Al Jazeera World

Filmmakers: Nasser Farghaly and Hani Bishr Over decades, millions of people from the Arab world have emigrated - some driven by conflict and persecution, others for economic and family reasons. They have settled in Europe, Australia, the Americas and Africa. Many of these are students from the Arab world, who have sought opportunities in overseas universities, moves that often become stepping stones to new lives in faraway countries. Al Jazeera World meets people who have built successful lives away from their Arab homelands while remaining connected to their roots and giving back to their countries of origin. The Innovator and Tech Entrepreneur Bachir Halimi left Algeria in 1975 to study computing at the University of Montreal. At the time, computer science was an emerging science and Halimi later found success as an innovative and visionary tech innovator. Described by many as a serial entrepreneur, Halimi founded three Canadian companies that won recognition within their respective industries for their innovative technology. "I didn't know anything about this field of study except that it was new and had a future. I knew you had to be very good at mathematics to study in this field and I was not that bad," Halimi says. In 1980, he launched his first company, which combined his computer skills with his mastery of Arabic, developing an algorithm that allowed computers to work in Arabic. Five years later Microsoft bought his company for its Windows operating system. He started again, developing a new business that was later acquired by Bell Canada. Halimi currently heads his third company, Speech Mobility, a world leader in advanced telecommunications office solutions. While Halimi is now a prominent entrepreneur, he also serves as an adviser to the Canadian Red Cross and is also involved in helping North Africans integrate into Canadian society, mentoring a new generation of young entrepreneurs to develop their business and entrepreneurial skills. The Translator Muhammad Abdel Haleem became a star pupil while in his native Egypt. "I was born in a village in the Nile Delta, part of Al Sharqia Governorate. I learned the Quran by heart in the village's religious school which allowed me to join the Zagazig Religious Institute, one of the biggest institutes in Al-Azhar. There I attended primary and secondary school. Later I joined the faculty of science at Cairo University and was ranked first, so I was appointed as an assistant lecturer in the faculty," Abdel Haleem says. After his appointment at Cairo University, Abdel Haleem moved to study at the University of Cambridge. He has fond memories of his student days in Cambridge, though he struggled at times to adjust to English culture and customs. "Cambridge and this faculty changed my life on a personal level. Like any student here I had to ride a bike. As an Azhar graduate, I never rode a bicycle in Egypt. Socially, it wasn't appropriate, and I didn't have the money either," Abdel Haleem says. He later adds: "I remember a funny story when I bought a pen and told my landlord, 'that's for you', as the tradition goes in Egypt. The British man took it seriously and thought I had bought him a pen. He thanked me and the next day, he bought me a new green scarf. That was a funny incident showing the difference in our cultures." Half a century later, Muhammad Abdel Haleem remains in the United Kingdom. In 1971 he was offered a teaching post at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the University of London, where he continues to lecture. While at SOAS, he created a new complete English translation of the Quran, a task which took him seven years. He describes the translation as "the biggest achievement" in his life. Abdel Haleem is a Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of London, and also editor of the Journal of Qur'anic Studies. He is also designated a Hafiz, a Muslim scholar, who has memorised the entire Quran and in 2008 he received the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to Arabic culture, literature and to interfaith understanding. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

On August 6, 1945, a US B-29 bomber dropped the first-ever atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. At least 140,000 people were killed in the attack and tens of thousands more died later because of the effects of radiation. Ever since the end of the World War II, there's been an international consensus and effort to contain the spread of nuclear weapons. The global community has created several organisations and signed treaties to prevent potential nuclear attacks. "I think today, we are now facing the same situation as if we were the day after the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, because today, still the most crucial political, moral and social challenge is how to stop nuclear explosion from happening on this planet again," the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) Lassina Zerbo tells Al Jazeera. As of today, nine countries have admitted to possessing nuclear weapons. But only five - the US, Russia, the UK, France and China - are part of the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which calls on its signatories to open their doors for inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA is one of the organisations promoting the peaceful use of nuclear technology - while a 1996 treaty, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty banned all nuclear tests for civilian and military purposes. But there are 12 states which have neither