Al Jazeera World

There are thought to be around 10 million Catholics in China, the majority of whom worship in government approved churches. But many others do so in secret, in so-called "underground churches", which means the worshippers are often under surveillance and so never totally safe. "They can be arrested ... Not many [priests] are detained. Maybe two bishops and maybe a dozen priests. They don't want to have martyrs ... They have more improved methods to destroy the church. Like threats, like enticement ... blackmail ... The Communists are the law, they can do anything," says former Bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Joseph Zen. Despite the danger, they see themselves as the true followers of the Catholic church. In the official church in China, the pope's authority is not recognised, but that may be about to change. The Vatican and Communist Party appear to be close to making an historic deal, which would give Pope Francis a say in the appointment of bishops to China's official church. In exchange, the Vatican would recognise bishops ordained without the pope's approval. In effect, a recognition by the pontiff that the two churches should become one. The rapprochement between China's Communist Party and the Vatican is highly significant. China broke off diplomatic relations with the Vatican almost 70 years ago, following the Communist Party revolution led by chairman Mao. Now, two of the world's most secretive organisations are close to announcing a deal that will decide the future of China's Catholics. But the agreement has many detractors. One prominent critic, former Bishop of Hong Kong Cardinal Zen, has called it a betrayal, evil and a sell out. "How can you legitimise a schismatic church ... they are completely under the guidance of the government. The church doesn't change just because you legitimise all the bishops ... If all the bishops, or the majority of the bishops, are the slaves of the Communist regime, there is no improvement," says Cardinal Zen. He has never recognised the Chinese government's efforts to interfere in the church and therefore he travelled to the Vatican to warn the pope, face to face against any deal. "I said to him [the pope] "this is fake". Last word is not enough ... Practically you are giving the power in the hands of the government ... What do they [the Communist Party] know about the qualities required to be a bishop?" says Zen. "We're facing a disaster [if the Vatican establishes a representatives office in Bejing]. In the official church, those bad elements, those who really have no faith, that are just on the side of the government for their interest, those people now are happy ... they are being rewarded. The good people in the open church must be very disappointed ... They were waiting for the Holy See [Vatican] to give them courage. But the Holy See always encourages surrender, everywhere. Now, they give up their hope. With no agreement there can still be hope for change. But now, it's the legitimatisation of the wrong situation .... Many people in the universal church may lose their faith in the pope." Cardinal Zen talks to Al Jazeera about the challenges facing China's Catholics, the Vatican-China deal on appointing bishops, and his meeting with Pope Francis. More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Shaimaa al-Sayyid grew up watching her mother and grandmother sell vegetables in the streets of Manshiyat al-Qanatir, a tourist town in Egypt. Every morning, they'd get up very early and travel to small village markets to buy vegetables which they'd sell at a higher price in the city. Now a commerce student, Shaimaa comes straight to the market after college to help her mother Muna. "I raised all my children here," said Muna, "I like trading. I inherited it from my mother. She has been doing this for more than 50 years. My mother is the one who started a market in this street." "Around 17 years ago, I told my husband I wanted to sell vegetables in the street market with my mother. He first said 'no' but I then convinced him ... He knows I'm doing this for a good reason. He also works hard so we can both raise our children well." While Muna and her husband don't have college degrees, they're motivated to work hard so their children can have a more comfortable life. "I want my children to study, get university degrees and have good jobs," said Muna. 'Life is expensive' Travelling outside her village, Aida Muhammad sells vegetables in Cairo's streets in the morning but goes home to look after her children in the afternoon. "I'm trying to earn a living to buy some stuff for my children. Life is expensive and my husband doesn't make much. So I help him," said Aida. Similarly, sisters Sanaa Sayyid Ahmed and Nanaa Sayyid Ahmed spend four days a week selling cheese, eggs and garlic in Cairo and only two days a week at home with their families. Their village is more than a day's travel away, so they've managed to rent an unfurnished apartment just to sleep in. Finding the perfect location on the street to sell her vegetables used to be a problem - until one day other vendors came to her rescue. "The butcher told us not to sit next to his shop," Sanaa said. The butcher was worried that her products would attract flies. Then, the other vendors shouted back, "Let her stay. She's trying to earn a living. She sells great cheese and eggs. It's your meat that attracts flies." Besides the hustle, Sanaa isn't bothered by haggling customers. "When we state the price, the customer starts to barter. This is business. Bargaining and headaches," said Sanaa. "I have no fears as long as the scales I weigh the cheese on are working well and aren't broken." Cheese and ghee (clarified butter) seller Ilham Abdul Aziz is a childless widow who selflessly provides for her impoverished sister, unemployed brother-in-law and the rest of their family. She's had many opportunities to remarry, but she's steadfastly refused. Instead, said Ilham, "I wanted to dedicate my life to these children and support them until they all get married. People praise me, saying I'll be rewarded for dedicating my life to these children." "I love my job. It's how we earn our living," she added. "I would never hate it because it's how we earn our living so we don't beg or borrow money from others. It's a blessing from God." This film focuses on the daily lives of five Egyptian village women who are driven by the need to provide for their children and families by selling local produce in the street markets across the country. It provides an insight into the women's daily struggle to survive and the sacrifices each of them makes to sustain their livelihoods, just above the poverty line. More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Across the United States, there has been a growth in organizations that portray Islam as a threat. Over two years, the number of groups that make up what’s become known as the Islamophobia industry has more than tripled. This investigation reveals the tactics these groups use to instigate a fear of Islam, including how they manipulate social media to create a false narrative that Muslims are trying to take over the country. Anti-Muslim messages proliferate social media with bought-in followers, fake accounts and robotic amplifiers. The investigation also shows how these organizations try to suppress the rise of a Muslim political voice in America. It uncovers the “dark money” that has fuelled the rapid growth of Islamophobia Inc. - tens of millions of dollars which is funnelled through secretive, anonymous donor funds. We unveil the donors of the dark money and ask; what do they ultimately hope to achieve?

