Middle East & North Africa

Rubber Dollie

It’s a macabre charade,
one night in the secret

theater of Abu Ghraib.
The anklets are shackles.

In another, a leashed
dog — loud, black,

and snarling — takes
center stage.

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Other Mothers

Their sons who speak of a cause
As if it were their two feet
beneath them. That they could hold an idea
and a weapon at the same time.

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Iran’s Turmoil at the Top

Iran’s Turmoil at the Top

There is a struggle between Ahmadinejad and the clerics around Khamenei. Although it may play out in arguments over obscure religious issues — one critic of the president accused him of recruiting an army of genies – at its heart the fight is over political and economic power: who wields it and to what purpose? Some of the players, like the president and the supreme leader, perform in the spotlight. Others, like the powerful Revolutionary Guard and an increasingly restive population hammered by economic difficulties, operate in the wings.

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