Stefania D'Ignoti
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Articles by Stefania D'Ignoti
Ramadan in Europe’s far-right heartlands
Imam Obaïda Ben Salem in the Mosquée Ar-Rahma in the L’Ariane district of Nice. Photography for Hyphen by Rebecca Marshall As dusk settled over Nice one evening in February, the narrow streets north of the city centre filled with the smell of fried pastry soon to be soaked in honey. In the days before Ramadan began, Muslim-owned businesses across the French Riviera city adjusted their rhythms: semolina stacked high, dates replenished and shelves lined with syrups and almonds.
Takoua Ben Mohamed: graphic novelist turns to kids’ books
Takoua Ben Mohamed, Italy’s best known hijabi graphic novelist, believes she has found a way to fight Islamophobia. The activist and award-winning author of eight celebrated comic books — inspired by her experiences growing up as a Tunisian immigrant in Italy — wants to write children’s books. Anti-Muslim violence is on the rise across Europe. In Italy, 1,106 hate crimes against Muslims were registered in 2023 — a number expected to rise in upcoming surveys as a result of the conflict in Gaza.
Letter From Sicily: A Migrant-Rescue Ship Charts a Course for Gaza
SICILY—On the afternoon of Aug. 29, a little more than one day into its 36th mission in the Mediterranean, the search-and-rescue (SAR) vessel Life Support made an unexpected midsea U-turn back to Sicily. The boat, owned by the humanitarian nongovernmental organization Emergency, had already begun rerouting when head of mission Jonathan Nanì La Torre summoned crew members for a meeting.
Da terre di sbarchi a terre di fuga: in Sicilia e in Grecia, crisi climatica e migrazione si sovrappongono
«Due anni fa la mia casa è stata distrutta. Io e la mia famiglia siamo scappati dalla città e, nell’arco di una notte, siamo diventati sfollati». Potrebbero essere le parole di uno delle centinaia di migliaia di migranti che, dal 2013, anno d’inizio della crisi dei rifugiati, continuano ad arrivare in Sicilia via mare, scappando da guerre, povertà e disastri naturali.
Tära: singing to keep Palestinian culture alive
On a breezy April evening, Palestinian-Italian singer Tära has captured the attention of a large crowd gathered in Modesto di Veglia park in Rome, singing Ya Helwe Ciao, a hymn to freedom, hope and unity. The song is an Arabic take on Bella Ciao, Italy’s famous chant of liberation at the end of the second world war, and in recent years has been sung in protest against repressive regimes across the Middle East. In Italy 25 April is Liberation Day, celebrating the overthrow of fascism.
The small-town team defying a far-right ban on cricket in Italy
On a freezing Sunday morning in January, the Monfalcone Tigers cricket team is doing its best to warm up for a training session in Isonzo Park, Turriaco. The small town on Italy’s east coast is exposed to a whipping wind from the Adriatic Sea, bringing a bitter chill that many of the players, originally from Bangladesh, are still unused to. This is the first time the team has been able to practise in weeks andcaptain Sani Bhuiyan, 34, is happy to see his teammates, despite the bleak weather.
Stefania D'Ignoti
• Why Rome’s best pizza is Egyptian The chefs that have come to dominate the Roman pizza industry offer much-needed hope to migrants being shut out of Meloni’s Italy
The Lingering Trauma of COVID Coverage for Italian Journalists
Whenever Alessandra Loche walks her dog, Samantha, down Via Marconi in the northern Italian city of Bergamo, flashbacks of army men loudly loading coffins on their trucks send shivers down her spine. “It takes me a few seconds to get back to the present, even after all this time,” she said with a slumbering tone of voice and sadness in her eyes.
Palestine Circus School finds new stage in Sicilian city Catania
On the stage of the Modern Art Gallery of Catania, Sicily’s second-largest city, six Palestinian circus performers lift and drag a heavy Chinese pole. The group carries it in perfect synergy in a breathtaking display of athleticism and trust among each other. If one lets go, they will all get hurt. “But we all trust each other. We know we can always count on one another,” Mohamed Abu Taleb, the play's director, tells The New Arab at the end of the 55-minute performance.
‘I trekked pregnant through the jungle to get paracetamol’
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‘I trekked pregnant through the jungle to get paracetamol’
In the end it wasn’t her rape or her husband’s murder that drove Mvita Ngolo to trek through the jungle to find help – but a lack of the most basic painkiller for a cold. She was five-months pregnant with the child of her attacker when she heard about a medical mission in Goli, deep in the primaeval forests of Uganda’s north-west and an arduous 25-kilometre journey from her own village in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A festival of peace and couscous
On a large spotlit stage, 10 chefs wearing white uniforms and their national flags stand around a plate of uncooked couscous, eyeballing each other. At the sound of a siren, the cooks throw grains into the air like confetti — a ritual that starts the clock on Sicily’s annual Cous Cous Fest. For a week and a half at the end of September, chefs from all over the world gathered in the picturesque seaside town of San Vito lo Capo to give lectures and cooking demonstrations.