In December 2017, former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was seen being dragged off a roof in Kiev and bundled into a police van. He was freed shortly afterwards, when supporters ripped the doors off the van to free him, before being arrested again and later deported from Ukraine. Saakashvili was once widely recognised as an advocate for reform and democracy thanks to his anti-corruption reforms and tough stance towards Russia. Now, he is a stateless politician, living under temporary asylum in the Netherlands. Saakashvili became President of Georgia in 2004. After his party were defeated in the 2013 elections, he left for Ukraine, where he supported the 2014 revolution and gave up his Georgian passport to become a Ukrainian citizen. Saakashvili dismisses accusations that he was heavy handed in suppressing opposition during this second term as Georgian president, pointing instead to progress that was made under his government. "Georgia was a failed country, you cannot make a failed country through Scandinavian methods, overnight, something like Sweden or Norway". "My reforms survived my presidency ... most of it is still there, so from that standpoint: public services, absence of corruption, safety, I left a good legacy and a legacy that is still intact." Saakashvili also rubbished an EU report's claim that he was responsible for Georgia's 2008 war with Russia due to his 'penchant for acting in the heat of the moment'. "There is only one choice when your country gets attacked by a hundred times bigger neighbour: either to surrender, or to fight and we chose not to surrender," he says. He says the Russian threat he was responding to is even more concerning today, due to a lack of strong leadership in Europe. "The problem is the lack of leadership ... we have just tacticians in Europe ... nobody wants to assume responsibility, as a result, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin [is] playing them around. "It's not about Putin being so strong, it's about these kind of leaders being so weak. "There is no leadership in Europe today. It's so bleak. We see half-engagement, semi-engagement ... if Europeans continue to be as weak as this, we are not going to avoid big war in Europe." Saakashvili was initially embraced by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who made him governor of Odessa province, but the relationship soon soured, with Saakashvili resigning in 2016 after accusing Poroshenko of corruption. "I left from the governorship when I felt that we were no longer in the business of reforming the country," he tells Al Jazeera. "Staying there would be just trying to whitewash something that cannot be justified - wide scale corruption and oligarchic rule," he tells Al Jazeera. "[Poroshenko] was not serious about the reforms. Ultimately, he had to make a choice, whether to get into Ukraine's historic textbooks or to be higher on Forbes' billionaire's list. "He decided to get into [the] billionaire's list, rather than the textbooks." Shortly after his resignation, Saakashvili announced plans to create a new political force in Ukraine, but his citizenship was revoked and he was sent to Poland. Meanwhile, a court in Georgia found him guilty of abuse of power in connection with a 2006 murder case. He was sentenced to three years in prison in absentia. While in Ukraine, a prosecutor accused Saakashvili of having connections with a suspected criminal gang, led by Ukraine's former president Viktor Yanukovych. Saakashvili says he's still running his parties in both Georgia and Ukraine from the Netherlands and, despite personal threats made by Putin, he plans to continue with his anti-Russia, anti-corruption programme. "I was asked by Dutch police whether I needed special protection and I told them 'no'. "Whatever happens, I've made my impact on the history of this region, nobody can dispute that. "If Putin wants to physically get me, I don't think any bodyguards can protect me anyway". More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Jimmy Wales is one of the masterminds behind Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that describes itself as "a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project". Since launching in 2001, Wikipedia has become an internet colossus, reaching around 1.4 billion users accessing some 46 million articles in 300 languages each month. Last year, Wales turned his attention to a new project, 'WikiTribune', a news website, which was set up to promote what it calls "evidence-based journalism" in an attempt to combat fake news. "I had been thinking about the idea for quite a long time ... but what really provoked me was the sense during the last US election, all the talk about fake news, about [a] "post-truth" world and all those kinds of things," he says. Wales initially planned to wait until President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office had passed but decided to put his plan into action earlier, after presidential aide Kellyanne Conway made reference to "alternative facts" regarding the number of people in attendance at Trump's inauguration. "I was just like 'You know what? The 100 days is up'. This is not acceptable behaviour, facts do matter ... it wasn't just that but that was the last straw, that was the thing that made me say "I'm gonna do this now". WikiTribune combines the work of journalists with volunteers, who contribute by proofreading, fact-checking and adding sources to the journalists' articles. "The idea is to say let's replicate and let's build a healthy, strong community, much like the community that creates Wikipedia. It's not wide open to everyone, we want people who are thoughtful and kind, interested in contributing in a positive way and I want that community to work side by side with the paid, professional journalists as equals." While Wales acknowledges that journalists have