Asma Khalifa
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asmakhalifa.bsky.social
Asma Khalifa
@asmakhalifa.bsky.social
Forest dweller. Co-Founder: KhalifaIhler.org. Doctoral Researcher @GIGA. Associate Fellow @Chatham House MENA.
Reposted by Asma Khalifa
We are incredibly proud that Revontulet has been recognized as one of the top 50 in 100 Pitches 2025 - Norway’s largest pitching competition for investor-ready startups! #oiw2025 #dnbnxt #startuplab
October 9, 2025 at 5:27 AM
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One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad is very much worth your time.
June 30, 2025 at 12:52 AM
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So, the 12-day war between Israel (& the US) vs Iran seems to be over, and the ceasefire seems to be holding. Here's a thread assessing what has changed, what didn't change, and what may be next:
June 24, 2025 at 5:37 PM
This paper has been in the making for some years now, so am very glad to finally see it published and out there. Libya's Imazighen identity formation during conflict is based on primary interview data, and my memoes/notes when I worked with the Amazigh Supreme Council. library.fes.de/pdf-files/bu...
library.fes.de
June 24, 2025 at 8:40 AM
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Tomorrow June 19th, 2025, at the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, I’ll be a co-panelist with Asma Khalifa (University of Marbur) & Inès Mrad-Dali (European University Institute)
June 18, 2025 at 5:49 PM
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Here's a big-picture geopolitical thread on Israel's war on Iran - its possibilities, impossibilities, dynamics, and delusions. My goal is to give you a full big-picture view in one place, which is why this is a long thread. If you prefer drip-fed updates, skip this thread.
June 19, 2025 at 10:53 AM
This. A million times this 👇
As an Iraqi, to this day - 22 years after the US invasion - I still get asked “what would you prefer, what we have now or Saddam still in power?”

It is the deep, underlying subconscious dehumanisation& racism that it is fundamentally believed the binary is all we, as middle easterners, deserve.
June 18, 2025 at 12:35 PM
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When you are a country of 10 million and define your survival and security not as mutual deterrence but as military domination over a region of more than half a billion, your challenges are unending. 1/2
June 17, 2025 at 2:29 PM
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The lack of clear understanding and knowledge on Iran, drivers of the regime, policy and priorities of the regime, its culture, politics, etc is all on clear, fabulous display across English language media this morning.
June 13, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Best walking view 🐺
June 3, 2025 at 1:59 PM
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Have you watched our latest #film Escaping Libya’s Detention Industry?

The investigation traces how detention centres across #Libya have become a part of a cycle of extortion, abuse, release, and re-capture, fuelled by #EU support.

Watch full video here: www.libyanjustice.org/news/film-es...
June 3, 2025 at 10:30 AM
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Libya's fragmented & polarised justice sector suppresses fundamental freedoms, obstructs accountability.

Authorities should urgently overhaul judiciary, reform repressive legislation, end military trials of civilians, arrest ICC suspects.

New @hrw.org report:
www.hrw.org/news/2025/06...
Libya: Barriers to Justice
Libya’s fragmented justice sector is suppressing fundamental freedoms and obstructing accountability for abuses.
www.hrw.org
June 2, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Today I will be joining "Everyday Life and War" webinar organised by The Arab Political Science Network (APSN), in collaboration with CEDEJ and the Middle East Studies Program at the American University in Cairo (AUC).

You can register to listen in us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Everyday Life and War. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.
The Arab Political Science Network (APSN), in collaboration with the Center for Economic, Legal, and Social Studies and Documentation (CEDEJ) and the Middle East Studies Program at the American Univer...
us06web.zoom.us
June 2, 2025 at 8:22 AM
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Last night we saw why...

Fighting quickly exploded across Libya's capital, mortar stations set up on high streets, civilian buildings damaged, and Dbeiba's enemies pouring in.

There is no good outcome to this battle unless the international community step in to segway to a political process
It should go without saying but gangland killings and pacts between thugs on how to divide corruption are not really an adequate replacement for a political process

#Libya
PM Dbeiba is claiming a victory for gov control and even rule of law.

There is a political follow through hoped for now he's shored himself up, a new unity agreement with the Haftars

But really all that's been done is to draw new battlelines and reset an inherently destructive status quo
May 14, 2025 at 6:31 AM
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Tripoli may be on the cusp of being the theater for warfare unlike anything seen since 2011 - an urban battlefield marked by drone strikes, street-to-street clashes, & guerilla warfare.

