It’s a sensitive issue and one that divides both people within the Islamic faith and outside it: the hijab. For some, it’s an expression of modesty and liberation, for others it represents injustice and oppression. Although nowadays the hijab is most closely associated with Islam, it’s not an Islamic invention. The headscarf is mentioned in all three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Even today Orthodox female Jews who are married don headscarves and Catholics nuns aren’t seen without their hair covered. But it’s the Islamic headscarf that garners most ...

Just a few weeks into the US-led airstrike campaign against Daesh in Syria last September, Kurdish militia YPG was barely holding off the militants in Syria’s Kobani. Scenes coming out of the Kurdish border town were gruesome. Militants stormed the streets and locked into fierce clashes with the YPG , while gun-wielding Kurdish grannies banded together into makeshift civilian armies. Meanwhile, gritty photos circulated Daesh-affiliated social media accounts showing the severed heads of captured Kurdish fighters. YPG commanders were desperately calling on the US and Turkey to bulk up weapons ...