specialist knowledge and skills in areas such as interviewing and gaining access to sources, he feels that a wider community can contribute to news in a meaningful way. He points to "slow" news stories, which unfold over a long period of time, and local news as areas where the community model might work well. But the venture has also had its critics, from those who say the platform undermines professional journalists by having volunteers fill the roles of copy editors for free, to those that question whether Wales' optimism about the wisdom of crowds is naive. "Maybe it is a bit naive," he concedes, "But I hope not insanely so, Wikipedia has proven, largely, that there are a lot of nice people out there and they just want to help out and do something useful. "We can't be silly and ignore potential problems ... but the existence of dark places on the internet doesn't disprove the existence of places of great light and joy". More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

In 1953, North and South Koreans signed an armistice, which brought the Korean War to an end and cleared the way for formal peace negotiations. Sixty five years have passed and a formal peace treaty is yet to be brokered. For the generation of South Koreans that lived and suffered through the war, hope for reunification has loomed large but, as that population ages and dwindles, many in the generations that follow say their links to North Korea are not as strong and prioritise domestic issues over reunification. However, historic and fast moving developments in the last few months have breathed new life into hopes that North and South Korea might enjoy a friendlier future. In 2017, tensions in the Korean Peninsula were running high after various missile tests by North Korea and a fiery exchange of rhetoric between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and United States President Donald Trump. During a New Year's speech, Kim's tone shifted, prompting analysts to speculate that the isolated country was suffering from the accumulation of sanctions. In February, North Korea sent a delegation to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Kim Jong-un's sister Kim Yo-jong became the first member of the ruling family to set foot on South Korean soil since the war when she attended both the opening and closing ceremonies. She invited the South Korean President Moon Jae-in to come to Pyongyang. A meeting between the two leaders has been scheduled for later this month and Kim Jong-un has also made arrangements to meet Trump in the coming months. Despite these steps forward, South Koreans remain conflicted about the likelihood of reunification. "If Kim Jong-un wants to talk, North Korea needs to denuclearise. But the current government is begging for a dialogue and giving whatever [the North Koreans] ask," says Yon Irae, a priest and activist. For many, denuclearisation is the key issue on which reunification will be decided, but as Hyun Namhoon, a newspaper owner points out, there are several other important factors to consider. "The two countries have a gap in everything, including education level and culture. The cost involved in unification is also one of the most important factors we have to think about," he says. For younger South Koreans, like graduate student Min Hyeonjong, years of living under threat with little evidence of peace talks makes reunification seem unlikely. "My parents were very sympathetic to North Korea, more so than my peers ... We have had more experience with North Korean provocations than with talks and dialogues and I think this still has a big impact on perspectives." More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Filmmaker: Ahmad Ghossein After the end of Lebanon's civil war, basketball grew in popularity, and from the mid-1990s to 2004, two clubs, Al Riyadi and Al Hekmeh, fought out an unsporting sectarian battle - attracting enormous support and achieving unprecedented playing success. Media and advertising mogul Antoine Choueiri, known as the grandfather of Lebanese basketball, created the basketball franchise in Lebanon as a way of trying to raise morale in a country coming out of war. "He [Antoine] had a keen sense for how to create a product and he saw sport as an opportunity. The Lebanese love sports. They love new things ... so he turned to basketball and a club called Al Hekmeh. The reasons could be territorial or sectarian. He turned Al Hekmeh into an icon," says Pierre Kakhia, president of the Lebanese Basketball Federation. Al Hekmeh was supported by Christian fans, while Al Riyadi was supported by the Muslim community. Their rivalry was almost on a par with El Clasico in Spanish football or Rangers and Celtic in Scotland. "Every time the two clubs played, Lebanon was in a state of emergency," says Kakhia. "People would stay at home. It was difficult to get to nearby areas." At one point, Al Hekmeh fans waved crosses at Al Riyadi fans holding the Quran. Player violence broke out and the fans joined in all-out fights on the court and in the stands. According to Walid Domiati, Al Riyadi's captain at the time, "both Al Hekmeh and Al Riyadi had two symbols, two star players, Elie and Walid. People supported one or the other so the teams promoted the image of their respective stars." "During games, fans cursed star players of the opposing team. So we became competitors ... Al Riyadi fans read the Quran during games. Al Hekmeh fans brought crucifixes. We became sectarian symbols. We can't deny this. Al Riyadi was Muslim. Al Hekmeh was Christian," says Domiati. Elie Mchantaf, the former Al Hekmeh captain, says that "politics definitely played a big role. We had a specific role to play. Christian leaders, like Samir Geagea, were in prison and General Aoun was in exile. So Al Hekmeh became an outlet and source of hope for Christians. The club and I had a specific role to play." Al