Fabienne Hoelzel

Professor at ABK Stuttgart. Founder of FABULOUS URBAN. Feminist urbanist. Infrastructure as dignity. Displacement as violence. Building otherwise.

[The Persian Jewess @persianjewess]

Marzieh Ebrahimi was blinded with acid for refusing to wear a hijab.

Happy World Hijab Day.

[IRANISCHE LIBERALE FRAUEN @ILFrauen]

Keep talking about Iran

Keep talking about Iran

Keep talking about Iran

Keep talking about Iran

Keep talking about Iran

Keep talking about Iran

Keep talking about Iran

Keep talking about Iran

#IranMassacre‌

[Betty Abah #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria @bettyabah]

Thanks to the indefatigable Barrister Femi Falana (SAN) for this brilliant exposé on the illegality of the Lagos State Government with regards to the #Makoko and other Lagos communities' #forcedevictions.

#HousingRight #RightToTheCity #SaveTheChildren

https://t.co/6STgkn7oxL

[Ralf Fuecks @fuecks]

Europa blieb passiv, als die Demokratiebewegung im Iran mit enthemmter Gewalt niedergeschlagen wurde. Werden unsere Regierungen jetzt zu "business as usual" mit Teheran zurückkehren? Das Mullah-Regime muss boykottiert werden wie einst Südafrika.

[Betty Abah #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria @bettyabah]

Makoko and Others: the Grand Plan to Violently Eliminate the Poor From Across Lagos

The Lagos State Govt @followlasg
is desperately resorting to media PR and damage control following public outrage as a result of the ongoing onslaught on Makoko community.

The initial agreement held by the state's Ministry of Urban Dev and the community was to pull down housing structures within 30 metres corridor from the power lines. When the chiefs ran to Alausa yesterday to report that the demolition squad was razing down houses beyond their agreed spot, the ministry's reps said they would go ahead with 50 metres. They agreed and returned.

Lagos State officials have gone to town with the LIE that the chiefs agreed to 100 metres. And it may all sound like figures but the fact is that's 70 extra metres into the community housing hundreds of families and implies that thousands of people would be displaced without alternative shelter. Already, hundreds are displaced with many sleeping inside boats and dug-out canoes. The demolition work is ongoing as we speak.

Worse still, Lagos State is directly contravening official regulations which stipulate 30 metres distance or at most 50 metres. It is all part of the grand plan acted out by the Ministry of Urban Development and Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA).

In less than a year, the government, working with private developers, some greedy traditional rulers and land grabbers using armed personnel and armed thugs, have razed down communities most times with absolutely no notice. Several of the affected community members mostly children and aged persons have died in the process.

Some of the communities affected in last year's wave of demolition include Oko-Baba, Ayetoro in Makoko followed by those of Otumara and Baba-Ijora then the recent massive eviction of Oworonshoki and Precious Seeds communities all of which led to the displacement of tens of thousands of economically vulnerable Lagosians. Not to mention Monkey Village (where we lost our youth ICT centre) or Ifelodun which they attempted to demolish during the COVID-19 lockdown or Ilaje-Bariga, Otodo-Gbame and so many others over the years leading to the displacement of tens of thousands of people including several deaths.

Hundreds of the houses demolished over time were either never given the mandatory notice as in Monkey Village or in gross violation of court process eg Oworonshoki and currently that of Makoko whose case is in court. As far as the Lagos State Government is concerned, human and housing rights shouldn't exist in the realms of the poor, majority of whom constitute the 'mega city's population.

People at the highest level of government are seizing lands belonging to the poor so that they can, in cahoot with private developers, build private exotic structures, that's just what it is. They are driving the poor as far away from the city centre as possible even though the economy is dominated and powered/serviced by the informal sector.

The poor do not fit into their urbanisation agenda, there is no construction of affordable/low cost or social housing to mitigate the acute housing crisis yet their votes are always suitably harvested for electoral wins every four years.

Supposing the government decides to take a piece of land it deems or claims is suitable for a better or official use, there are laid down rules involving prior informed consent, takeover notice, relocation and compensation process and which the state government violates consistently. These are internationally laid down principles, but no, here it's the rule of might.

As I write, there is ongoing pandemonium in Makoko with the demolition squad tear-gassing residents and generally terrorising them. Absolute chaos.

For many across the world, it's a Happy New Year, but for thousands of people in Makoko, West Africa's most populated informal community, it's a trepid and traumatised entry into the unknown.
-- Betty Abah

Jan. 6, 2026

@adequatehousing

[Bruno Tranchant @ogamashiyo]

Un dessin vaut mille mots.

[Janez Janša @JJansaSDS]

Freedom to the people of Iran

[Düzen Tekkal @DuezenTekkal]

Tag 5 der Proteste und Demonstrationen im #Iran und unsere #Bundesregierung schweigt immer noch. Leider gibt es die ersten Toten

Dariush Ansari Bakhtiarvand, ein protestierender Bürger aus Foladshahr, wurde am Mittwochabend während nächtlicher Proteste in der Stadt durch direktes Feuer von Regimeschergen ermordet. Dariush verstarb noch vor dem Erreichen des Krankenhauses.

