During Pride month this year, the governorates of Izmir and Antalya banned all Pride-related events citing public safety and security concerns. One month earlier, the Pride march organized by the students of Middle East Technical University in Ankara was violently broken up by the police. Pride marches have been organized in Istanbul since 1993, but […]
Peace Education in Turkey: A Practitioner’s Perspective
Özge Sönmez Vardar is Program Director at YUVA Association, an Istanbul-based NGO that tackles issues relating to ecology, human rights, and poverty eradication simultaneously. In 2019, Özge was selected by the Malala Fund to be a Gulmakai Champion from the Syria region, for her work supporting girls’ education, especially refugee girls’ access to education and […]
US Institute of Peace’s event on How to Advance Inclusive Peace Processes
On May 30, 2019, US Institute of Peace organized an event, How to Advance Inclusive Peace Processes: Mobilizing Men as Partners for Women, Peace, and Security. The speakers at the event talked about how men in positions of authority could help ensure that women are included in peace processes and decision-making. Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini from the […]
Is there a correlation between peace and economic development?
Is there a correlation between peace and economic development? The answer is important because, in today’s world, societies mired in violent conflict are also characterized by lack of development and shortage of economic opportunities. Global Peace Index (GPI), produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) is the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness. […]
Ayogya: Nepal’s Disenfranchised Ex-Combatants
In March 2019, Rukmini Banerjee (President of HasNa) traveled to Nepal to attend the South Asian Regional Institute for the Study and Practice of Strategic Nonviolent Action organized by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, Center for Social Change, National Network for the Families of the Disappeared, and Department of Conflict, Peace, and Development Studies, […]
Asian Action Institute 2019: South Asian Regional Institute for the Study and Practice of Strategic Nonviolent Action
Earlier this month, the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) partnered with Nepal’s Center for Social Change (CSC), Department of Conflict, Peace, and Development Studies, Tribhuvan University, and the National Network of the Families of the Disappeared (NEFAD) to organize a week-long, intensive training program on non-violent civil resistance. The Asian Action Institute was held […]
DemoSapiens: Freedom Under Threat
This past Thursday, HasNa hosted the third gathering in our DemoSapiens discussion series, co-hosted with MetaCulture. DemoSapiens comes from the Greek demos, meaning “people” and sapiens, meaning “wise,” because the series is designed to allow us to learn from one another’s wisdom. This third episode really leaned into that intention; there was no presentation and the entirety […]
Hamzah Jamjoom: The Ego
On January 9, Busboys and Poets (Takoma) hosted a conversation between the Saudi filmmaker Hamzah Jamjoom and John Hanshaw, Founder of the Washington Film Institute. Born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Hamzah Jamjoom is a writer, director, and actor currently based in Chicago. From a young age, Hamzah exposed himself to the art of storytelling and […]
Interested in a scholarship for a Master’s degree in Business Administration at BAU International University in Washington, DC?
BAU International University (BAUI) is offering scholarships to three students referred by HasNa. If you are finishing your undergraduate studies or have recently graduated from college, you might be eligible to apply for a scholarship at BAU International University in Washington, D.C. best gaming laptop under 600HasNa can recommend three students per academic year for […]
The Power of Storytelling
On May 21, 2015, HasNa screened Hüseyin Karabey’s 2014 Turkish film, “Come to My Voice,” at the Avalon Theater in Washington, DC. It is a simple enough premise, but powerful in its ability to bring to light the realities of a typical Kurdish village’s unfortunate interactions with police through a storyline that seems at once […]