Skip to content

Category: Salam News

  • Not seeing the sun for eight years

    Not seeing the sun for eight years

    On April 16th, the whole world was talking about Yemen. That day saw a landmark event – a prisoner exchange between the Huti movement and the Yemeni government recognized by the UN. Today, more than a week after the landmark event, prisoners held by Huti militants are beginning to tell their stories

  • 50 years ago, Indian ecofeminists protected forests in the Himalayas

    50 years ago, Indian ecofeminists protected forests in the Himalayas

    Despite the fact that environmental movements may be primarily associated with activism in the “West”, they have a long and rich history in South Asia. It has been 50 years now since the foundation of the ecofeminist Chipko movement in India – a movement of women who hugged trees in resistance to tree felling

  • What does a Pole think when they hear ‘Muslim’?

    What does a Pole think when they hear ‘Muslim’?

    ‘The trivialization of Islamophobia is like trivial nationalism, one that is unconscious. It is the air we breathe. The language, the currency, the symbol. It surrounds us so much that we no longer pay attention to it, reinforcing our ethnic identity. Islamophobia functions in the same way in Poland. We have stopped reacting to it’

  • Zooming in on Amman

    Zooming in on Amman

    Among many pictures of Petra, the Citadel, and other landmarks of Jordan few capture everyday life in the Hashemite Kingdom like those shot by Baha Suleiman. No wonder the nineteen-year-old photographer has been already appreciated twice by GQ magazine

  • ‘I dream of canoeing on the Dnieper River’. One year has passed since Russia invaded Ukraine

    ‘I dream of canoeing on the Dnieper River’. One year has passed since Russia invaded Ukraine

    It’s been a year already. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is also the anniversary of establishing the ‘Radziwiłłowska 3’ or ‘R3’ Help Point (named after a street name) run by the Salam Lab. During these 365 days, thousands of Ukrainians and refugees of other nationalities passed through this place, all fleeing the brutality of war,…

  • With a kickflip into Jordanian society

    With a kickflip into Jordanian society

    Back in 1996 a boy of Palestinian descent living in Amman was gifted a skateboard and he started skating around the city, getting into troubles with the police and pedestrians evoking the dream of a skatepark in him. His name was Mohammed Zakaria. In 2009 he founded his own skateboard brand called ‘Philadelphia’

  • God, should I tell them that I’m a Muslim?

    God, should I tell them that I’m a Muslim?

    ‘I wish that people didn’t have to be scared anymore. I want them to ask questions, even the inappropriate ones . I prefer that Poles ask me from which part of Iraq I am, so that I can answer back and tell them that I’m from Iran and not Iraq. This helps us start a…

  • Self-made. A story of a Jewish woman 

    Self-made. A story of a Jewish woman 

    ‘Blessed are You, Eternal our God, who has not made me a woman.’ With these words Orthodox Jews welcome every morning. Our guest from the Hasidic community shows, that a Jewish woman can make herself

  • A society without immigration is not a living society

    A society without immigration is not a living society

    ‘We never know who the other is, just as we never really know who we are ourselves.’ – says the author of The Guest, Ariane Koch.

  • ‘The Monday that changed everything.’ We talked to a Turk coming from the epicentre of the earthquake

    ‘The Monday that changed everything.’ We talked to a Turk coming from the epicentre of the earthquake

    ‘When I was finally able to reconnect with my family, I saw my mother’s hands shaking.’ Huseyin Celik, a journalist from Turkey living in Warsaw, tells Salam Lab about the earthquake

  • Does it make sense to celebrate Black History Month in Poland?

    Does it make sense to celebrate Black History Month in Poland?

    “Once, a strange woman at a bus stop put her hand in my hair, I instinctively grabbed her nose. She stopped and asked, surprised, why I had done it. I answered by asking her the same question”. A conversation with Noemi Ndoloka Mbezi.

  • Fairuz. The lebanese voice of hope

    Fairuz. The lebanese voice of hope

    “Lebanese men and women may differ from one another in every way but when it comes to Her, they are always in agreement.” Fairuz – the most famous Lebanese artist and voice of hope

  • Poles were also refugees. They were hosted by an Indian Maharaja 

    Poles were also refugees. They were hosted by an Indian Maharaja 

    We are used to the fact that it is white people who save those fleeing war or persecution. It wasn’t always this way.

  • Cut his hair off in solidarity with Iranian women. A story of an Iranian living in Poland

    Cut his hair off in solidarity with Iranian women. A story of an Iranian living in Poland

    “I knew I had to leave Iran. I’ve known it since I turned fourteen” – says Michał Rezazadeh, who creates Irańczyk w Polsce [Iranian in Poland] channel and fanpage living in Warsaw.

  • Who was the real Santa Claus?

    Who was the real Santa Claus?

    An old man with a beard, a witch, or a troll? Who was the Santa Claus underneath? What shape does it assume today?

  • Who founded a Polish village near Istanbul?

    Who founded a Polish village near Istanbul?

    Ludwika Śniadecka – a Polish woman, the leading spokeswoman for the Polish independence movement, the unrequited love of Juliusz Słowacki.

  • “These were the orders”. A soldier learns the truth about refugees

    “These were the orders”. A soldier learns the truth about refugees

    A couple days ago I picked up two boys seeking to hitchhike. Okay, two young men. They are both nineteen. One of them was from the Territorial Defence Forces. He has never seen a refugee. He never participated in deportation or pushbacks. When asked “what will you do when you see a refugee family in…

  • Impossible marriage. Meet Ola and Dawood

    Impossible marriage. Meet Ola and Dawood

    I know Ola from the choir. We unexpectedly ran into each other at an event at the Embassy of India in Warsaw where she was dancing the traditional Indian Kathak dance. We haven’t seen each other for years so I didn’t know Ola had been married to Dawood, a man from India. Today they form…