Nearly 1 in 5 Medicaid-eligible adults in expansion states are at risk of losing health coverage due to insufficient or inconsistent work hours

A new study found that nearly 20 percent of eligible adults in Medicaid expansion states are in danger of not meeting the minimum work hours that will be required nationwide beginning January 1.

Boston University School of Public Health

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

A new study found that nearly 20 percent of eligible adults in Medicaid expansion states are in danger of not meeting the minimum work hours that will be required nationwide beginning January 1. Women, unmarried people, White individuals, and those with limited education all had a higher risk of losing their health coverage due to noncompliance with these new requirements.

Up to 10 million people may lose Medicaid coverage in the United States due in part to new work requirements and eligibility redeterminations under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which mandates a reduction of nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid spending over a decade. While the administrative burden associated with meeting and maintaining these work requirements is expected to be the primary driver of disenrollment, a new study led by researchers at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina (Arnold School) found that millions of Medicaid enrollees may lose their health coverage due to an inability to achieve the required work hours. 

Set to take effect nationwide on January 1, 2027, the new federal rules on Medicaid work reporting requirements mandate that adults enrolled in the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion must show that they are working, volunteering, enrolled in school, and/or participating in job training for at least 80 hours per month, with certain groups exempt. But the new study found that nearly 20 percent of Medicaid-eligible adults living in states that expanded Medicaid are at risk of noncompliance because they are likely unable to fulfill the minimum required hours once the rules take effect. The findings were published in JAMA Health Forum.  

Certain groups were more at risk of noncompliance than others. Women had a 22 percent higher probability of having insufficient or inconsistent work hours than men, while married Medicaid enrollees had an 18 percent lower probability of noncompliance than unmarried enrollees. 

Despite misconceptions by Medicaid work requirement proponents that able-bodied Medicaid recipients do not work, the study showed that more than 66 percent of applicable Medicaid recipients are in the labor force and, among that group, over 85 percent were working over 35 hours on average. However, there are many challenges that working Medicaid recipients may experience that prevent them from completing 80 hours of work each month. Many Medicaid recipients hold low-wage positions in the retail, hospitality, food service, healthcare, and agriculture industries, which often provide inconsistent and unpredictable work hours and positions. These workers may also encounter challenges with reliable transportation to and from work, affordable and reliable child care, and unrecognized disabilities or chronic health conditions that make it difficult for them to complete job tasks week after week. 

“These results show that the ideological narrative of Medicaid recipients just needing to pull themselves up by their bootstraps does not consider the precarious employment and other real-world barriers that often prevent them from maintaining stable work over time,” says study lead and corresponding author Dr. Paul Shafer, associate professor of health law, policy & management at BUSPH and codirector of the Boston University Medicaid Policy Lab. “These new work requirements are going to be tougher to fulfill for people with less education, part-time jobs or gig work, who have less control over their hours, and those who have substantial health concerns that may not rise to the level of a documentable disability.”

Furthermore, he says, “ample evidence suggests supporting people through Medicaid actually helps them to have stable employment because their health is better managed. Without Medicaid coverage, it is unlikely they will be able to meet both basic and critical health needs.”

For the study, the team utilized federal social and economic data to examine employment among non-elderly adults plausibly eligible for Medicaid in the 40 Medicaid expansion states and Washington, DC from 2023-2025. The researchers estimated the prevalence of adults being at risk of noncompliance by being near the 20-hour per week threshold or reporting variable hours (both +/- 5 hours) within the last week compared to their normal weekly hours. 

They found that 19.8 percent of eligible Medicaid recipients were in danger of not meeting the work requirements, with 13.6 percent near the minimum hours threshold and 7.6 percent having highly inconsistent work hours. There were substantial differences in both employment activity and prevalence of noncompliance across expansion states, spanning multiple regions. States such as Connecticut, Ohio, Arkansas, and Nevada had among the highest proportion of populations at-risk of noncompliance due to insufficient work hours, while Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Washington were among the states with highest proportions of at-risk populations due to variable work hours.

“Work and community engagement requirements assume Medicaid expansion eligible individuals have predictable schedules that translate into the same hours worked as scheduled,” says study senior author Dr. David Anderson, assistant professor in the Department of Health Services Policy and Management at the Arnold School. “Our study shows that this is not the case. People who are trying to meet these requirements are at higher risk if they are limited to short look-back periods, and limited hardship exemptions.”

Single mothers with high school-aged children may be among the most affected groups, says Dr. Shafer. 

“Parents are only exempt if their children have a recognized disability or are under the age of 14, so single moms with older children must meet and report these work requirements to remain eligible,” he says.