Hekmeh won international honours when they lifted the Asia Cup in successive years. But after the two biggest clubs had reached such heights, a shift began to occur in Lebanese basketball for a number of reasons. Funding became a problem, as Antoine Choueiri gradually became disenchanted with events off the court, increasing sectarianism and party political intervention. By 2004, Choueiri had completely pulled out of Al Hekmeh and this had a ripple effect across the sport. Some argue that basketball gradually became a tool in the hands of political parties, causing players and financiers and even fans to withdraw. "At that time they focused on the stage they lived on", explains Mchantaf. "Today, they only focus only first class tournaments, not minor ones. Then, Al Hekmeh got a lot of exposure and promotions in TV. They didn't have a plan in case financier X or Y left. But that's what happened." As Antoine Choueiri pulled out and others followed suit, Basketball's golden era began to fade. The 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri brought about a further decline in the game. Now, as Lebanon's long-awaited elections approach in May 2018, this film looks at the political, social and religious life of the country through the prism of its once dominant sport. Source: Al Jazeera More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci’s election in 2015 reinvigorated hopes for a solution to the Cyprus problem. Campaigning on a promise to restart stalled negotiations with the Greek Cypriot government, Akinci seemed primed to breathe new life into attempts to resolve the decades-long dispute on the Mediterranean island. Soon after the election, Akinci and Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades entered into reunification negotiations with the support of the United Nations (UN) at Crans-Montana, Switzerland. Three years later, the talks are almost a distant memory, having fallen apart in July 2017, and tensions are running high over the issue of gas exploration off Cyprus. Akinci says that the responsibility for the lack of progress lies with the Greek Cypriot government. "They are always ready for talks, but they are not ready for taking decisions," he says. "Of course, if we want to solve the problem, we need to talk but, at some point, we need to take decisions." "I need to see some indication that the mentality has changed ... in addition to that we need to have negotiations at some point, but not business as usual, not to go around the issues all the time without any results, it has to be result-orientated." Effectively divided along ethnic lines since 1974, when the Turkish military intervened in response to an Athens-inspired coup, the Republic of Cyprus is recognised by the international community and became a member of the European Union (EU) in 2004. The majority of the island is controlled by a Greek Cypriot government under the recently-reelected Anastasiades, who discussed reunification and the current gas dispute with Al Jazeera earlier this month. The northern part of the island, however, is ruled by the government of the self-declared Northern Cyprus under Akinci, which is recognised by Turkey and guarded by its armed forces. On the recent controversy surrounding gas exploration around Cyprus, Akinci is positive about the shared benefits drilling could bring, but cautions that, with so many actors involved in the gas exploration - US energy giant ExxonMobil has been given permission by Greek Cypriots to begin explorations and Akinci confirmed to having agreements with Turkish firms - there is strong potential for an accidental confrontation. "I cannot say that everything is fine and everything will be under control, sometimes certain things happen unwillingly and accidentally ... I see a big opportunity there, if treated properly, handled properly, without any fear of accidents [ourselves] and the others we can get mutual benefit out of it ... If not handled properly, you may expect accidents at any time." While still insisting on his commitment to finding a mutually-satisfactory resolution to the Cyprus problem, the Turkish Cypriot leader, who, at 70 is part of the last generation that remembers living in an undivided Cyprus, acknowledges that it's not an easy task. "It's getting more and more difficult and more and more complex. There is a nice [phrase] 'hope dies last', but you have to work hard and you have to work to keep it alive because otherwise, just letting time pass, you kill it". More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Just three days into his administration, US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnernship (TPP), calling it a "ridiculous trade deal". Most assume the deal, wgucg established common trade, communications, and legal standards between 12 countries in the Pacific Rim, is now dead without the support of the United States, but challenging US global leadership, the 11 remaining countries - led by Japan - are forging ahead regardless. As Trump heightens fears of a trade war by imposing steel and aluminium tariffs, a revamped version of the TPP is signed in Santiago, Chile, sending a powerful message that free trade can go ahead without the US. The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnernship - or TPP+11 for short - includes Canada, Mexico, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, Peru, New Zealand, Chile, Brunai, Singapore and Vietnam in a deal that will dramatically lower tariffs and trade barriers between the signatories. Together, they cover 500 million people in the most dynamic region of the world economy, which includes more than 13 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP), worth more than 10 trillion dollars. With the US, it would have been 40 percent, but the new TPP is already attracting potential new members, like South Korea, Indonsia, the Philippines, Thailand