Realpolitik bedeutet sich an die Seite der mutigen Zivilbevölkerung zu stellen, die gerade ihr Leben lässt für Frauen Leben Freiheit. Dieses Regime ist der Kopf der Schlange, die für so viel Unheil in der ganzen Region sorgt.

Die Menschen in Iran protestieren für ihr Recht auf Leben, Würde und Freiheit - und für ein Ende der Islamischen Republik. Die Antwort des Regimes sind Kugeln. Im November 2019 starben 1.500 Menschen bei den Protesten, im Herbst 2022 ca. 600 Personen. Schaut in den Iran - Verbrechen sind nur im toten Winkel unsichtbar.

[Masih Alinejad @AlinejadMasih]

President @realDonaldTrump, on Monday you spoke about ending wars in meetings with leaders, including @ZelenskyyUa and @netanyahu
A real war is happening right now, the Iranian regime waging violence against its own people.
This is not diplomacy. It is bloodshed.
We need action. Now.
If you want to understand what’s happening in Iran, listen to this.
Thank you @CBSNews for covering a struggle the world must not ignore.

[Masih Alinejad @AlinejadMasih]

The regime in Iran want you to look away.
They want to call this “an internal matter.”

It’s not.

Shayan Asadollahi was 28 years old.
A barber. An artist. A young man sharing his work on Instagram.

Tonight, in Azna, Iran’s security forces shot him dead with a live bullet.

Unarmed. Peaceful. Guilty of one thing only: demanding a free Iran.
This is a government at war with its own people.

And every government that stays silent tonight is choosing a side.

[Iran International English @IranIntl_En]

Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi said she hopes 2026 will see the “dark prefix” of the Islamic Republic removed from Iran’s name.
In a New Year message, she described 2025 as a year of hardship, executions and repression, but also of resilience and resistance.

[Heike Specht @HeikeSpecht]

Für 2026 wünsche ich den Iranerinnen und Iranern #FrauLebenFreiheit

[Mimi 🇫🇷🇪🇺 @FacciniMyriam]

✊️

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

Number of people who go bankrupt a year due to medical debt:

Germany: 0
France: 0
UK: 0
Japan: 0
Norway: 0
Denmark: 0
Finland: 0
Sweden: 0
Italy: 0
Australia: 0
Canada: 0
Spain: 0
Portugal: 0
Iceland: 0
Netherlands: 0

United States: 530,000

Yes. We need Medicare for All — NOW.

[Ahmed Al-Khalidi @khalidi79397]

Sudanese people don’t have influencers making viral campaigns.

Sudanese people don’t have campus protests chanting their names.

Sudanese people don’t have celebrities posting black-and-white selfies pretending to care.

Sudanese people don’t have millions marching in Western capitals demanding justice.

Sudanese people don’t have trending hashtags screaming “genocide” on their behalf.

Sudanese people don’t have international commissions obsessively investigating every bullet.

Sudanese people don’t have NGOs publishing hourly reports about their suffering.

Sudanese people don’t have journalists flying in to document the mass rapes, slavery, and burning villages.

Sudanese people don’t have angry TikTok activists crying into their iPhones.

Sudanese people don’t have student unions shutting down universities in solidarity with them.

Sudanese people don’t have boycotts, sanctions, or global outrage as entire towns are wiped out.

Sudanese people don’t have moral lectures from the world’s “human-rights defenders.”

Sudanese people don’t have Western politicians pretending to be heartbroken for votes.

Sudanese people don’t have anyone threatening to “shut the world down” until the killings stop.

Sudanese people don’t have global movements screaming for their freedom while mass graves fill up.

Sudanese people don’t have any of that.

They only have a real genocide, real massacres, and a world that simply doesn’t care.

[Hamza @HowidyHamza]

BREAKING: Hamas's militias stormed the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme buildings in Gaza, attacked the personnel & kicked them out of the building, & took full control of the facilities.
Hundreds of Gazan families I personally know are dependent on the assistance they get from the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (Before & during the war).

[Gavin Newsom @GavinNewsom]

I fear that we will not have an election in 2028 -- I really mean that in the core of my soul -- unless we wake up to what's happening in this country.

[Hen Mazzig @HenMazzig]

President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority has stated that Hamas must surrender its weapons and will have no part in ruling Gaza in the future. He also condemned Hamas's attacks on October 7th.

This is a step in the right direction.

This statement, along with reworking the Authority's welfare system to no longer reward terrorists, gives me hope.

The Palestinian Authority has far from a perfect past, but I care much more about working to create a peaceful future.

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

Susan, I hope I look as good as you at 102!

[Gavin Newsom @GavinNewsom]

Pay attention. Donald Trump is dismantling the First Amendment in real time.