signed nor ratified that treaty. Among them are three with nuclear weapons: North Korea, India, and Pakistan. With North Korea launching missiles and the growing conflict between India and Pakistan, can the world prevent a nuclear attack? "When I hear the word 'pushing the button', it frightens me. My biggest hope is that when we get close to any catastrophe, we come to our sense somehow," says Zerbo. "I think I see no way in this civilised world, no way in this 21st century any decent government or decent political leader thinking about pushing the button of the nuclear weapon because they know how devastating that could be. Because it's not a war that anyone can win. It's for all of us to lose." The Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization Lassina Zerbo talks to Al Jazeera about North Korea, the collapsing Iran nuclear deal, Saudi Arabia's nuclear programme, India-Pakistan tensions, a new nuclear arms race, and the global threat of nuclear war. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Filmmaker: Mariam Shahin As the crippling blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt continues, poverty levels continue to rise in the territory, a narrow strip of land along the eastern Mediterranean coast. Gaza is home to more than 1.5 million Palestinians, half of them under the age of 15. Unemployment stands at 52 percent, according to the World Bank. Gazans face poor water and sanitation conditions and overstretched hospitals, among other adversities, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. This film follows five strong-willed women who are doing their utmost to make a difference in Gaza in different walks of life - medicine, social work, photojournalism, music and local government. Despite the socio-economic conditions in Gaza, the five of them work to make life better for their families and communities. Filmmaker Mariam Shahin tells Al Jazeera: “Nour, Mona, Itimad, Haifa and Heba represent a new generation of Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip who have freed themselves psychologically of restrictions that society placed on them.” She says that they defy stereotypes of women in the Arab world and have carried out a “quiet revolution” by using their work and activities to follow their chosen paths. “They have also chosen to carry men with them rather than stand against them, in an effort to reform their society without causing major upheaval,” Shahin adds. Nour Halaby is a photographer who has documented the experiences of many Palestinians, including some of the women in this film. Itimad Al Tarshawi is a local politician used to work in the Ministry of Social Affairs but has now moved to the Ministry of Labour. Haifa Farajallah is a singer trying to make her way in the creative sector as well as being a young divorcee. Dr Mona Kiskin is a neurosurgeon at Al Shifa Hospital who is also a mother of three. Heba Mahmoud Abu Shalouf was badly injured in an Israeli attack but married, has two children and trained to be a trauma therapist. “Seven years ago, people looked down on injured and disabled people. People said that girls with injuries should just stay at home and do nothing. Now things have changed. Every home has someone injured or disabled. Children with disabilities weren’t allowed into regular schools. They were kept at home. This has now changed. Schools, organisations, and universities now admit disabled people,” Shalouf tells Al Jazeera. Four years after the original filming of The New Women of Gaza, filmmaker Mariam Shahin returned to see how these five women in Gaza were coping with the continued blockade. This film reflects the changes in their lives since and the work they have done to improve the lives of others in Gaza. “It is great to be able to enter the world of others with the camera and document their lives. It is even greater to be able to capture the changes that take place after the initial film is finished,” Shahin explains. “Returning to the women we documented in 2015 gave them a sense of comfort and the knowledge that we did not ‘steal’ their stories but continue to be interested in allowing their voices to be heard and their continued struggles not to be forgotten.” - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Filmmaker: Sherif Fathy Egyptians top the world at squash. No other country comes close to their recent global dominance and no other sport in Egypt matches the success of squash. The sport was introduced to Egypt by the British in the 1920s. Amr Bey was an Egyptian diplomat and squash player who won the British Open six times in the 1930s and is generally considered to be the first major, international squash player. Today, in 2019, seven of the top-ten ranked players are Egyptian, including the world number one. In the last two decades, six Egyptian men and two women have topped the world rankings. Their juniors have won 25 individual titles and Egypt has won 23 team titles across all categories. International stars Tarek Momen and Raneem El Welily say it is all about hard work from an early age. "I started playing squash when I was five. It was forced on me. It was the day when my parents came with this racket. I thought it was like a tennis racket but smaller. They said I'd start squash the next day. I was just a kid and knew nothing about squash," Momen tells Al Jazeera. He adds: "I wasn't sure why we played in a closed room and hit the ball at the wall. I trained against my will for almost two years." At the time of writing, Momen is ranked number three in the world. Egypt nurtures young