Living Under Censorship, Occupation, and War

We are seeking work from those living in regions where conflict, political collapse, censorship, or occupation have reshaped the routine structure of daily life. Across Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine, Yemen, and Palestine, the past several years have marked profound shifts in how people move through familiar streets, gather information, keep families together, and navigate the absence of institutions once taken for granted. United Nations reports estimate that hundreds of millions now require assistance, a number that reflects the scale of displacement, the deterioration of civil infrastructure, and the pressures placed on communities already living under constraint.

In Sudan, entire neighborhoods have emptied as conflict pushes more than ten million people from their homes. In Myanmar, families move between temporary shelters as the military’s air campaigns and arrests continue. Afghanistan faces a combination of economic disintegration and social restriction that affects nearly every aspect of public and private life. Iran continues to confront periods of protest and the state response that follows. Syria enters another year in which displacement remains a defining condition. Yemen’s shortages of food, water, and medical care deepen as the conflict endures. Ukraine continues to absorb the consequences of attacks on civilian infrastructure. In Palestine, particularly Gaza, displacement has become near universal, and satellite assessments show the extent to which entire districts have been altered or erased.

We invite work that reflects the texture of these realities. Writers, medics, teachers, journalists, parents, students, aid workers, civil servants, and others who have direct knowledge of these conditions are encouraged to submit pieces that illuminate the specific moments that shape the day: the decision to move a family member from one shelter to another when routes are uncertain; the adjustment required when power or water becomes unreliable; the exchanges in classrooms, clinics, or kitchens that reveal how communities adapt when the ordinary becomes provisional. We welcome work rooted in the details that define experience rather than in broad explanations of political events.

Submissions may take the form of essays, testimonies, field notes, journal entries, poems, or visual and audio material when it is safe to share. Accounts from civilians, health-care workers, teachers, journalists, or individuals with military or civil defense experience are welcome. Contributors may use their name, a pseudonym, or remain anonymous, depending on what best ensures safety.

This call exists to document how people live under conditions that are often reported at scale but rarely described in their lived contours. Our role is to hold these accounts with care and accuracy so that the circumstances shaping this moment are preserved rather than erased, revised, or absorbed into abstraction.