and possibly even a post-Brexit United Kingdom. A free trade deal once viewed by Washington and Japan as a counter weight to China’s growing economic might, is now being hailed as an antidote to U.S. protectionism. Four of the signatories of the new deal talk to Al Jazeera about free trade, Trump, and their hopes for the future. More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Marie Elias Ziade, or May, was a key Lebanese-Palestinian figure in the Arab literary scene in the early 20th century who firmly established herself as a vibrant female voice in what was clearly a man's world at the time. She was a journalist but also wrote fiction with strong female characters, poetry, political and cultural books and magazine articles, often on the condition of Arab women. She questioned the social norms and cultural values of the period; in trying to tackle Arab patriarchy wrote: "We chant beautiful words in vain...words of freedom and liberty. If you, men of the East, keep the core of slavery in your homes, represented by your wives and daughters, will the children of slaves be free?" "Women's education was rare, if non-existent," explains Lebanese poet Henry Zugheib. "When she joined this literary circle, she was highly cultured, not just from what she learned at school but also from the books she read. That's why educating women was an obsession for her, as she herself was very cultured. That was a first sign of her rebellion against ignorance and her demands to educate girls at an early age." May played a pioneering role in "introducing feminism into Arab culture," according to writer and critic Hossam Aql, who credits her as being "the first to use the term 'the women's cause'... She was the first professional writer to take a critical approach to women's stories or novels written by Arab women." With a command of nine languages, "May Ziade was unrivalled during that period of Arabic literature, which was characterised by writing and translating," says Zugheib. "She translated novels from German, French and Italian. She injected a new flavour, unknown to Arabic literature at the time." She arrived in Egypt with her family around 1907 and held popular weekly salons for the predominantly male Egyptian literary elite and intellectuals, like Mahmoud Abbas al-Aqad, Taha Hussein, Antoine Gemayel, Mustapha Sadeq al-Rifae, Hafid Ibrahim and Khalil Moutran. "The salons were famous for bringing opposites together, people from contradictory intellectual trends," explains Mahmoud al-Dabaa, an academic and critic. "It was the first salon to gather different intellectual trends and discuss profound intellectual issues relating to Arab culture and literature. May had the ability to host all those contrasts." A romantic and idealist from an early age, Ziade exuded depth, femininity and charm - and so naturally won many admirers, both professional and amorous. "She fitted the perception of the ideal woman for those writers and thinkers," notes art critic Essam Zakaria. However, she did not entertain any of these suitors because she was only in love with one man, the Lebanese poet and one of the Arab literary greats, Gibran Khalil Gibran. The relationship between May and Gibran lasted for 19 years until Gibran's death in 1931. Extraordinarily, the two never met - but their relationship enriched Arabic epistolary literature with the most beautiful correspondence. "Gibran was not only a creative man of literature but also a painter and musician," contends Dr Hussein Hammouda, a literature teacher at Cairo University. "May also had experience in music and singing, so they had a lot in common. There's a profound Sufi sense in both Gibran's and May's experience." Between 1930 and 1932, May suffered a series of personal losses - the death of her parents and above all, her beloved Gibran. She fell into a deep depression and returned to Lebanon where her relatives placed her in a psychiatric hospital to gain control over her estate. A deeply shocked and heartbroken May painfully describes her torment: "In the name of life, my relatives put me in a madhouse to fade away gradually, and die slowly... a death of which no one could bear hearing the description. Nevertheless, on their rare visits, my relatives listened to me with pleasure as I described my sufferings and misery, begging them in vain to pity me and get me out of the mental asylum." A press campaign instigated by the Lebanese-American writer Amin al-Rihani proved crucial in freeing May from the mental institution. She was eventually able to leave thanks to a medical report asserting she was of sound mind. She returned to Cairo where she died on October 17, 1941. More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Cyprus has been embroiled in an ethnic dispute since 1974, when Turkish troops seized the northern tip of the island in response to an Athens-inspired Greek Cypriot coup, aimed at uniting Cyprus with Greece. The actions left the Mediterranean island divided along ethnic lines. The Republic of Cyprus, controlled by Greek Cypriots, is recognised by the international community and became a member of the European Union (EU) in 2004. The northern part of the island is ruled by the government of the self-declared Northern Cyprus, which is recognised by Turkey and guarded by its armed forces. Several UN-mediated efforts to reunify the island have broken down. Most recently, in July 2017, peace talks in the Swiss town of Crans Montana failed to reach a solution to the 'Cyprus problem'. Speaking to Al Jazeera at the presidential palace in Cyprus' capital Nicosia, Anastasiades says he'd be ready to jump out of the interview and begin peace talks immediately if the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mustafa Akinci called him. "I'm always ready to continue the deliberations from the stage they have been left during the Crans Montana conference," he