squash talent and has pioneered international competitions for squash players as young as age nine. Former professionals turn to coaching and parents also help their kids succeed in a highly popular sport. "My parents saw that squash was a sport that Egypt could succeed in locally and abroad. The first time I went to the squash club wasn't to train but for my brother's trial lesson. My parents agreed with the coach for my brother to start. I used to watch my brother play after my swimming class. A year later the squash coach asked me to try," El Welily explains. Now she holds the number one world ranking for squash. One leading coach suggests Egyptian success is based on breaking the mould, meaning that their players are resourceful, creative, and "attacking". Ashraf Hanafi, who has more than 35 years of experience as a player and a coach, tells Al Jazeera: "People ask about the secret of Egyptians getting into the top 10 in the men's, women's and junior categories. The secret is a magical mix of many things." "They start playing at a very young age and produce strong results." But how long can Egyptians stay at the top of squash? High salaries abroad, especially in the United States, are luring some of their best coaching talent away and many believe this, as well as a lack of funding at home, are threats to Egypt's dominance. But Momen and El Welily have found more than just playing and financial reward success through squash. They became friends on the international circuit and got married in 2014, becoming the highest-profile married couple in Egyptian sport. The couple continues to appear in major tournaments around the world. "A year into marriage she [El Welily] beat Nicole David who was the defending world champion for nine consecutive years. Raneem has become the first Egyptian sportswoman to be world number one," Momen says. "That's a big achievement for us. It's made me happy." - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Filmmakers: Hani Bashir and Mohammad Amr Over the decades, millions of people from the Arab world have emigrated - some driven by conflict and persecution, others for economic and family reasons. They have settled in Europe, Australia, the Americas and Africa. But the stories most often told are those of refugees fleeing war and persecution, stories that can be incomplete. Al Jazeera World meets people who have built successful lives away from their Arab homelands while remaining connected to their roots and giving back to their countries of origin. The British-Palestinian campaigner Essam Mustafa Yousef came to the United Kingdom in the 1980s as a student and now, more than three decades later, he is still there, working as an activist and campaigner. Driven by a commitment to his native Palestine, he established an aid organisation with the primary goal of helping Palestinian communities. "I came to Britain primarily to study. I'd planned to stay for a couple of years but I ended up staying for 35," Yousef tells Al Jazeera. He explains that after he arrived in Britain, he began to raise funds for those in the Occupied Territories at the local mosque in Cricklewood, an area in northwest London. Eventually, he moved his relief work to an office nearby. Yousef is now the co-founder of the British charity the Palestine Relief and Development Fund, better known as Interpal. For over 25 years, it has provided humanitarian and development aid to Palestinians in need, focusing on relief to orphans, people with disabilities, the sick and the poor. In 2003, the US Treasury designated Interpal as a 'terrorist entity,' alleging it was using its charitable status to channel funds to Hamas, a charge that Interpal and its trustees vigorously denied. Nonetheless, it continues to operate as a registered charity in the UK. The Charity Commission, the official regulator of charities in Britain, has investigated Interpal several times and has found no reason to alter its charitable status. "We go through a long process to vet the aid organisations we work with and to ensure they operate within the law. Each centre supervises and ensures their allocated funds reach people in need in their areas. Since these centres know the situation [on the ground] very well they act on our behalf to deliver aid we send from Britain. They are the agencies on the ground while we are the fundraisers," Yousef says. The Syrian astronomer and stargazer living in Hawaii As a child in Syria, Dr Sahdia Habbal looked to the skies with curiosity and wonder. Today she is one of the world's leading astronomers. Habbal was born in Damascus and developed a love for physics at school. "Education was always important for my family," Habbal tells Al Jazeera. "I was 12 when I read a biography of Marie Curie, the pioneer of radioactivity. I was very impressed by her and wanted to be just like her." Habbal later won a coveted place in a scientific doctorate programme at the University of Cincinnati, the only woman in an all-male department. "I wasn't just a woman but also a Syrian woman. They were surprised to see a woman from that part of the world with scientific ambitions", Habbal says. After gaining a prestigious spot at a research centre in Boulder, Colorado, Habbal developed expertise in 'solar wind'. Before long, her work came to the attention of NASA. Her career eventually led her to the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy. Habbal is now an 'eclipse chaser', monitoring total solar eclipses in over 10 countries including India, Guadalupe, China and French Polynesia. