Anchal Vohra is a Brussels-based columnist at Foreign Policy who writes about Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. She has covered the Middle East for the Times of London and has been a TV correspondent for Al Jazeera English and Deutsche Welle. She was previously based in Beirut and Delhi and has reported on conflict and politics from over two dozen countries.
A Syrian man shows marks of torture on his back, after he was released from regime forces, in the Bustan Pasha neighbourhood of Syria's northern city of Aleppo on Aug. 23, 2012.
Lebanese demonstrators burn tires and wave their national flag during a protest against dire economic conditions on a highway between Beirut and the northern city of Tripoli on Oct. 18.
Syrians gather amidst destruction in Zardana, in the mostly rebel-held northern Syrian Idlib province, in the aftermath of air strikes in the area late on June 8, 2018.
Children of members of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement hold portraits of Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah and Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a procession following the mourning period of Ashura in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on Oct. 4, 2017.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Russian President Vladimir Putin walk past a portrait of founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as they arrive for a press conference after meeting in Tehran on Sept. 7, 2018.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad inspect a military parade during their visit to the Russian air base in Hmeimim in the northwestern Syrian province of Latakia on Dec. 11, 2017.
Supporters of Lebanon's Hezbollah group hold national, Palestinian, and the Shiite movement's yellow flags during a rally held in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Dec. 11, 2017. (AFP/Getty Images)