Gaziantep restaurant renamed to 7 October in support of Gaza
Fed up with the constant news from Gaza, Salah Khubieh, after months of frustration, woke up one morning this past July and called his friend and business partner, Musa Ciçek, before heading to their restaurant. "Take the ladder with you," he told him over the phone. When they met, Salah explained they would take down the restaurant sign and replace it with a new one. "From now on, we will rename this place '7 October,'" Salah said.
How hummus is helping plug the gaps in Italy’s asylum system
Joumana Farhoo mixes tahini and olive oil in a ceramic bowl, working expertly to create the smooth quality her hummus is known for, before blending it in with the chickpeas. For one of the five female chefs at HummusTown, a not-for-profit catering service that supports refugees in Rome, the process is second nature. Farhoo’s hands are busy, but her mind is elsewhere. “I’m sorry, I was travelling back in time and space,” she says, wiping away a tear.
Journalists See “Clear, Alarming Signals” for Press Freedom in Italy | Nieman Reports
“You can tell me what you want, I’m not going to do like RAI.” Those words — about the Italian public broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana — came just a few seconds into rapper Ghali’s most recent hit song “Paprika.” The lyrics take aim at RAI executives for their apologies following his appeal in February to “stop genocide” during the Sanremo Italian Song Festival, one of Italy’s most watched and long-running music events.
In Italy, a Palestinian lawyer who left Gaza builds Israel genocide case
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In Italy, a Palestinian lawyer who left Gaza builds Israel genocide case
Messina, Italy – Piles of court documents in English and Arabic filled the desk and covered the floor of Triestino Mariniello’s home office for much of March in Messina, a city in southern Italy overlooking Mediterranean waters on one side and the smoking Etna volcano on the other. Here, far from the war, a team of lawyers from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCGR) in Gaza, to which Mariniello belongs, worked last month on their attempt to prosecute Israel for genocide.
Flowers, tears, tree planting in Adiyaman to remember Turkey’s earthquake Original
Adiyaman, Turkiye – The clock tower standing above the rubble and debris, frozen in time with its watch hands stopped at 4:17am, had become a symbol of Adiyaman’s destruction. But a year later, it is finally ticking again as usual.
In Turkey’s Gaziantep, weddings are dispelling some post-earthquake sadness
Gaziantep, Turkey – Gazi Muhtar Pasa Boulevard in downtown Gaziantep, an elegant district of bridal shops and venues in a city known as a wedding destination, is much livelier than a year ago, the sidewalks clear of debris and shattered window glass. Businesses have been open since the early morning and, despite a drizzle, the street bustles with life and brides-to-be seeking their dream wedding dress – like Aysenur from Pazarcik, who is window-shopping dreamily.
‘It’s our act of protest as artists, to be on the right side of justice’
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‘It’s our act of protest as artists, to be on the right side of justice’
Naples, Italy – On the stage of the small Zona Teatro Naviganti, an independent theatre in the heart of Naples, a red line divides two teams. Each side hurls insults and accusations at the other as they record the number of victims while the sound of bombings and cries for help rings out.
What can a camel teach Italians about their Islamic roots?
A couple of camels – Jamila, a white female, and Ali, a brown male – munch lazily on their hay while their owner, a tall 35-year-old man, fills the water tank next to them. The idyllic rural scene could be a postcard from north Africa, except for the snow-topped volcano, Mount Etna, looming clear into view behind the animals’ stall. “These animals have an impressive memory, just like elephants,” said Santo Fragalà, their carer, gently patting Ali on this brisk Sicilian January morning.
The Iraqi storyteller reviving Sicily’s Arabic culture
Accompanied by the rhythm of a drum, the voice of Yousif Latif Jaralla — a slender 64-year-old Iraqi storyteller with an intense gaze — resonates across the main hall of Mare Memoria Viva, a modern museum in the heart of Palermo, Sicily. On this crisp November evening, an audience of around 100 people has come to see his 50-minute show, Amadou in the Belly of the Whale, the story of an African migrant risking his life to reach Europe via sea.
In Italy, a school teaches reconciliation over revenge
As conflicts rage around the world, there is a place of calm in Italy, a medieval citadel where students come to learn how to overcome the differences that have divided them. And, hopefully, make peace with each other. They come together to undertake a two-year study and cohabitation program with a person whom history and politics have labeled as their “enemy,” and learn how to deconstruct and defang their hatred and conflict. Then they return to their countries of origin as agents of peace.
