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Soheil Norouzi, Istanbul, Turkey The view from exile of an Iranian watching his country collapse For nearly two weeks, Iran has been engulfed in violence, protest, and despair. Since the regime cut off internet access across the country, information has reached the rest of the world only in fragments: slow, thick drips that offer little clarity about what is happening on the ground.  This uncertainty weighs heaviest on those whose families remain inside the country. Such is t

Nisa and Humeyra. Friends from university in Istanbul Between gazes, faith and freedom The Marmaray is packed to the brim. At Sögütlüçesme station, amongst the crowd pouring into the carriages, a young woman boards wearing a cropped top with the word “Metallica” printed in red letters. Her eyeliner is bold; she has piercings and tattoos; she carries a book by Virginia Woolf. She finds a seat next to another young woman who is texting on her phone, wearing headphones over her

The people who keep the city moving Istanbul flows. Sometimes fast and frenetic, sometimes slow and dense. Sixteen million people live among its seven hills and two continents: they move, work, eat, socialize, consume, discard, do, undo, walk, rest. Sixteen million. A concentration of human life larger than the population of more than 130 countries and accounting for almost a fifth of the entire population of Turkey. Incredibly, this urban giant is functional. Somehow, the ci

Cats in a coffee shop, Kadıköy, Istanbul A journey through coffee shops, campuses, clinics, and shelters to understand the city’s unique bond with its felines White, black, gray, brown, solid-colored or patchy; friendly or aloof; skinny, fat, big, small, fluffy, bald, tailed or tailless: cats in Istanbul come in every imaginable form. Few cities have served as the capital of so many civilizations: Roman, Byzantine, Latin, Ottoman, Turkish—and, in a sense, feline. Here, cats a