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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Rest in peace, dear Hamid. There are no words to describe the void you leave in the lives of your family, friends, and loved ones. There are no words to describe the void you leave in Sudan, your home you loved so purely, deeply, so proudly and unconditionally. The home you have returned to.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

There is no ceasefire if bombs are still dropping on #Lebanon Israel is the instigator of all these concurrent and consecutive wars. Their indiscriminate targeting and killing of civilians all across the region has never ceased.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Was a pleasure to join Alan Boswell on The Horn podcast to discuss the effects of the US/Israel-Iran war on the Horn and Red Sea. @crisisgroup.org Have a listen if you’re interested: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

podcasts.apple.com

How the Iran War is Reshaping the Region

Podcast Episode · The Horn · 2 April · 37min

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Fuel shortage/rationing is starting to creep into daily life in Nairobi, inflationary price hikes hitting Ethiopian pockets, Egypt shuts down its night life, currency is crashing (again), Jordan turns off AC in state building. The region has no way to absorb the commodities shock from this war.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan: the mediation team. Who would have thought… #IranWar

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

I don’t know who attacked those ambulances or why. But what I do know, unequivocally, is that no Iranian, Arab, or Muslim - who identifies with their heritage and roots in such a way - wrote that statement claiming responsibility.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Anthony Shadid’s “House of Stone” is one of the most beautiful memoirs I’ve read, not just because of his own story but the beauty of his words, his love for #Lebanon. The Lebanon Israel is destroying, occupying, razing to the ground. Our Arab lands. Our Homes. Our hearts. Our history & heritage.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

I cannot describe just how much people in the region feel this is an existential war. This isn’t contained to the Gulf, Iraq, Lebanon. In Jordan, Egypt, people are panicked, nervous, completely discombobulated by what is happening. “It is an end to everything familiar”, a friend wrote. She’s right.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

One striking difference in this war compared to others we have witnessed in our lifetimes is the sheer and near total silence from Gulf leadership. Tonight’s statement from Saudi Foreign Minister FbF marks arguably the highest ranking major public statement from a gulf official (nb: gulf hierarchy)

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

More than 330 children injured, 110 killed in two weeks of Israel’s war in Lebanon. silence, ignorance, sheer exhaustion. Lebanon is not a “Gaza”, it is its own hell, Israel turning an entire sovereign country into a wasteland, destroying Beirut - the most beautiful capital city in the region.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

The world is going to stand by and let it all happen again. #Lebanon #Gaza

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Tony Blair is irredeemable. Unforgivable. A war criminal. He launched an illegal war, joined US & lied to UNSC, Parliament, the British public. Illegal. Not misled, not mistake, not bad intel: LIED. Never apologised for that. Don’t ever try to tell any Iraqi he is forgivable @mrjamesob.bsky.social

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Bahrain has long been a powder keg, ready to implode. This is not Sunni/Shia, just as it wasn’t in 2011. Nowhere in the Gulf is deep-seated anger and disgust at US presence & alliance more palpable than there. US military presence in Bahrain is being physically & politically dismantled in real time.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Spare a thought for all the Lebanese and Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian, Yemeni, Sudanese, Afghan, who already fled war at home to now live war in exile. Wars almost all started by the US and/or Israel. The Gulf is not just your white man’s tax haven, it is a safety net for millions. #IranWar

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

According to at least one independent group “More than 25,000 children have been killed and 45 girls raped while fleeing the North-Darfur city of El Fasher since Sudan’s war began” Utterly horrific, making global silence on #Sudan ever more unconscionable sudantribune.com/article/3077...

sudantribune.com

Sudan war has killed 25,000 children, medics say; 45 girls raped fleeing El Fasher - Sudan Tribune

December 2, 2025 (PORT SUDAN) – More than 25,000 children have been killed and 45 girls raped while fleeing the North-Darfur city of El Fasher since Sudan’s war began, a doctors’ group said on Tuesday...

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Reposted by Hafsa Halawa

elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

In Lebanon. Can hear the Israeli drone constantly now. I’ve only been back for a day but folks here deal with it 24/7, for months. It’s psychological torture. You can even see it, just flying around. The Israelis want to let everyone know that they can kill whoever they want whenever they want.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

The problem in Sudan, the major battle to ending the war, only comes with acknowledging that everyone has blood on their hands.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Pure heartless cruelty. The entire Parliamentary Labour Party owns this. All of them, heartless, cruel, racist, bigoted, incompetent, careless and unfeeling idiots.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Are we asking what/who radicalised Shabana Mahmoud yet? Because honestly, I don’t see any other explanation.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

To all the US officials who have stayed silent as Israel killed 271 Palestinian journalists, assassinated Shereen Abu Akleh: there have been few public figures, advocates or voices more staunchly committed to Palestinian self-determination in our region, than Jamal Khashoggi, Allah yerhamo.

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Reposted by Hafsa Halawa

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Confiscating jewellery from survivors of a war zone makes you look like a fucking Nazi. And the obscene thing is, that is the intention. It's there to look appropriately harsh. Indecent. Filthy. A moral stain. And no-one of good character would have ever proposed such a thing in the first place.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

Sudan has always been the holy grail of regional security, stability & supply. It’s where all conventional, traditional & natural alliances blow up as all external actors compete for the same resources. Public disaccord amongst them isn’t surprising - that they’ve made this competition zero-sum, is.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

It’s taken two years of shouting into the void as pro-Palestine activism whitewashed and covered up all the pro-Assad voices who created a heinous and violent online space of defending his barbarism during social uprising, but now the Gaza War is slowing, people are finally listening.

