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Abdalhadi Alijla, Post-doctoral fellow at the Orient Institute in Beirut, recently published an article on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East. The region was hit hard by the virus and in many countries, this has uncovered serious inequalities within Middle Eastern societies.The author analyses how the states in the region have reacted and how deep internal polarisation has increased across political lines as a result of the pandemic. He elaborates that the lack of transparency in some countries, the failure to put together an economic response favouring the poor, grievous inequalities and the new draconian measures introduced to fight coronavirus are indications that the state of emergency in the region is likely to be ongoing.Find the full article here on Qantara.de, a digital project run by Deutsche Welle to promote dialogue with the Islamic world.