Episodes
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In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges Naomi Wolf, one of the world's best-known feminists and author of the seminal book The Beauty Myth, on where the feminist movement is headed, and whether her controversial latest writings are furthering or undermining the cause of women's rights. Wolf vigorously defends her latest book Vagina: A New Biography, in which she argues, "to understand the vagina properly is to realize that it is not only coextensive with the female brain, but is also, essentially, part of the female soul." The book has been labelled as 'essentialist', 'narcissistic' and 'simplistic' by fellow feminists. We explore whether feminism is dominated by white, middle-class Western women and how it can represent the interests of women across cultural lines. We also ask why the media has branded Naomi Wolf a 'conspiracy theorist' in recent years, and whether there is truth to her claim that the US has become a police state. Joining the discussion are: Andrea Stuart, an award-winning feminist author and lecturer in cultural studies. Caroline Criado-Perez, a feminist campaigner, journalist and author of Do It Like a Woman. Finn Mackay, the founder of the London Feminist Network and author of Radical Feminism. Hana Riaz, founder and director of The Body Narratives, an NGO dedicated to documenting the narratives of women of colour.
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In this episode of Head to Head , Mehdi Hasan challenges Hina Rabbani Khar, former foreign minister of Pakistan, on whether the army is in control of the country, and if Pakistan has been supporting the Taliban. Joining the discussion are: Omar Waraich, an award-winning British journalist and former Pakistan correspondent for Time Magazine; Humeira Iqtidar, Pakistani Senior Lecturer in Politics of South Asia at King's College London and author of Secularising Islamists? Mosharraf Zaidi, former advisor to Foreign Minister Rabbani Khar as well as the EU and UN.
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Episodes manquant?
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With the headlines covering fanaticism, fundamentalism, superstition and ignorance, religion is getting a bad press these days. And much of the conflict in the world, from the Middle East to Nigeria and Myanmar, is often blamed on religion. But how are things from a different perspective? Some defenders of religion claim Adolf Hitler was an atheist. Communism under Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot or Mao Zedong banned religion, but also massacred millions. And science brought incredible and amazing advances, but also pollution and the atomic bomb. A critic of religious dogmatism, Professor Richard Dawkins revolutionised genetics in 1976 with the publication of The Selfish Gene. He has since written 12 more bestsellers, including The God Delusion which sold millions of copies, was translated into more than 30 languages, and catapulted him to the position of the world's foremost atheist. Mehdi Hasan challenges evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins at the Oxford Union in front of a varied and lively audience. In a frank and at times heated exchange, they discuss: Is religion a force for good or evil? Can it co-exist with science? Is science the new religion? And why if god does not exist, is religion so persistent?
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"They deluded themselves in believing that they were allies. Actually, they were not," says former Director-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt. General Asad Durrani, commenting on Pakistan's rocky relationship with the United States since they allied in the "War on Terror". In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges General Durrani on whether Pakistan is fighting or fuelling international terrorism. We explore the nation's role as a US ally in the "War on Terror", and investigate claims that it has been backing the Afghan Taliban, whilst its offshoot, the Pakistani Taliban, wages a brutal insurgency at home. Is Pakistan a rogue state? Or is it stuck between a rock and a hard place? And what role should the military play in a democratic Pakistan? Joining this discussion are: • Dr Farzana Shaikh, associate fellow at Chatham House and author of Making Sense of Pakistan • Declan Walsh, Pakistan Bureau chief for the New York Times • Shazadi Beg, a human rights barrister and Pakistan specialist What do you think? Post your thoughts in the comments below.
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In this episode, Mehdi Hasan goes Head to Head with two guests with opposing views. In part one, he challenges Lanhee Chen, chief architect of former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign. Chen argues that "the employer-sponsored system ... has been the linchpin of a quality system of care we have in the US". And in part two, Hasan debates Bernie Sanders surrogate and health policy expert Abdul El-Sayed. "I don't want to live in a society where any of my neighbours … have to potentially go bankrupt because they got sick ... and that's what we have here in the United States," he says. *Editors Note: In the programme, Hasan refers to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, published May 13, which estimated that by May 2, 2020, some 27 million Americans could have lost their health insurance as a result of the economic impact of the coronavirus. After this segment was recorded, a new study, conducted by Families USA, estimated that 5.4 million Americans lost their health insurance. While the Kaiser study took into account family members of the insured, the Families USA study did not. Americans frequently receive their insurance through another family member's employer.
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"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge," says Jimmy Wales about his brainchild Wikipedia, the non-for-profit crowd-sourced online encyclopedia. But as internet freedoms are besieged by mass surveillance, can his project survive? In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan questions Jimmy Wales, one of the world’s most renowned internet gurus, on his future plans, on whether Wikipedia is advancing or degrading our knowledge, and on whether liberty, privacy and security can coexist in an online era. So, is the internet dumbing us down? Is Wikipedia the best thing since sliced bread? Can online freedom survive state surveillance? Joining the discussion are Bob Ayres, a former NSA and CIA intelligence officer; Isabella Sankey, the director of policy at British human rights organisation, Liberty; Herman Chinery-Hesse, a Ghanaian internet entrepreneur and founder of one of Africa’s largest software companies; and Oliver Kamm, a British writer and journalist.
