editor's pick

  • Movie of the day: The Book Thief 

    The Book Thief is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Markus Zusak. The film is about a young girl called Liesel living with her adoptive German family in Nazi Germany during World War II when she was nine years old. Her foster parents conceal a Jewish man named Max who has developed a close relationship with Liesel, teaches her to read, first in her bedroom, then in her basement. Recognizing the power of writing and sharing the written word, Liesel not only begins to steal books that the Nazi party is looking to destroy, but also writes her own story, and shares the power of language with Max.

  • Book of the day: They Can’t Represent Us by Marina Sitrin/Dario Azzellini 

    They Can’t Represent Us is a book written by writer, professor, lawyer and activist Marina Sitrin and Dario Azzellini. It is based on extensive interviews with movement participants in Spain, Venezuela, Argentina, across the United States, and elsewhere. It is an expansive portrait of the assemblies, direct democracy forums, and organizational forms championed by the new movements, as well as an analytical history of direct and participatory democracy from ancient Athens to Zuccotti Park. The new movements put forward the idea that liberal democracy is not democratic, nor was it ever.

  • Song of the day: Gülcan Altan – Yistanbulako 

    Singer Gülcan Altan is from the Shapsugh tribe of Circassians. She was born in Samatya as the youngest daughter of a Circassian family. She performed as a soloist for many orchestras. While studying business at Trakya University, she started singing professionally. After graduating from the Turkish Music State Conservatory of Istanbul Technical University in 2005, she completed her Master′s degree at Yeditepe University. The singer has worked on ethnic music all around the world. Let’s listen to her song “Yistanbulako” together.

  • Song of the day: Tarla Qızları/ İlhamə Quliyeva 

    İlhamə Quliyeva was an Azerbaijani celebrity, actress and singer of Azerbaijani folk and classical music. Throughout her active musical career, she gained popular success in her respective genre of music and received Honored Artist of Azerbaijani SSR in 1982. She continued to work until she died on 25 February 2016.

  • Today in history: First Women’s Congress in Turkey 

    Women’s organizations from different cities of Turkey, feminist groups, socialist women, independent women, Human Rights Association (IHD) Women’s Commission, and about 2500 women from other countries participated in the First Women’s Congress held in Turkey on May 19, 1989 “to discuss the problem faced by women for being a woman, to meet each other and to raise their voices.”

  • Book of the day: Interstellar Cinderella/ Deborah Underwood 

    Today, we recommend you a children’s book: Interstellar Cinderella written by Deborah Underwood. Once upon a planetoid, amid her tools and sprockets, a girl named Cinderella dreamed of fixing fancy rockets. Deborah Underwood has written many best-selling children’s books such as Part-time Princess, The Quiet Book and Part-time Mermaid. With a little help from her fairy godrobot, Cinderella is going to the ball. But when the prince's ship has mechanical trouble, someone will have to zoom to the rescue! Cinderella fixes the robot dishwashers and zoombrooms in her care, but late each night she snuck away to study ship repair. Our modern Cinderella is in space who likes to fix everything. She is clever, strong and brave.

  • Portrait of the day: Daphne du Maurier 

    Daphne du Maurier was an English author and playwright. Many of her stories have been adapted into films, including Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories The Birds and Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight. Daphne du Maurier was born in London on May 13, 1907. She was the middle of three daughters of prominent actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and actress Muriel Beaumont.

  • Song of the day: Dina/Leila Qasim 

    Dina, a singer from Southern Kurdistan, sings the Leila Qasim song. The song in Sorani language, a dialect of the Kurdish language, is about the life of Leila Qasim. Leila Qasim or Leyla Qasim was born in 1952 in the Xaneqîn located in Iraq, close to the Iranian border. She had a significant impact on Kurdish students at the University of Baghdad. She was arrested and tortured by the Iraqi Ba'ath regime but she never bowed down and she always stood by the Kurdish freedom movement. After a short and show trial, she was sentenced to death. On 12 May 1974, Leila Qasim and her friends were executed by hanging by the Iraqi Ba'ath regime. She sang Kurdish national anthem “Ey Raqib” when she was being executed.

  • Portrait of the day: Mina Mangal, the voice of Afghan women 

    Mina Mangal was born in 1992 and she was shot dead on May 11, 2019. She was not only a prominent Afghan journalist, political advisor, and women's rights activist but also a teacher, poet, midwife, and writer. Despite her young age, she managed to do many things in her short life; maybe this is why she became a target of the reactionaries in her country.

  • Song of the day: Komîna Tevna Jinî/Mizgîn 

    Komîna Tevna Jinê’s song Mizgîn written by Devrim Demir was released in 2020 by Kom Müzik. Mizgîn was a Kurdish singer known as Hozan Mizgîn by Kurdish people. Hozan Mizgîn was born in 1962 as Gurbet Aydın in the Bileyder village of Batman. After the military coup took place in Turkey on September 12, 1980, she went to Europe to expand Kurdish culture and art. In those years, her songs about the resistance, pain and life of the Kurdish people spread everywhere.