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Reposted by Hafsa Halawa

The Continent @thecontinent.org · 07/11/2025

All Protocol Observed Welcome to Issue 219 of The Continent Protests, an internet blackout, and deadly force marked Tanzania’s Election Day. Once online again, 37 readers shared what they witnessed. Read their stories: bit.ly/219_TC

The cover of The Continent, dated 8 November 2025 (Issue 219), bears the headline “Tanzania’s darkest week” and features a striking political cartoon by Gado that echoes Honoré Daumier’s 1831 caricature Gargantua.
At the top, the masthead appears in bold black letters on a beige background. Below it, the illustration dominates the page. It shows a woman seated on a throne-like chair, drawn to resemble Tanzania’s leader. Her mouth is open wide, and a long wooden ramp extends from her mouth, down which small, faceless figures carry large sacks labeled “Corruption,” “Incompetence,” “Fear,” and “Election Fraud.” They march upward to feed these vices into her mouth, while behind them, a long line of weary people stretches toward the horizon, waiting their turn.
To the left stands a sign reading “Abductions”, beside a huge pile of skulls — a chilling symbol of death and repression. Below, masked soldiers with rifles shoot civilians on a blood-spattered ground, surrounded by the bodies of the fallen. The entire scene conveys chaos, violence, and fear.
The image is a nod to Daumier’s Gargantua, which depicted France’s King Louis-Philippe as a grotesque giant devouring the people’s wealth while rewarding his cronies. Here, that 19th-century metaphor of gluttonous tyranny is adapted to Tanzania’s present moment — portraying a leader who consumes corruption, fear, and human lives themselves.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Honestly, I just laughed through most of this article: ““When you flush the toilet, the stuff goes downhill, right?” the architect asked…“We’re going to have hundreds of shuttle cars running back and forth, picking up the sewage on retractable bridges.”” End of The Line ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...

ig.ft.com

End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled

Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

What is happening in Darfur is utterly devastating, made more painful by how we all saw it coming. You can’t really say you didn’t know, but if you didn’t, read this: An atrocity foretold: How the RSF siege of El Fasher turned into genocidal slaughter www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/202...

thenewhumanitarian.org

An atrocity foretold: How the RSF siege of El Fasher turned into genocidal slaughter

Communication networks are down but a deluge of shocking videos point to mass killings on a devastating scale.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

First London, now New York. If there’s one post-2001 legacy thesis that is yet to be written, it’s about mayoral elections in these two cities.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

There should be something impactful and meaningful about accountability that one has ready to say when it’s announced Dick Cheney has died. But maybe, actually, it’s enough that today will only ever be remembered as the day Zohran Mamdani becomes the Mayor of New York City.

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Reposted by Hafsa Halawa

Zecharias Zelalem @zekuzelalem.bsky.social · 01/11/2025

The folks at The Continent continue to commission the reporting of some of the best Sudanese journalists on the ground, read Khalid Elwalid's full story from page 13 onwards. And check in with your Sudanese friends. www.thecontinent.org

thecontinent.org

The Continent | Africa

The Continent is an award-winning African newspaper, designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

Infuriating to see political voices in the West against what is happening in El Fasher, when powerful Sudanese voices have been warning about this for months if not years. It’s disingenuous to act surprised, pretend it’s a shock or find your voice now with this phase of genocide in Darfur underway.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

We need urgent, immediate intervention in Sudan. For months now, I’ve been proposing an Astana-like process to conduct negotiations between Egypt & UAE - be it convened by Russia or by the United States. We can sit on our hands and argue ‘do no harm’ principles, or we can be realistic about this war

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

We live in an era of changed diplomacy in the Middle East, with the rising power of Gulf nations and their influence on regional dynamics and international diplomacy. Whilst a more coherent Arab position has long been sought…(1/2)

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Must watch interview on @channel4news.bsky.social by @krishgm.bsky.social last night with Kholood Khair on developments in Sudan amid the RSF takeover of El Fasher in North Darfur. Utterly devastating for all Sudanese; important info, background & warnings from Kholood: youtu.be/XQV8ZMR3CrM?...

youtu.be

Major escalation in Sudan war as RSF claims all of Darfur

YouTube video by Channel 4 News

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

El Fasher is on all of those who have remained silent, or ignored the cold reality of what all knew would happen under RSF takeover. Geneina, Zamzam…we knew this. We were warned. Two previous genocides just in this war alone. Everyone stood back, watched. Stayed silent, and let this happen.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

Americans are actually coming out en masse to *defend* Islamophobia. Up in arms at Mamdani giving agency and voice to the discrimination that Muslims have endured in the West, escalating on a visceral scale since 2001. I’ve long thought nothing can surprise me, but honestly, this really does.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

“Tigray is broken. Its leaders divided, some aligning with Addis Ababa, others with Eritrea. Another war looms, one that could pit Tigrayans against each other. I fought once to defend my people; I will not fight again in a war that will destroy what remains.” continent.substack.com/p/the-exodus...

continent.substack.com

The exodus out of Tigray

Young people are leaving en masse – and don’t know if they’ll ever come back.

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Reposted by Hafsa Halawa

Akbar Shahid Ahmed @akbarshahidahmed.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Embracing secondary, doubtful status for Muslims has major policy implications. Biden’s moral+strategic disaster on Gaza, for instance, flows directly from the broad acceptance among US elites that mass punishment + destruction post-10/7 was unavoidable. Huge, horrific, still unfolding consequences.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

These are moments when history is being made. In this election, a monumental watershed moment has arrived. “To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity. But indignity does not make us distinct—there are many who face it. It is the tolerance of that indignity that does.” - Zohran Mamdani.

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Hafsa Halawa @hafsahalawa.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

The last few weeks of this heightened, racialised, sectarian narrative growing against Mamdani as he runs away with the election reminds me of where we were when Zac Goldsmith spewed utter bile and venomous crap about Sadiq Khan before Khan stormed the election to become the Mayor of London.

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