truly could have spent days out on the shore. When it was time to pack up, I realized I could easily see flyfishing becoming a regular part of my life.

After two days on the water, I felt more confident and mentally rested than I had in weeks.

A young girl fishing in Rhode Island. Courtesy of Take Me Fishing.

Studies provided by the RBFF found that female anglers were 25% more likely to feel that they were in good health than non-anglers. Additionally, 1 in 5 women anglers believed that fishing has allowed them to accomplish anything they put their mind to. Women being excluded from traditionally male-dominated sports has a direct effect on their health and confidence. Nonprofit organizations like Take Me Fishing help to bridge this gap by offering inclusive fishing opportunities for those new to the sport. 

Women on a fishing boat in Rhode Island. Courtesy of Take Me Fishing. 

It would be remiss to ignore the fishing disparity between races. Of the 57.7 million Americans who went fishing in 2023, only 5.2 million identified themselves as Black and 6.3 million as Hispanic. 

While these numbers are pulled from data taken within the United States, the lessons are transferable worldwide. Women experience inequality in sports around the world. Having personally experienced the immediate benefits of fishing as a woman, I can attest that getting young girls and women out on the water can have a lasting effect on our world. When organizations work to bring opportunities and awareness to these communities, it will help create change on a global scale.

To Get Involved:

Take Me Fishing provides fishing opportunities and events throughout the United States. Further resources can be found with the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation, Outdoor Foundation and Sports Fishing Restoration.

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Cait Kontalis

Cait is a Chicago-based Greek-American but spends most of her year floating around the globe. She holds a B.A. in Communications and a M.A. in Nonprofit Management. Her favorite destinations include visiting her homeland in Greece and the Black Hills of South Dakota. Cait is also a powderhound, taking to ski slopes in the Rocky Mountains and around the globe.

The Human Cost of Sustainable Energy

While wealthy nations and corporations benefit from the shift to renewable energy, the poorest and most disenfranchised communities are left to suffer the consequences.

Cobalt Mine. Afrewatch. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

As the demand for renewable energy increases, industrialized countries are racing to obtain metals like lithium, cobalt, zinc, manganese and nickel. These metals are used to make batteries, solar panels and wind turbines—technologies that will ideally enable a transition away from fossil fuels. However, procuring and processing the materials necessary to support these sustainable infrastructures comes with a price that is often overlooked: the human and environmental toll of mining these resources is anything but sustainable for communities worldwide. 

Continents rich in these resources— like Africa, Latin America, and Asia—are facing a surge in mining activities, which has in turn led to widespread human rights violations and environmental degradation, particularly among Indigenous communities. According to the Transition Mineral Tracker, there have been 631 human rights abuse allegations against companies involved in the extraction of transition minerals between 2010 and 2022, with 46% of the allegations originating in South America.

Lithium Mine in Argentina. EARTHWORKS. CC BY-NC 2.0

Human Rights Watch has documented a litany of abuses in mining sectors, from child labor and hazardous working conditions to chemical pollution and forced displacement. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the world's biggest producer of cobalt, a critical component of lithium-ion batteries, which power everything from electric vehicles to smartphones. Child labor remains an issue in the DRC, with more than 40,000 children working in the hazardous conditions of the Katanga province’s cobalt mines, according to data from the United Nations.

These children, victims of trafficking and of necessity, are subjected to horrendous conditions, including frequent mine collapses and prolonged exposure to toxic dust. Their work is grueling, often lasting for 12 hours a day, with little to no protective gear. Some children work with their bare hands. Many suffer from chronic health problems, such as respiratory issues and musculoskeletal disorders, as a result of the substandard working conditions.

Cobalt Mining Site. Fairphone. CC BY-NC-SA

Adults suffer in the mines as well, laboring in slave-like conditions. Cobalt mining tunnels often reach lengths and depths far greater than the legal maximum of 98 feet, an already dangerous level. Poor regulation, governance and lack of incentive to adhere to the law means tunnels can reach lengths of up to 295 feet, a level that threatens extreme risk of collapse, landslides and death for miners. 

Conditions underground are hot and dusty, as miners rely on generators for oxygen during their 12-hour shifts, six days a week. Though cobalt is toxic to touch and breathe, miners are constantly exposed to the substance. Exposure to polluted water and air can lead to several health problems, including respiratory illnesses, skin conditions and even cancer. In some mining areas, the rate of birth defects and infant mortalities has increased, raising alarm among local and international health organizations.

Cobalt Miners in the DRC. The International Institute for Environment and Development. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The environmental impact of mining is another major concern. The mining industry has ravaged the landscape of the DRC. Millions of trees have been cut down and the air surrounding the mines is hazy with dust and grit. The mining process often involves the use of hazardous chemicals to separate the desired minerals from the ore. These chemicals can seep into the soil and water, contaminating local water supplies and agricultural land. “In this stream, the fish vanished long ago, killed by acids and waste from the mines,” one Congo resident reported of his childhood fishing hole. In some cases, mining operations have dried up rivers and lakes, devastating local ecosystems and the livelihoods of those who depend on them. 

The expansion of mining activities often causes the displacement of entire communities, whether by pollution or force. Data from the Business & Human Rights Resource Center points to widespread violations of Indigenous peoples’ rights—such as forced relocation, water pollution and denial of access to traditional land—as well as attacks on human rights defenders and workers’ rights abuses. In countries like Indonesia, Peru, Columbia and Bolivia, mining operations have displaced Indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands. These displacements not only disrupt the social fabric of communities but also erode cultural identities that are deeply tied to the land. 

In many cases, those who resist displacement or speak out against mining abuses face retaliation. In Indonesia, local officers were accused of breaching police ethics through the use of intimidation tactics, carrying around weapons to compel people to leave their ancestral village. There have been numerous reports of police violence and arbitrary arrests of activists who oppose mining projects. In Colombia, a mine was built within the sacred territory of the Embera people, without any consultation with Indigenous locals. The community faced forced displacements, the territory was militarized, and leaders who spoke out about human rights violations became targets of harassment. 

As the demand for green energy continues to rise, companies that rely on these materials must ensure that supply chains are free from exploitation. This includes due diligence, supporting fair labor practices, and investing in cleaner and more sustainable mining technologies. Governments also have a role in regulating the mining industry and protecting the rights of vulnerable communities. Stronger international regulations, greater transparency and accountability are essential in preventing abuses and ensuring that the beneficiaries of the green energy transition are not limited to corporations.

GET INVOLVED

GoodWeave: Founded in 1994 by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi, GoodWeave is a leading nonprofit organization in the fight to stop child labor in global supply chains. The institution partners with companies and local producer communities to bring visibility to hidden supply chains, protect workers’ rights, provide assurance that products are free of child or forced labor, and support exploited children.

Good Shepherd International Foundation: Good Shepherd International Foundation works to support women, girls and children living in vulnerable and impoverished conditions. They protect and promote the rights of people affected by poverty, human trafficking, child labor, and other human rights violations in over than 30 countries.

Global Witness: Global Witness works to hold companies and governments accountable for ecological destruction and the failure to protect human rights. The organization campaigns to end corporate complicity in environmental and human rights abuses, end corporate corruption,  hold companies in the natural resource sector to the law, and protect activists standing up to climate-wrecking industries.

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Rebecca Pitcairn

Rebecca studies Italian Language and Literature, Classical Civilizations, and English Writing at the University of Pittsburgh. She hopes to one day attain a PhD in Classical Archeology. She is passionate about feminism and climate justice. She enjoys reading, playing the lyre, and longboarding in her free time.