Women and girls who have escaped from captivity by ISIS are among the most vulnerable members of society. While reporting about their fate is important and often may seem the only news that gets attention, their rights to privacy and protection of dignity and personal integrity must always come first.
Does the "Islamic State" really have a theological agenda?
In his thought-provoking cover story "What ISIS Really Wants", published in the March 2015 issue of The Atlantic magazine, journalist Graeme Wood investigates the ideological roots of the so-called Islamic State and argues:
Eleven years after the fall of the Ba'ath regime, Salah Ahmad, president of the Jiyan Foundation, met the former chief judge of the Saddam trial, Rizgar Mohammed Amin.
They exchanged thoughts on the legal, political and social situation in Iraq. Amin drew an unadorned and critical picture of his country.
In her article Exporting trauma: can the talking cure do more harm than good?, published by the Guardian on 5 February 2015, Anna Leach discusses the consequences of Western aid agencies' increased focus on mental health in crisis intervention.
By using examples such as Rwanda, the Phillipines and Croatia, Leach shows that mental health services might cause more harm than good. She argues that the reason for this is a lack of recognition of differing cultural understandings of mental disease and healing practices.