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Peter Maurer, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), says his organisation's budget has doubled in the past few years as it deals with the scale of conflict and displacement in the world today. The organisation's work is based on the Geneva Conventions, a set of international treaties signed in 1949 that defines the international legal standards for the humane treatment of civilians and prisoners of war during times of conflict. "It is all about preserving humanity in war," Maurer says. The Conventions allow the Red Cross to provide its services to those engaged in conflict, including ensuring humanitarian assistance for victims of war, responding to emergencies, and promoting respect for international humanitarian law. But with the scale of current global conflicts - and the increasing battle for influence - how does the ICRC make sure the Geneva Conventions are followed? "Nobody can discard the stark reality that the Geneva Conventions are violated by a lot of parties in today's conflicts," Maurer tells Al Jazeera, but he stops short of directly calling out any of the offending parties. Discussing violations of international humanitarian law in Yemen, he says it is "a glass-half-full, half-empty" situation. "While the pattern of implementation of the Geneva Conventions in a context like Yemen is of course a big challenge - and we see violations continuing - we also see big efforts from all the belligerents to engage with us and to improve." Other deeply entrenched or fragmented conflicts are a growing concern for the organisation, Maurer says. He calls this time "a difficult period" that reflects the "impossibility at the moment of big powers to move to consensus on how exactly to settle ... some of the biggest conflicts in the world". This includes Syria, which is the ICRC's largest ongoing operation. The conflict continues despite diplomatic efforts, which Maurer agrees has involved a discrepancy between words and actions of the countries involved. "For eight years we have heard political leaders talking about the fact that there is no military solution while pursuing on-the-ground military solutions," he says, later adding: "We have even more been distressed by the repetitive violations of international humanitarian law in the conduct of hostilities, in use of weapons, in the treatment of detainees." "I think we can only hope that in a foreseeable future we find at least ceasefire-type arrangements which give reprieve to the civilian population which has so much suffered in that Syrian context," he says. Outside of the Middle East, Maurer says large-scale violence is also afflicting people in Africa's Sahel and Lake Chad basin regions - but with far less international attention. "When you visit the region it pops to your eyes that there is long-standing developmental reasons which contribute to the fragility of this context. There is climate change-induced migration and population displacements which comes on top of a very war-torn and violent situation," he says. "The Europeans only look through the eyes of migrants coming to them, and maybe insufficiently look at the complexity of the origin of fragility and population displacements in the Sahel and the Lake Chad." He says climate change will continue to drive instability. "When you look at the list of countries most at risk from climate change, and you look at my priority list of conflict, war, and violence, these almost match. Eight out of 10 places in the world which are top priorities to ICRC to respond to war [are] at the same time the most fragile in terms of climate change. So there is obviously a link between climate change-induced fragility and violence-induced fragility." - - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

From 1948 to 1967, residents of Egyptian Sinai and neighbouring Gaza considered the area as a single territory. But in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Israel captured Sinai and the Gaza Strip. Twelve years later, Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty which returned control of Sinai to Egypt; but the Israeli occupation of Gaza continued. In 1982, a wall was built to separate the two territories - a wall which still stands today. "They started building the wall at midday," says Alaa Attiya Issa, recalling that day in April 1982. "I was at my uncle's house on the Palestinian side of Rafah. At 11:15am my uncle said 'They'll close the border at midday. You'd better go home now so you don't get stuck'. I said goodbye and cried." "We hadn't expected that to happen," he says. "A wall was built and the Palestinian side of Rafah was separated from the Egyptian side. Those on the Sinai side stayed there, and those on the Palestinian side stayed there. It happened just like that." Issa, a former footballer, once played for Rafah FC in Sinai. But because of the wall, he decided to move back to Palestine, settle in Gaza and give up football. From the start, the wall divided families, split communities and carved some towns in two. Routines were disrupted, trading relationships undermined, health and education affected - whole ways of life turned upside-down. The life of Samya al-Agha, an Egyptian, was affected by the wall soon after her marriage to a Palestinian from Gaza. The border wall went up just 20 days after they were wed, separating her new home from her Sinai family in Arish. "One half of the family lives in Egyptian Rafah and the other half in Palestine," she says. "My father used to work in Palestine. He used to move freely between