says. "There is only one plan, Plan A, and Plan A means the reunification of the island, and most importantly, to build up a viable, lasting solution. A functioning state ... a real European state, this is what we are looking [for], without privileges to the one community or the other". The recently-reelected president acknowledged that 40 years of division and uncertainty has taken its toll on Cypriots on both sides of the divide. "Every time we are failing to reach a settlement, the disappointment of the people and the distrust are increasing," he says. The dispute escalated last month, when the Turkish Navy blocked access to an Italian drillship. The vessel was part of efforts to explore recently-discovered gas fields on the southeastern tip of the island. The heads of the EU backed Anastasiades, with the European Commission's President Jean-Claude Junker saying he was "strictly against the behaviour of Turkey". In response, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a warning to Cyprus and foreign companies, asking them not to infringe on Turkey's sovereignty. Anastasiades claims a "convergence" has been reached for the exploitation of Cyprus' natural resources, and accuses Turkey of "using excuses in order to intervene", calling indications that the government of the self-declared Northern Cyprus plan to begin drilling in waters they consider their own as a "threat". "For four years now we have been negotiating to find a solution and the hydrocarbon issue has never been on the table, because it has been agreed, and therefore we took steps to prove that we mean business. "Natural resources are belonging to the state and to all legitimate people of Cyprus, either these are Greek or Turkish Cypriots." He confirms that US energy giant Exxon Mobil will shortly begin explorations, but would not confirm or deny having asked the United States for military support to ensure the success of the venture. "Be sure that we have done whatever it is necessary to be done in order to succeed to the energy programme of the Republic." Anastasiades says the exploration process may take several years and that a solution for the Cyprus problem can be "easily" found in that time if there is a "good will". But good will may prove illusive with a raft of contentious issues to be settled. "We are not the ones who is occupying the properties of the other community," says Anastasiades. "We haven't done anything against the Turk Cypriots. We don't what to get advantage of what they are entitled to." He also said the Turkish Cypriot leaders were "always welcome" to participate in the Greek Cypriot government. Under the 1960 constitution, Cyprus' two main communities agreed to divide power, with the executive branch governed by a Greek Cypriot president and a Turkish Cypriot vice president. The vice president was granted the right to veto fundamental laws, but the position has been vacant since 1963, when the Turkish-Cypriot community withdrew from the government. More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Filmmakers: Hisham al-Zaouqi and Maher Jamous In March 2011, a popular uprising began in Syria against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The protests were violently opposed by the Syrian army, leading to the seven-year war which, according to UNHCR figures, has seen nearly 500,000 people killed and over 11 million displaced. The war in Syria has, among other things, destroyed the most precious aspects of people's lives - their families, their homes, their dreams and ambitions. Some areas and cities have suffered destruction on an enormous scale. In the Ruins of a Dream features five Syrians who've been internally displaced or sought refuge in Europe. They reflect on the devastation wrought on their homes, some of which took years to build. "Syrians go through a lot to build a house, especially because of the economic situation like the high cost of construction materials," says Shahoud al-Jadou, from the town of Kafr Zita. His father built the family home but was killed by the Syrian air force, so Shahoud and his family were forced to leave. "When the revolution started, we took part in the protests," says Ahmed Dabbis, from the small town of Kafrnbodeh. "We thought it would succeed quickly, like in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. During this time, the regime was absent in our areas. So we started to build the house and homeland." But eventually, bombing reduced Ahmed's home in Kafrnbodeh to a pile of rubble littered with broken toys and furniture. "It's where my wife and I felt safe and comfortable and where we started our family, had our kids and planned for the future," says Ahmed, as he looks at his destroyed home. "I wasn't enraged by the destruction because I was grateful for my family's and my own safety." Muhammad al-Obaid is a singer who performed songs for the protesters during the 2011 revolution. He used to live and work in Beirut, doing manual jobs, to save enough money to build a family home over the course of 12 years in al-Lataminah. One day he rushed home and found his house levelled after a helicopter had dropped two barrel bombs. "It had been completely demolished. Nothing was left, not a single brick. My heart was broken. It had taken me years to build it," says Muhammad. Human rights activist Mohammed al-Abdo's Idlib home was commandeered by the army who then burned it down. "I became targeted by the regime because of our intensive activities". Sifting through the rubble and old stacks of papers, he says "I wasn't upset by the destruction of the house. I just felt sad for my books. It took me about 25 years to collect them all. I had some very rare books." While those who actively took part in the 2011 anti-government protests were targeted, others like Um Hisham became victims simply because their homes were in the wrong place. "A large military