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In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges Sir Paul Collier, the former head of Development Research at the World Bank, author of Exodus: Immigration and Multiculturalism, and professor at Oxford University, on the costs and benefits of migration. Collier tells Hasan that he is not "advocating stopping migration" but that "too much diversity" leads to an erosion of cooperation in societies that "shows up in much lower levels of trust". We explore whether increased migration threatens social cohesion, and ask: Does emigration help or hurt developing countries? Are stricter border controls needed? And what about refugees? Joining the discussion are: David Goodhart, author of the book The British Dream Philippe Legrain, economist and author of the book Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them. Titilola Banjoko, British-Nigerian doctor and advisor to the EU and the UN on migration issues Head to Head is Al Jazeera's forum of ideas, a gladiatorial contest tackling big issues such as faith, the economic crisis, democracy and intervention in front of an opinionated audience at the Oxford Union.
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In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges Robert S. Wistrich, one of the world's leading scholars of anti-Semitism, on why he thinks criticism of Israeli policies is a modern manifestation of historical anti-Jewish hatred. Is anti-Zionism a new form of anti-Semitism? Are boycotts driven by prejudice or principle? And is a criticism of the Palestinians and the Muslim world Islamophobic? In front of the Oxford Union audience, and with the help of an expert panel, we discuss the complex relationship between legitimate criticism of Israel and illegitimate racism. Joining this discussion are: • Hannah Weisfeld, the founder, and director of Yachad, a pro-Israel, pro-peace movement. • Jonathan Arkush, the vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. • Richard Kuper, the founder of Jews for Justice for Palestinians. • Sharif Nashashibi, a Palestinian commentator and former advisor to the UN
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"Prospects have never been better for settling the Israel-Palestine conflict," argues Norman Finkelstein, the controversial scholar and author of The Holocaust Industry and Method and Madness. But after more violence, yet another round of failed talks and 20 years of Israeli land annexation, is the two-state solution really still an option? In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges Norman Finkelstein on his proposal for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict, and explores whether he has changed his tone on some of his more incendiary criticism of Israel. Once described as an 'American Radical', Finkelstein has also been branded by some a liberal Zionist, for his opposition to the one-state solution and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, which he vehemently describes as "a cult." But does the BDS movement violate international law, and does it really aim to dismantle the Israeli state? Joining the discussion are Salma Karmi-Ayyoub, a leading Palestinian activist and human rights lawyer in London; Jeff Halper, the director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions in Jerusalem; and Oliver Kamm, a writer and journalist at The Times and The Jewish Chronicle newspapers, and outspoken supporter of Israel.
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A decade of Western interventions in the Middle East is coming to an end. But is the West leaving behind better countries than they found? Or were their campaigns total fiascos? Nicknamed Darth Vader by his men and Macho Jacko by the British tabloid press, General Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the British army, says the West did not always achieve its objectives, but will not admit failure.
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A UN report says Israeli settlements violate human rights and could be prosecuted as war crimes, but many Israeli settlers consider themselves patriots. So what hope is there for peace in the Middle East? In a country where settlers are now one of the biggest and strongest political movements, Dani Dayan, a Netanyahu advisor and the outgoing chairman of the Yesha (Settlers) Council, says there is no two-state solution to the conflict and that he is happy with the status quo. Dayan has been a major in the Israeli army, a successful IT entrepreneur, and a University lecturer. He openly campaigned for Binyamin Netanyahu. Mehdi Hasan goes head to head with Dayan at the Oxford Union, discussing whether Zionism is a colonialist project, whether the so-called apartheid roads are just an urban legend - and more importantly, what is the solution to this protracted conflict? Are the settlements a natural extension of the Israeli state or the single biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East? Will the Palestinians ever be able to build an independent and viable state? Joining our discussion are: Dr. Ghada Karmi, an academic and the author of The Palestinian Exodus (1999), In Search for Fatima (2002), and Israel’s Dilemma in Palestine (2007). Sam Westrop, a former director of the British Israel Coalition, and a fellow of the New York-based Gatestone Institute. Hannah Weisfeld, the director of Yachad, a pro-peace, pro-Israel NGO based in London.
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"Why do they hate us?" With these five words in a controversial magazine article, Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy shot to fame, unleashing a devastating critique of women’s rights in the Arab world. In the season premiere of Head to Head , Mehdi Hasan challenges Eltahawy on her views regarding the status of women in Arab states. Are Arab or Muslim societies inherently patriarchal? And how does the narrative of Islam as sexist play into geo-politics and Western stereotypes of the Middle East? Joining the discussion is Dr Aitemad Muhanna of the London School of Economics.