In Italy, A School Teaches Reconciliation Over Revenge - The Christian Science Monitor
At 9 a.m. sharp on the last day of September, as every year for the past two decades, the bell signaling the beginning of a new academic year echoes across the cobblestone alleys of Rondine, a one-of-its-kind school near the Italian city of Arezzo. Đorđe Mirkovic, a 24-year-old new student, looks excited as he peruses the wide variety of flags hanging just outside the main gate of the school’s premises, reflecting his fellow students’ different nationalities.
Dining out on diversity in Europe
Suella Braverman has declared that multiculturalism is a failure. Delivering a keynote speech to the American Enterprise Institute in September, the British home secretary told the rightwing think tank: “Multiculturalism makes no demands of the incomer to integrate. It has failed because it has allowed people to come to our society and live parallel lives in it.” Hyphen spoke with the teams behind refugee-run restaurants across Europe who disprove Braverman’s theory with every service.
Music Original
Why We Are What We Are
A Turkish secret hiding in plain sight
In the border city of Gaziantep, a secret jazz cafe is helping residents reconcile with the city's turbulent past and offering hope for the future. On Wednesday and Saturday nights, if you follow the narrow, stone streets in Gaziantep, Turkey's old Armenian district to an unmarked silver door and knock three times, you're in for a treat.
A Turkish secret hiding in plain sight
On Wednesday and Saturday nights, if you follow the narrow, stone streets in Gaziantep, Turkey's old Armenian district to an unmarked silver door and knock three times, you're in for a treat. Moments later, a man with a long white ponytail and round glasses will appear, welcoming you to his cafe, …
Why Rome’s best pizza is Egyptian
Inside the cosy, modern dining room of A Rota, a popular pizzeria in Rome’s multicultural Tor Pignattara neighbourhood, waiters are run off their feet serving a local clientele. Romans flock to this restaurant for its Pizza Romana, set apart from the Italian capital’s countless other pizzas by its thinner, crunchier crust. Also, the chef is Egyptian.
‘I had to give up my best friends’: A Sicilian beekeeper’s wildfire loss
A Sicilian beekper is forced to give up his bees and honey business after his family home was destroyed by wildfires. What's your money worth? A series from the front line of the cost of living crisis, where people who have been hit hard share their monthly expenses.
It Took an Earthquake for These Syrian Refugees to Feel at Home in Turkey
The earthquake in February led the Turkish government to grant Syrian refugees permission to leave the quake-hit provinces for 60 days.
It Took an Earthquake for These Syrian Refugees to Feel at Home in Turkey
When a series of earthquakes killed thousands along the Turkish-Syrian border in February, many of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees who settled in Turkey after the beginning of the civil war returned to Syria. The Turkish government had initially granted Syrian refugees permission to leave the quake-hit Turkish provinces for up to two months; as a result, hundreds lined up for hours at border crossings in an attempt to reunite with family members back in Syria.
It Took an Earthquake for These Syrian Refugees to Feel at Home in Turkey
11 hours ago Israel is concerned that Palestinians are increasingly taking up arms, with Jenin becoming a symbol of resistance. The Israeli military on Monday launched a large-scale incursion into the occupied West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp, killing six Palestinians and wounding at least 91. The raid was the …
Berlusconi, ‘the knight’ known for scandals, dies at 86
Silvio Berlusconi, the tycoon-turned-politician and four-time Italian prime minister, has died in Milan at the age of 86. The right-wing leader, born in Milan on September 29, 1936, was widely known for his financial and sex scandals, but also transformed Italian politics. His dominance over the electoral sphere influenced the views of a generation of Italians.
Future unknown but Syrians in Turkey ‘relieved’ after Erdogan win
Gaziantep, Turkey — Hatim al-Abdullah, a dual Syrian-Turkish citizen, voted for the first time in Turkey’s elections in May, which returned longtime leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a five-year presidential term and into a third decade in power. “I voted for Erdogan also to protect my family,” al-Abdullah, 25, told Al Jazeera in Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey, in the hope that his parents and three siblings will have a future in their adoptive home.
Reporting from Gaziantep | Nieman Reports
The outdoor tables of Kafka Kültür Internet Cafe are covered with piles of empty teacups and ashtrays full of half-smoked cigarettes. Several customers sit and open their laptops, while the chattering and gentle sounds of typing on keyboards and phones vibrating make it almost look like a newsroom.
The Aleppo electronic artists using music to heal in Gaziantep
Gaziantep, Turkey – Amr Helwani’s fingers swiftly moved the knobs of a DJ mixer up and down while coloured neon lights and white smoke began to swamp the tiled garden of the old Ottoman house where he had set up his console. The 33-year-old DJ’s techno music energised partygoers on a cold late January night in Gaziantep, a city in southeastern Turkey on the border with Syria. Amr has been in the city since 2013.
