Civic Resistance

© Tobias Zuttmann

Never before has press freedom been in such a dire state in Serbia. Politicians are fanning the flames of hatred, and attacks on journalists are a recurring reality. Step by step, the state is extending its influence. Now the already small number of independent media outlets is at risk of shrinking significantly once again.

• Authors: Astrid Benölken & Tobias Zuttmann 
• Medium: JÁDU
• Original title: Pressefreiheit in Serbien: Schlagstock statt Schlagzeile
• Pillars of Democracy

© Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change

In various parts of the world, more and more young people are bringing climate change cases before the courts. For them, climate change is a human rights issue. The courts are gradually ruling in their favour.

• Author: Magdaléna Rojo
• Medium: JÁDU
• Original title: Klimatická kríza pred súdom
• Climate Crisis and Sustainability

Yaopey Yong via unsplash | CC0 1.0

We live under the illusion that it would be enough simply to work harder, and then everything would be fine again. But what if this false hope is merely a kind of trap that keeps us in a state of passivity? In today’s world, true courage does not begin with believing in a better tomorrow, but rather with accepting the fact that no saviour is coming, argues Stanislav Biler in his essay.

• Author: Stanislav Biler
• Medium: JÁDU
• Original title: Stinné stránky optimismu: Naděje pro strašidla
• Global Social Transformations

© Denis Vėjas / NARA

When ISIS was raging in northern Syria in 2014, the Western world caught sight of armed Kurdish women fighting against the jihadists – their hair loose in the wind – and fell in love with their image. But behind it lay a far more radical project: Rojava, the Kurdish-led autonomous region built over a decade, where gender equality is enshrined and defended by both law and arms. Now, after years of struggle for survival, Syria’s transitional government wants to reverse this process.

• Author: Denis Vėjas
• Medium: NARA
• Original title: Kovotojos, ne karės
• Safety and Security

© Wikimedia Commons / The Land of Kings (1971), public domain (Iran)

News is gradually reaching Iranians in exile about which of their loved ones have fallen victim to the regime’s violence. The bloody suppression of anti-government protests by the local Islamist regime at the turn of 2025 and 2026 ranks among the most tragic events in Iran’s modern history. According to independent estimates, members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps killed up to thirty thousand people and injured tens of thousands more. How do Iranians who have found a new home in the Czech Republic perceive the origins of the current Iranian Islamist terror, civil resistance, and the struggle for freedom?

• Author: Afra, Ali, Sanam, Yasmin
• Medium: Revue Prostor
• Original title: Íránský lev na cestě za svobodou
• Global Social Transformations

© Chatto & Windus

The debut novel by Swedish-Kurdish author Agri Ismaïl, titled *Hyper*, follows in the tradition of family sagas and literature written by second- or third-generation immigrants. The main character—the proud founder of the Communist Party of Iraqi Kurdistan—flees the country only to watch his ideals crumble as his children strive to succeed in London, New York, and Dubai. The novel captures the hyper-fragmented life under capitalism in the wake of the financial crisis from the perspective of uprooted Kurds.

• Author: Laura Vassileva
• Medium: Revue Prostor
• Original title: HYPERkapitalismus v kurdském zrcadle
• Global Social Transformations

© Multitude Films

The experiences and struggles of people with health-related disadvantages have been, and continue to be, systematically erased from our collective memory. In her reflection on a number of groundbreaking films, the author Petra Eller explores this erasure and the power that can bring these experiences back into the public consciousness.

• Author: Petra Eller
• Medium: JÁDU
• Original title: Crip dejiny: ich vymazávanie a filmy, ktoré ich uchovávajú
• Culture and Identity