patrol was always deployed in our neighbourhood. They stayed in the shop next to my house," says the 70-year-old widow from al-Kadam area of Damascus. When the military action increased, she says, "I went to my daughter's house in al-Yarmouk refugee camp, and it was the same there. So we went back home." Um Hisham now lives with her daughter in a tiny apartment in Worms, Germany, after her Damascus home was burned and robbed. The monumental loss of her family home is still very painful and has worsened her heart condition. "My house is always on my mind... It's very difficult to see your own house burned...All the trees in my house were burned. We went inside the house, and everything was burned. You could even see the iron girders in the ceiling. I hope no one ever sees what I saw," says Um Hisham. "I told my daughter I'd just like to see our home in Syria one more time, to see our family. Unfortunately, there's no one left there. All my neighbours have died." After seven years of war, the conflict shows no signs of abating. A World Bank report issued in July 2017 estimated that the Syrian civil war has damaged or destroyed about a third of housing and half of medical and education facilities; and led to significant economic loss. The destruction of physical infrastructure, though, does not capture the full human impact of the war. The World Bank report called the visible impacts only "the tip of the iceberg." More than three million homes have been destroyed, and millions of lives have been disrupted. More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

In January, Israel approved a plan that asked asylum seekers to choose between indefinite detention in an Israeli prison, or deportation to a third country in Africa. Rwanda and Uganda are reported to be the countries accepting those deported from Israel, despite denials from both governments. According to the scheme, asylum seekers will be given a plane ticket and up to $3,500 for leaving, however, many are choosing to stay in Israel, rather than risk returning to Africa. Many of the asylum seekers come from war-ravaged Eritrea and Sudan, however, Israel does not recognise the majority as refugees, claiming that they are economic migrants or "illegal infiltrators". Teklit Michael and Eden Tesfamariam have lived in the Israeli capital Tel Aviv for around 10 years, both of them say they fled Eritrea to escape the military. They talk to Al Jazeera about the situation in Eritrea, life in Israel and their hopes for the future. More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

As part of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, Greece and Turkey agreed to uproot two million people in a massive population exchange, the lasting effects of which are still felt by some in both countries today. Only since the 1990s has it been possible for the 'exchangees' caught up in the upheaval and their families to visit what they see as their ancestral villages in Greece and Turkey. Huseyin Selvi was forced out of Greece when he was five, but at the age of 97 he was able to travel in a group from Turkey to the village where he was born. The exchangees had to travel on foot, by train and by sea and many of the ships involved in this mammoth operation were full to overflowing. The elderly and the young especially suffered from the shocking travel conditions. "My mother had to throw my younger sister, who was three or four, into the sea. I don't remember it but that's what my mother told me", says Huseyin. Numan Toker, a second generation exchangee, also travelled to the village in Greece his late mother was forced out of. "It was my mother's last wish. Now I'll bring water from there, to her grave. I'll bring soil...She was longing to see it [village] again but never had the chance. I asked her if I could take her. She replied, "Yes son, please. Would you really take me there?" Of course, I said I would but it wasn't meant to be. We couldn't make it in the end," says a tearful Numan. His ancestors had lived in Greece for 400-500 years, until the population exchange. Recalling his mother's stories, Numan says "She cried, laughed and talked about what they used to do. The day they were called back to Turkey and were leaving, they left 500 sheep and their farmland behind. She even left dinner cooking on the stove. They left everything behind." Population shifts occurred in the early twentieth century as old empires disintegrated and new nation states emerged. But these changes often raised complex questions of identity for the ordinary people caught up in them. Greek Orthodox Christians and Muslims had lived together under Ottoman rule for centuries, though not always entirely peacefully. The Greek war of independence from the Ottomans was fought between 1821 and 1832 and the new state of Greece founded. This created tension which increased after the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. Muslims remaining in Greece and the Balkans suffered discrimination and persecution, while Greek Orthodox Christians were expelled by the Ottomans from the Aegean region. After the Ottoman defeat in World War One, the victorious allies maneuvered to divide up their former empire. This was resisted by the Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kamal Attaturk who fought the Turkish War of Independence between 1919 and 1923. At Lausanne in Switzerland, all the parties sat round the conference table in 1922-23. Part of the resulting Treaty of Lausanne involved an agreement between Greece and Turkey to forcibly exchange around 1.5 million Greek Orthodox Christians and a lower number of Muslims in the largest population displacement of modern times. When the exchangees arrived at their destinations, they often faced serious problems integrating into their new communities – and some of their social, housing and education problems have persisted. Language