ifa blog

Interviews, essays, reports – in the ifa blog, the diverse topics of the ifa are vividly presented in various formats.

Illustration: A magnet in the colours of the European Union is attracting five different people.

Time to restore trust

At this time of great anxiety and geopolitical disorder, three unprecedented challenges knock on our doors: climate change, demography and migration, and the digital era. These all ...

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Jewish Life beyond the Shoah

Jewish life in Germany looks back over 1,700 years of history, which has been celebrated with a nationwide anniversary since 2021. Andrei Kovacs manages the association which was ...

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All Colours – the Fight for Trans Rights in Pakistan

Pakistan is known to be a conservative country. Still, in 2018 the Pakistani government passed one of the world's most progressive trans rights bills. Kami Sid and Hina of the NGO Sub ...

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Metaphor for enlightenment. A flock of birds flies out of a head. A man climbs up a spiral staircase to the open head. In the background clouds, a skyline and a tree.

We Need a New Enlightenment

Previous concepts of progress have failed. Our oceans are polluted, the climate is changing, we are ravaged by diseases, hunger is proliferating, and black bodies are drowning in oceans ...

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Freedom of the Press Under Attack – in Germany and Paraguay

The climate in Germany towards journalists clearly heated up in 2021. The greatest danger came from non-governmental actors. The same applies for Paraguay, albeit under different ...

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So Where Do You Come From?

The German-Vietnamese author, Khuê Phạm, travelled to Singapore as part of the ifa's lecture programme to present her debut novel at the Literature Festival. To her surprise, she found ...

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People are on the street and there is a stand with balloons

'Celebration of Our Common Cultural Life'

Sixty years ago the Federal Republic of Germany signed the recruitment agreement with Turkey. According to the literary scholar Nesrin Tanç, the perspective of the so-called 'guest ...

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Woman with megaphone in hand

Even Heroes Sometimes Need a Break

Human rights are violated worldwide. Human Rights Day on December 10th is a reminder of this. Human rights defenders stand up against these violations and so repeatedly put themselves ...

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Detail from the comic 'Temple of refuge'

TEMPLE OF REFUGE: ­'A Better World for Everyone'

In 2016, Sartep Namiq fled from Iraqi Kurdistan to Berlin. In a utopian comic book, realised together with cyberpunk legend Bruce Sterling and a new star of the German comic scene Felix ...

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