the two countries ... He used to come here to farm. It was all one piece of land. He even used to go to Friday noon prayer in Gaza. He and my grandfather used to ride a camel to the Grand Mosque in Khan Younis. They didn't even realise these were two different countries. They thought it was all one." Bedouin tribes living between the territories also saw their lives change overnight. "After the wall was built, our al-Tarabin tribe was divided into two parts," says Najeh al-Hamidi, a Bedouin born in Gaza but now living in Sinai. "People call them Palestine's al-Tarabin and Sinai's al-Tarabin though we're one tribe and one family going back to the same great-grandfather." "The problem is not the people," he says. "The problem lies with international law. It doesn't take humanity into consideration." Although the region’s peaceful social coexistence ended in 1982, older residents on both sides of the wall hold on to their memories of life as it was before they were separated. In spite of the metal and concrete barrier and the harsh political reality it represents, they remain firm in their belief in the unity of the spirit of those on either side. "I'm now standing here, only 10 metres away from the Sinai side of Rafah but I can't go there," says Issa, looking beyond the wall. "This is not just an occupation. It's a responsibility. We're supposed to be one people and one country." - - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

In the coming years, Chile is expected to host 70 percent of global astronomical infrastructure. In the Atacama Desert, the world's two largest telescopes - the ELT and the Giant Magellan - are under construction. When complete, they will provide direct views of planets in other solar systems. This will be an astronomical first. Celestial objects have been observed and studied since the beginning of time. The planets and stars have helped human beings understand the cosmos, the way it functions, and its impact on our lives. Since Galileo Galilei became the first astronomer to use a telescope for his observations in the 17th century, humanity has devised newer and better ways to study the universe. But what will these new facilities help us to discover? How will they change the way we look at our universe? And will they help answer the one question many are curious about: Is there extraterrestrial life? "Life is there, potentially, in the whole universe. And when it arrives in a place where you know it's comfortable and can be developed, it does," says Chilean astrophysicist Dr Maria Teresa Ruiz. "Although we have no evidence, I would find it very, extremely strange that we would be the only ones in the universe. There are so many, so many stars, so many planets around them. I'm sure there could be life in many of them." Ruiz is known for discovering the brown dwarf star system named Kelu-1, a sub star located in constellation Hydra, approximately 61 light-years away from earth. She is a pioneer, the first woman to have received a doctorate from Princeton University, and the first woman to receive Chile's national prize for exact sciences. She says the advanced telescopes will help study the atmospheres of distant planets, to search for traces of oxygen or other indicators of life. "When you see the universe through these big eyes, you are going to see something nobody else has seen before ... Often the case is what you see, the unknown, is the most interesting thing; something you cannot predict. It's like opening a window to the unknown," she says. Dr Jose Maza Sancho also believes in the possibility of extraterrestrial life, even if not necessarily always intelligent life. "There are eight million forms of life on earth. Most of them are bacteria, but bacteria is a form of life," he says. "My suspicion is that at the very least there are 100 billion places in the universe with life." However, he adds: "But from one galaxy to the next, [for example] a big galaxy like the Andromeda galaxy, the distance is more than two million light-years. If you say 'hello, are you there?' in two million years your message will reach Andromeda. And if they say 'yes, we're here, what do you want?' another two million years for the message to return." Sancho is a bold exponent of a number of extraordinary theories, including humanity landing on Mars and developing into a multi-planetary society as soon as possible. "The next challenge, the next intellectual challenge, is to go to Mars," he says, "because it is possible". "When we went to the moon, all technology got an improvement, enormously. Our life - you or mine, and everybody's life - changed forever because of the dream to go to the moon. The only way to survive in Mars is to have another technology. And if we develop the technology for a few of us to live on Mars, that technology is going to change our life on earth forever." "It's a big challenge, but if we are able to develop the atmosphere in Mars, we will be able to clean our atmosphere. If we develop big machines like that to survive in Mars, those machines applied massively on earth, we could be taking out of the atmosphere as much carbon dioxide as we are putting in." This week two of Chile's top astronomers, Dr Maria Teresa Ruiz and Dr Jose Maza Sancho, talk to Al Jazeera. - - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Peter Mutharika has governed the small African nation of Malawi since 2014. He is a lawyer and professor who ran for a second five-year term in elections earlier this year. But opposition parties said there were irregularities in the vote - and the high court temporarily prevented the results from being released. The electoral commission has since declared the 79-year-old Mutharika the winner of that vote leading to thousands of Malawians to protest against that decision. Police fired tear gas at protesters as the government accused the opposition of attempting to overthrow Mutharika by force. Now, as he begins his new term, Mutharika faces several issues - including corruption, poverty and healthcare. We will ask him what he intends to do to tackle these challenges. Malawi's president Peter Mutharika, talks to Al Jazeera. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