  • Portrait of the day: Martha Graham “Dancer of the Century” 

    Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer. She was born in Pennsylvania on May 11, 1894. In 1916, she began her studies at the newly created Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, founded by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn.

  • Song of the day: Adalılar/Bizim Kadınlar (Our Women) 

    Adalılar is a music group formed in the early 1990s. The group consisting of many precious musicians released its albums “Örgütlemişler Baharı (They've organized the spring)”, “Meydan Türküleri (Folk Songs for Protests)” and “Adalılar Türkü Söyler (Adalılar sing Folk Songs)”. After a break, the music group began to work again under the umbrella of the Önder Babat Cultural Center in 2006.

  • Today in History: Female silk-factory workers’ strike in Turkey’s Bursa province 

    In 1908, the struggle between laborers and capitalists ended in a burst. Female silk-factory workers in Turkey’s Bursa province went on a strike on May 10, 1908, demanding equal pay for equal work and healthy work conditions and the strike lasted for three years. They held a protest in the yard of the Grand Mosque located near the Koza Han (a historic caravanserai) in Bursa province on May 10. This protest is known as the first women’s protest in Turkey.

  • Movie of the day: The Color Purple 

    The Color Purple is a 1985 American drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards. The film is about a woman named Celie, who is subjected to rape by her father and violence by her husband. She holds on to her life with the letters sent by her sister Nettie. Their father hides Nettie's letters from Celie. This film doesn’t end happily… But in the end, she meets Sofia, who is a powerful woman, and she learns many things from Sofia.

  • Song of the day: İlkay Akkaya/Denizlere 

    İlkay Akkaya is one of the well-known members of Grup Kızılırmak, a musical group. She was born on May 26, 1964, in Istanbul. After graduated from the Press High School at Marmara University, she joined Grup Yorum as the soloist. She released three albums with Grup Yorum. She got out of Grup Yorum together with Tuncay Akdoğan in 1988. In 1990, she founded the group Kızılırmak with Tuncay Akdoğan and İsmail İlknur. While at Kızılırmak, Akkaya also worked on her solo career. From 1990 to 1992 she was seen at the Birlik Theater in Ankara, where she played the role of Ballihan in the play Pir Sultan Abdal. She composed the score for the film Bir Küçük Bulut. She released her first solo album “Kül (Ashes)” in 1998 and then released her albums such as “Unutma (Don’t Forget-2001)”, “Yine (Again-2003)”, “Yalnız (Alone- 2005)”, “Umut (Hope-2013)” and “Hayat (Life-2015)”.

  • Song of the day: Mahsa Vahdat/Ha Leyli 

    Mahsa Vahdat was born in 1973 in Tehran. She began her musical journey at a very young age. She moved to Paris due to the Iranian Regime’s pressure. After learning to play piano, she studied traditional Persian singing under Pari Meleki and Mehdi Fallah. She entered Tehran Arts University in 1993 and graduated with a B.A. in Music in 1995. As women are not allowed to sing in public as a solo singer after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Mahsa Vahdat secretly recorded her “Songs From The Persian Garden” album. Mahsa has performed as an independent artist in concerts and festivals in Asia, Europe, the US, and Africa together with musicians from Iran, Europe, and America since 1995. Following her participation in Lullabies from the Axis of Evil (2004), Mahsa started a long-lasting collaboration with the Norwegian record label Kirkelig Kulturverksted (KKV) and producer Erik Hillestad, which led to a worldwide release of a series of records.

  • Movie of the day: Persepolis 

    The title of the film references the Iranian historical city of Persepolis. It is a 2007 animated biographical drama film based upon Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. The story follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. When the 1979 Iranian revolution against the Shah of Iran begins, her middle-class family is thrilled and participates in the rallies. The Shah is deposed and elections for a new leading power commence. Marji's family's situation does not improve and they are profoundly upset when Islamic fundamentalists win the elections and start repressing Iranian society, imposing strict Islamic law

  • Song of the day: Feryal Öney/Yanıyorum (I'm burning) 

    Singer Feryal Öney was born in Konya province of Turkey in 1970. She started her career in music in Konya. In 1987, she moved to Istanbul to study at Boğaziçi University, where she became heavily involved in the Boğaziçi University Folklore Club (BÜFK). In 1996, she recorded her first solo album, “Hardasan- Azerbaijani Songs”. Singer Feryal Öney has been known as one of members of Kardeş Türküler.

  • Movie of the day: Libertarias 

    Libertarias (Libertarians) is a Spanish historical drama made in 1996. It was written and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Ana Belén, Victoria Abril, Ariadna Gil. The movie is set in 1936 in Barcelona in the midst of the Spanish Revolution and Spanish Civil War. It is one of the best movies that describe the Spanish Civil War. It sheds light on women's participation in the civil war and their stance in the war. It tells women's resistance, shouts, laughter, and victory marches, and of course, women's own war inside them and their struggle. In the film, the former nun Maria (Ariadna Gil) takes shelter in a brothel to escape from the monastery. The film shows how women can build their lives.