Photos: Turkish displaced family in Gaziantep talks about run-off
Gaziantep, Turkey – Turkey is set for a second-round vote for president in two weeks’ time, while people still displaced in tented settlements in earthquake-stricken areas say they have spent the “longest night” of the past two decades. Cramped together, watching live election results as they could – some nervously looking through their phones, others peaking through a tent neighbour’s improvised TV station – thousands held their breath all night.
Turkey elections: Turkish-Syrian voters wary as anti-migrant rhetoric dominates polls
Many observers have branded the upcoming parliamentary elections in Turkey the most consequential in years, with polls suggesting that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) could lose power for the first time since 2002. But for many Syrians in Turkey, there is little to distinguish the government and the main opposition coalition, with both promising to remove Syrian refugees from the country and ratcheting up anti-migrant rhetoric.
‘Each house is mourning’: Ramadan for a Turkish farmer and widow
You rely on Al Jazeera for truth and transparency We understand that your online privacy is very important and consenting to our collection of some personal information takes great trust. We ask for this consent because it allows Al Jazeera to provide an experience that truly gives a voice to the voiceless.
In pictures: Ramadan in Turkey's earthquake disaster zone
In pictures: Ramadan in Turkey's earthquake disaster zone Some survivors of the tragedy in February were without electricity for weeks and continue to wait for tents Published date: 11 April 2023 10:56 BST | Last update: 2 mins 32 secs ago Ramadan in the southeastern provinces of Turkey has taken on a sombre tone this year after earthquakes in February killed more than 55,000 people and displaced millions. Tens of thousands have lost their homes or no longer feel safe inside them.
Survivors in Turkey say ‘new normal’ is coping with more quakes
Gaziantep, Turkey – The possibility of life going back to normal in southern Turkey was shattered after a magnitude 6.3 earthquake rattled the Turkey-Syria border area on Monday night. It was a reawakening of the recent trauma in Gaziantep, which was among the 10 provinces in Turkey devastated by earthquakes that killed more than 47,000 people in the country and neighbouring Syria. Families were sitting around the table for dinner when the new earthquake struck.
Photos: Volunteers race against time to find earthquake survivors
Gaziantep, Turkey – More than a week has passed since catastrophic earthquakes killed more than 40,000 people in Turkey and Syria, and that number is expected to rise over the next few weeks. The hopes of finding survivors under the rubble are slowly fading, but rescuers continue to search. With temperatures dropping dramatically, many displaced people are living in tents in open-air areas. Volunteers are stepping in to provide relief, even those who are victims themselves.
Survivors band together in Turkey’s earthquake-hit Gaziantep
Gaziantep, Turkey – It has been a week since a massive earthquake instantly changed tens of thousands of Turkish and Syrian lives. A 7.8-magnitude quake erased thousands of buildings across 10 Turkish cities, devastating entire villages across the border in northern Syria as well. The death toll surpassed 33,000 in both countries on Sunday, making it the deadliest earthquake in decades in the region.
Photos: Syrians in quake-hit Gaziantep displaced again
You rely on Al Jazeera for truth and transparency We understand that your online privacy is very important and consenting to our collection of some personal information takes great trust. We ask for this consent because it allows Al Jazeera to provide an experience that truly gives a voice to the voiceless.
Residents struggle to flee quake-hit Turkish city of Gaziantep
People who are stuck in the province take refuge in shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centres. Published On 7 Feb 20237 Feb 2023 Gaziantep, Turkey – After a series of earthquakes and aftershocks in Turkey and Syria, many tried to flee the devastated city of Gaziantep, located about 33km (20 miles) from the epicentre.
Turkey’s Gaziantep goes from a refuge to a site of devastation
Gaziantep, Turkey – When Kasem al-Abrash felt the ground shaking beneath his feet, his mind immediately went back to his hometown of Idlib in northern Syria. He had fled from for his life from there to Gaziantep, across the border in Turkey, in 2020. But on Monday morning, like millions of people across southern Turkey and northern Syria, al-Abrash woke up to the heavy shakes of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which hit the wider region and left death and devastation in its wake.
Syrian refugees forge new lives in Turkey as memories of Aleppo fade
Soapmakers of Aleppo, whose quality is renowned worldwide for skin benefits, have moved their war-ravaged factories to the Turkish city’s outskirts. A decade ago, Gaziantep lacked the economic punch Aleppo once had, but Aleppians are changing that, said Gultekin, the academic. There’s no doubt, however, that the newcomers have also put a considerable strain on the city’s resources. Rents skyrocketed, and there was conflict over access to drinking water earlier in the crisis.
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