To some, they are heroes, while others called them outlaws. Even their name - the Fellagha - had different meanings for different people. While the word literally translates to "bandits", in 20th century Tunisia, they were known as those who resisted the French presence in North Africa's smallest country. In Tunisia, they were the resistance fighters who launched a campaign against French colonial rule which, together with political negotiations, culminated in independence in 1956. Drawn mainly from the mountainous rural south of the country, the Fellagha drew inspiration from their ancestors - rebels who had opposed the French immediately after colonial rule began in the 1880s. By the 1920s, resistance to the French presence was growing, and by World War Two the Fellagha were launching regular attacks on French military installations in the country. In 1952, the armed resistance was officially launched and by 1954, Fellagha ranks had swollen to several thousand fighters. Although the Fellagha faced a military opposition that was better equipped, better funded, more experienced, and had much greater numbers, they were determined. While on paper, the French army was a far superior force than the Fellagha, the Tunisians had local knowledge and public support on their side. Like other North African independence movements, Tunisia's decades-long fight against colonial rule also began as a mainly political one - but was not ultimately achieved without a violent struggle. In this two-part documentary, we take a look at the Fellagha mainly through the eyes of its old fighters: men who fought the French, and then continued to take issue with the country's new government even after independence. PT 2: By 1955, France and Tunisian nationalists, led by Habib Bourguiba, reached a political compromise which gave Tunisia partial self-rule. But this deal divided the country, with Bourguiba supporting it but the more hard-line Salah Ben Youssef refusing anything less than full independence. Both sought support from the Fellagha fighters who were divided as to whether to settle for peace or continue to attack the French. Tunisia finally gained independence in 1956 but as new divisions opened up, the country found itself on the brink of civil war. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

To some, they are heroes, while others called them outlaws. Even their name - the Fellagha - had different meanings for different people. While the word literally translates to "bandits", in 20th century Tunisia, they were known as those who resisted the French presence in North Africa's smallest country. In Tunisia, they were the separatist resistance fighters who launched a campaign against French colonial rule which, together with political negotiations, culminated in independence in 1956. Drawn mainly from the mountainous rural south of the country, the Fellagha drew inspiration from their ancestors - rebels who had opposed the French immediately after colonial rule began in the 1880s. By the 1920s, resistance to the French presence was growing, and by World War Two the Fellagha were launching regular attacks on French military installations in the country. In 1952, the armed resistance was officially launched and by 1954, Fellagha ranks had swollen to several thousand fighters. Although the Fellagha faced a military opposition that was better equipped, better funded, more experienced, and had much greater numbers, they were determined. While on paper, the French army was a far superior force than the Fellagha, the Tunisians had local knowledge and public support on their side. Like other North African independence movements, Tunisia's decades-long fight against colonial rule also began as a mainly political one - but was not ultimately achieved without a violent struggle. In this two-part documentary, we take a look at the Fellagha mainly through the eyes of its old fighters: men who fought the French, and then continued to take issue with the country's new government even after independence. In Episode 1, Rebels: When the French colonised Tunisia in the late 19th century they cemented their rule, but also triggered the founding of an armed rebel movement. As the independence movement grew, so did their armed struggle. This episode is built around the first-hand testimony of these Fellagha fighters, now old men but still vividly recalling how they were recruited, farmers by day and fighters by night; the details of their anti-French paramilitary activity and the toll the conflict took on their communities. Episode Two will be available from October 2, 2019. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Isaac Hernandez has an ambitious dream: He hopes to help change his country through the medium of dance. As the first Mexican to hold the prestigious role of lead principal dancer at the English National Ballet, the 29-year-old has already achieved a great deal. Two years ago he was named Best Male Dancer at ballet's equivalent of the Oscars. "I consider [dance] a human right," he tells Al Jazeera, "something that is an instinct that we all have." Along with his 10 brothers and sisters, Hernandez was taught dance at an early age in the back yard of their home in Guadalajara by parents who were also dancers. "Ballet has been so exciting at different points in my life," he says. "Because when I was just starting to dance it was purely recreational. But when I started to understand the mechanics and the techniques behind it, and started realising how that was pushing my physical ability to the limit and to discover new limits, that was just pure excitement. And the moment that I felt that on stage, then I understood what freedom meant." Despite living and performing around the world since he was 13, his heart remains in Mexico. "There are realities about Mexico that, no matter how high I jump and how many turns I do, we cannot ignore; really there are real issues in my country that need to be addressed. For a very long time now, it's been very violent, it's been very corrupt," he says. "But I have always been hopeful for my country because I recognise an essence in its people that gives me hope, that made me go back and say there's people here that are worth working for. And we need to be able to do it well." Hernandez emphasises the need to do things without a political agenda, and for the wellbeing of individuals and the future of the country. He set up a project to bring world-class dancers to Mexico to perform, teach in workshops, and inspire young dancers there. But government funding for the project has faced hurdles. "One of the most popular sayings in Mexico is, if you are an artist you are going to starve, and the other one is that boys don't do ballet, and that ballet is a hobby, not a serious profession. So based on those three main issues that get passed through generations, I understood that the first thing that needs to happen is to change the mind of the parents for them to feel like their kids' passion could be a profession." He believes that promoting the value of the arts could also be a way to help build Mexico's economy. "I saw a huge potential in Mexico that was not being considered in that sense," he says. "So I started to promote a different way of seeing arts; not only as a tool for education, but as a tool for social mobility, so that a kid who starts dancing in a backyard can make a living, can improve his life, and by consequence improve a whole country." On Talk to Al Jazeera, Hernandez discusses the joy of dance, why the arts urgently need government support in Mexico, and how young people should have the chance to realise their dreams. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Over decades, millions of people from the Arab world have emigrated - some driven by conflict and persecution, others for economic and family reasons. They have settled in Europe, Australia, the Americas and Africa. But media coverage tends to focus on refugees fleeing war, poverty and persecution, often at the start of their treacherous journeys. These stories can sometimes be stereotyped and incomplete. In the Arabs Abroad series, Al Jazeera World profiles the lives of migrants long after their initial journey. We meet people who have built successful lives away from their Arab homelands, while remaining connected to their roots - each in their own way giving something back to the region of their birth. In ‘The Businesswoman and the Councillor’ we meet two remarkable women of Middle Eastern descent who are thriving in Europe : Dr Nada al-Rubaiee, a Dutch-Iraqi pharmacist and businesswoman, and Sumaya Abdel Qader, a Palestinian-Italian who is also Milan's first Muslim female councillor. Read more: https://aje.io/cdxmk - - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

It has been a year since the former cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan became Pakistan's Prime Minister. Khan's campaign slogan was "Naya Pakistan" or "New Pakistan", a reflection of his promises to turn the county's economy around and end corruption. But the first year of his premiership has not gone as smoothly as he may have hoped or even expected, especially in terms of the economy. The Pakistani rupee has lost 35 percent of its value during his time in office. Khan's critics call him the prime minister of the U-turns, as he has been forced to go back on many of his campaign pledges in an attempt to rescue the situation. "I'm glad they say I'm a prime minister of U-turns. Only an idiot doesn't do any u-turns," Khan tells Al Jazeera. "Only a moron, when he's on a course and he comes across a brick wall, only that stupid idiot keeps banging his head against a brick wall. An intelligent person immediately revises his strategy and goes around it." But have any of these 'U-turns' had a positive impact on the country? In terms of foreign affairs, Pakistan is closer than ever to its neighbour, China. But relations with its other neighbour, India, are at a new low. Asked whether these two nuclear countries are at risk of another major conflict, or even war, Khan tells Al Jazeera he "absolutely" believes war with India could be a possibility. "Eight million Muslims in Kashmir are under siege for almost now six weeks. And why this can become a flashpoint between India and Pakistan is because what we already know India is trying to do is divert attention from their illegal annexation and their impending genocide on Kashmir," he says. "They are taking the attention away by blaming Pakistan