The vast majority of casualties in this context will unfortunately be innocent civilians.
May 14, 2025 at 6:31 AM
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Turns out it was more the former than the latter.

Brigades nominally aligned with the PM, and other forces from his home city of Misrata poured through Tripoli seizing bases of Ghneiwa's Stabilisation Support Apparatus.

Less clean than may be depicted today and sets a grizzly precedent for Libya
Either the 444 brigade (whose leader was wounded in the altercation) and forces aligned to PM Dbeiba continue a clearly pre planned operation to cleanse competing militias - or this whole operation ends in another war.

Either way the status quo gets reborn with renewed precariousness
May 13, 2025 at 6:48 AM
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Update: Libya’s rival governments united in saying they would reject any deportations of migrants from the US www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Libya won’t accept migrants deported from U.S., its leaders say
The denials from Libya’s rival governments followed reports that the Trump administration intended to send a planeload of migrants there.
www.washingtonpost.com
May 7, 2025 at 8:24 PM
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Israel has used human rights jargon and terms from IHL to provide a veneer of legality for its genocide in #Gaza.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are now adopting the same practice to perpetrate atrocities in #Sudan.

My in-depth story for AJE.

www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/...
How RSF is adopting Israel’s ‘template for genocide’ in Sudan
For years, Israel has used human rights terminology to whitewash killing civilians, now the RSF is doing the same.
www.aljazeera.com
May 5, 2025 at 3:20 PM
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My long read for @ecfr.eu and probably the publication im most proud of in all my years doing this.

A deep dive into how Russia retrenched in Libya, uses it to project power from Ukraine to the Sahel, and the many lessons Europe or other frontline states can learn from it

ecfr.eu/publication/...
The bear who came to tea: Russia, Libya and the Kremlin’s playbook for fragile states
Russia’s re-entrenchment in Libya, Europe’s soft underbelly, offers profound lessons on how it exploits geopolitical instability—and how Europeans can push back…
ecfr.eu
May 5, 2025 at 6:50 AM
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From June 2023, leading up to the Eurovision Song Contest in May 2024, we conducted an analysis of toxic narratives, their spread, and the tactics used to lend them credibility in Arabic and Swedish on TikTok and X in Malmö.

Read more about our findings here:

revontulet.co/insights/tox...
Toxic Narratives on TikTok and X in Malmö — Revontulet
From June 2023, leading up to the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö in May 2024, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of toxic narratives, their spread, and the tactics used to lend credibility to suc...
revontulet.co
April 29, 2025 at 5:37 PM
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truly phenomenal article by @taliabhatt.itch.io , which everyone should read (and then should go read crenshaw's DAMN PAPER!)
taliabhattwrites.substack.com/p/intersecti...
Intersectional Antifeminism, or: What is a White Feminist, Anyway?
Regarding the most famous social theory no one has actually read.
taliabhattwrites.substack.com
April 24, 2025 at 3:46 PM
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Call for Papers
Postcolonial Temporalities: Space, Time, and Identity in the Maghreb
19-20 June 2025 – IASH, University of Edinburgh – Hybrid
Please send a 250 word abstract and a brief bio (100 words) to maghreb.temporalities@outlook.com by 15th April.
maghrebtemporalities.wordpress.com
Postcolonial Temporalities
Visit the post for more.
maghrebtemporalities.wordpress.com
April 8, 2025 at 8:23 PM
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EVENT: Join LFJL's Elham Saudi and an expert panel for this exclusive webinar discussion examining the neglected conflicts in #Libya, #Sudan and #Yemen, their drivers and pathways toward resolution.

Thursday 10 April
9:30 - 11:00 AM ET

arabcenterdc.org/event/neglec... @arab-center-dc.bsky.social
Neglected Conflicts in Libya, Sudan, and Yemen
Experts examine neglected conflicts in Libya, Sudan, and Yemen, as well as their key drivers and pathways toward potential resolutions.
arabcenterdc.org
April 8, 2025 at 9:06 AM
In my latest paper for @arabreforminit.bsky.social I discuss moral policing, social control and other strategies in the face of governance failure by the government of GNU in Libya. www.arab-reform.net/publication/...
Libya’s Morality Police: Political Theater in the Face of Crises
Summary The Libyan government established a “morality police” force in July 2024, likely as a distraction from economic and political crises. This move is part of a broader pattern of u…
www.arab-reform.net
March 31, 2025 at 3:09 PM