was an immediate problem and exchangees like Nuriye Can who left Greece in 1923 for Turkey were all Greek-speakers. It was hard for the first generation to learn Turkish after having grown up with Greek as their native language. "I couldn't speak any Turkish when I got married", says Nuriye. "My mother-in-law used to ask me why I spoke the language of an 'non-believer'. She asked, "Why don't you speak your father's language?" I did eventually learn Turkish." There are now reciprocal visits by both Greek and Turks, as part of a cultural project supported by the European Union and the Foundation of Lausanne Treaty Emigrants. "I thought it was a debt of honour, a moral obligation to come and kiss the ground where my grandfathers were born," says Evangelia Kiortci who found her grandparents' village. "They didn't make it, nor did my parents but I'm a third generation refugee, and I've come...They left for Greece and they've always had this sorrow. They had never had the chance to come back and walk on the same ground. I'm deeply moved." For Dimitris Dayioglu, a visit to the Turkish village his grandmother was expelled from, was an equally emotional experience. "My grandmother wanted very much to g Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/

Rokhaya Diallo is a French activist, feminist, filmmaker and writer. A long-time anti-racism campaigner, she has found herself at the centre of a debate about racism and free speech in France. Last year, she was forced to step down from the government's Digital Council - an incident that only served to reinforce her belief that France has a problem with state-sponsored racism. "The government was asked by people who disagree with my views to evict me from the council," Diallo says. "The fact that I was tackling racism, state-sponsored racism, that I was supporting Muslim women who wanted to wear the hijab..., basically it was those views and the way I frame my views on racism in France [which led to the removal]." Diallo has been very vocal about police profiling and the fact that not all French citizens are treated equally by the state. "The state doesn't even deny the fact that the police is over-controlling black people and Arab people and Muslim men. So to me that means there is nothing that is done to prevent that.... France isn't doing anything to protect its citizens of colour from police brutality and police profiling," she says. "When I say there is racism from the French institutions, I am not saying that all the French people are racist, I am just saying that the state should implement measures to stop that." Despite her dismissal from the Digital Council, Diallo still believes French President Emmanuel Macron could affect positive change in the country. "I think that he does have a more inclusive vision of France because he belongs to a different generation, compared to the former presidents, so the way he sees France is actually very different because he is used to see[ing] France with a more diverse face," Diallo says. As a Muslim and the daughter of Senegalese and Gambian parents, Diallo says that her prominence as an activist and journalist, frequently featured on French television, has been an exception to the norm in France. "If you watch French TV, you don't see that many faces looking like mine, and today I really consider that a privilege and I try to use that privilege to tackle racism because I know that many of my fellow French citizens who are not white are not as lucky as I am and don't have the means to be vocal and make public the statements [that I do]." Speaking out has brought Diallo considerable backlash, particularly when discussing controversial issues such as religion. While she supports France's hallowed separation of church and state as "a very, very good principle", Diallo has been vocal in saying that the country's strict laws prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols in public are problematic, particularly when they concern schools, where, as of 2004, children are not allowed to wear religious symbols such as crucifixes or headscarves. "To me school is a place where you can learn about diversity and it's important that the teacher shows neutrality, but the students don't have to be bound by such measures because they are not in contract with the state. "It places the heads of schools in a very, very strange place because they have to guess the religion of certain students because if a black student wears a headscarf, is it religious? Is it cultural?" Diallo has also spoken out against France's controversial ban on face-covering veils, which came into force in 2011. "To me it's a very patronising way of seeing women to say 'ok, to us, freedom means being dressed in [a certain] way and we will help you Muslim women to understand that freedom is uncovering, and we will even force you to uncover to make you understand that all feminism is like that. It's very ethnocentric and very post-colonial feminism to me." Asked about the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment, she says it's major progress, "even a turning point.... because [for] women to say and to be vocal about the harassment that they are exposed to every day.... it was not something that was very public, it was something women used to speak about behind closed doors, but it was not public." Despite her criticisms of the state of affairs in France today, Diallo remains positive about the future. "I really think that there is hope," she says. "If I was not hopeful, I would not be an activist and I would not try to work on those issues. "There is hope, there is a new generation that is coming who are starting to be vocal, to raise awareness on issues that didn't used to be mentioned before, so that fact that we are speaking ... about France and race, me as a black woman in the More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/