for terrorism." "Pakistan would never start a war, and I am clear: I am a pacifist, I am anti-war, I believe that wars do not solve any problems," he clarifies. But, he adds: "When two nuclear armed countries fight, if they fight a conventional war, there is every possibility that it is going to end up into nuclear war. The unthinkable." "If say Pakistan, God forbid, we are fighting a conventional war, we are losing, and if a country is stuck between the choice: either you surrender or you fight til death for your freedom, I know Pakistanis will fight to death for their freedom. So when a nuclear armed country fights to the end, to the death, it has consequences." "So that's why we have approached the United Nations, we are approaching every international forum, that they must act right now, because this is a potential disaster that would go way beyond the Indian subcontinent." Until recently, Pakistan had made attempts to open dialogue with India "to live as civilised neighbours, to resolve our difference [over Kashmir] ... through a political settlement", but according to Khan, this is no longer the case. "We discovered that while we were trying to have dialogue, they were trying to push us in the black list in FATF ... If Pakistan is pushed into the black list of FATF that means there will be sanctions on Pakistan. So they were trying to bankrupt us economically, so that's when we pulled back. And that's when we realised that this government is on an agenda. The agenda is to push Pakistan to disaster," says Khan. "There is no question of talking to the Indian government right now after they revoked this article 370 of their own constitution and they annexed Kashmir illegally against the UN security council resolution which had guaranteed the people that they would be able to hold a referendum, a plebiscite, to decide their destiny. So they have unilaterally not only broken international laws, but also their own constitution." Asked about his government's achievements after the first year in office, Khan says: "We are already in a new Pakistan ... This government has done things which no government has done before. But, as they say, Rome was not built in a day. When you start making these massive changes, reforms, it takes time. The time to judge a government is five years ... The first year was the most difficult period, but from now onwards people will start seeing the difference ... the direction of the country is now right." - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Peace talks between the United States and the Taliban began last October in Qatar, with the aim of ending the almost 18-year-old war in Afghanistan. On Monday, US President Donald Trump announced that negotiations were over. "They are dead. They are dead. As far as I’m concerned, they are dead," Trump told reporters, blaming a Taliban attack last week in which an American soldier was among the 12 people killed. "They thought that they had to kill people in order to put themselves in a little better negotiating position ... You can't do that with me, so they [the talks] are dead as far as I'm concerned," Trump said. The president's move surprised the Taliban's leaders. "It was astonishing for us because we had already concluded the peace agreement with the American negotiating team," Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban spokesperson in Qatar's capital Doha, told Al Jazeera. After nine rounds of negotiations in Doha, it seemed that most of the differences between the US and the Taliban had been resolved. The US special representative for Afghan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, also said a peace agreement was finalised in principle. Since talks began, discussions focused on four key issues: a Taliban guarantee it will not allow foreign armed groups and fighters to use Afghanistan as a launchpad to conduct attacks outside the country; the complete withdrawal of US and NATO forces; an intra-Afghan dialogue; and a permanent ceasefire. Shaheen said a ceasefire inside the country was never part of the negotiations but rather an intra-Afghan matter that would form part of future discussions with the country's government - but only after foreign forces withdraw. "About the other Afghans, we are ready to talk with them. If there is a ceasefire with them, there will be no attack [on] them. But this is another aspect of the Afghan issue. We want to end the occupation of Afghanistan first," he said. He said the Taliban's agreement with the US was to offer them safe passage in the withdrawal of troops - something they would stand by if a deal is signed. "If we sign an agreement with them, we have the obligation not to attack them and provide them a safe passage. If they withdraw without any peace agreement signing with us, it is up to our consent or willing[ness] whether to attack or not to attack them," Shaheen said. "It is then up to us, because there is no agreement. So we will attack them if we see it is in our interest, our national interest, our Islamic interest. If we see it in our interest not to attack, we will not attack them." "If the Americans want to not attack us, and they want to withdraw, and they sign the agreement, yes we will not attack them ... But if they attack us, they continue their bombardment, their night raids, [then] that will continue from our side what has been continuing for the last 18 years." So with the US quitting the negotiating table, can peace be achieved in Afghanistan? And if so, what would it take? - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/