In addition to differences based on education level, sex, and marital status, the researchers also observed racial/ethnic disparities in risk of noncompliance: eligible Black and Hispanic Medicaid recipients had a lower risk than eligible White recipients. Those with higher education levels also had a lower risk compared to individuals who held less than a high school diploma.

The researchers also point out that these findings may be conservative estimates, as several states are expected to determine Medicaid eligibility based on multiple months of preemptive compliance prior to enrollment.

“States must look back to the prior month for compliance before the Medicaid application is filed, but they can look back as far as three months,” says study coauthor Dr. Timothy Callaghan, associate professor of health law, policy & management at BUSPH. “That means that, in some states, individuals must demonstrate work over several months to qualify for benefits. This will slow the access of newly employed individuals to Medicaid benefits in these states, and could lead to disparities in Medicaid access for those with inconsistent work.”

** 

About Boston University School of Public Health 

Founded in 1976, Boston University School of Public Health is one of the top ten ranked schools of public health in the world. It offers master's- and doctoral-level education in public health. The faculty in six departments conduct policy-changing public health research around the world, with the mission of improving the health of populations—especially the disadvantaged, underserved, and vulnerable—locally and globally.

---

Journal

JAMA Health Forum

DOI

10.1001/jamahealthforum.2026.2938 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Medicaid Work-Reporting Requirements Under HR 1 and Insufficient or Inconsistent Work Hours

Article Publication Date

28-Aug-2026

COI Statement

Dr Anderson reported consulting fees from Alliant Health Plans, EvenSun Health, Meapta, and Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, and grants from Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, Commonwealth Fund (No. 23-23531), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R01HS030083) outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

 

Pulling carbon into seawater using engineered bacteria

Synthetically engineered marine bacteria accelerate natural bioweathering with potential for decarbonizing the atmosphere at industrial scales

Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard

Facebook

X
BlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

This photo shows Amogh Jalihal, Neil Dalvie, and team member Mohammed Hijaz in the rockweathering lab that they equipped with multiple rock-seawater bioreactors to pursue their rockweathering study. 

view more 

Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

By Benjamin Boettner

(BOSTON) — Rock weathering, the breakdown and dissolving of rocks and minerals caused by their exposure to water, air, and biological life, is a major regulator of Earth’s atmospheric CO2 levels and climate. Throughout Earth’s history, rock weathering has been faster during warm periods with increased atmospheric CO2 levels. Dissolved minerals ultimately wash into the ocean, where they draw CO2 from the atmosphere and cool the planet again. While this thermostat is responsible for the temperate climate we enjoy on Earth, the weathering cycle occurs over hundreds of thousands of years.

In search of climate solutions, scientists have asked if the rock weathering cycle could be sped up, resulting in a number of new companies pursuing Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW). By scattering crushed silicate rocks on agricultural surfaces or into water, they aim to pull excess CO2 out of the atmosphere. Although this strategy is generally safe and environmentally friendly, it is still too slow to affect the global carbon balance or to be economically viable at industrial scale.

Now, a collaborative research team at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, Harvard Medical School (HMS)’s Department of Systems Biology, and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, led by Wyss Institute Founding Core Faculty member Pamela Silver, Ph.D. and Wyss Institute Associate Faculty member Michael Springer, Ph.D., has engineered a potential solution to this problem. The research team, spearheaded by first-author and chemical engineer Neil Dalvie, Ph.D., genetically engineered Alteromonas macleodii, a widespread marine bacterium, to produce much higher amounts of so-called siderophores, molecules that extract iron from silicate minerals. In customized bioreactors with a continuous flow of seawater, the engineered bacterium sped up the weathering of the silicate mineral olivine by 2.6-fold, boosting the amount of CO2 that was removed from air. Their findings are published in Nature Biotechnology.

“Our study embraces the concept of biologically inspired engineering and how synthetic biology can be applied to enhance normal climate-regulating processes, which ultimately could have a positive impact on our planet,” said Silver, who also is the Elliot T. and Onie H. Adams Professor of Biochemistry and System Biology at HMS and, together with Springer, founded the Synthetic Biology Hive at HMS. “We believe this easily applicable, risk-free environmental engineering strategy could be implemented at many places with real-world decarbonization outcomes.”

Fast-tracking geology with synthetic biology

During natural rock weathering, silicate minerals like olivine dissolve to release primarily magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe) and silicate (SiO4), trapping atmospheric CO2 in the water as bicarbonate (HCO3-). Specifically, the released iron is not soluble when exposed to the atmosphere. Instead, it covers the mineral surface as rust, slowing down the whole process. By producing siderophores, bacteria can capture, solubilize, and take up oxidized (rusted) iron to sustain their own growth. Conveniently, this effectively de-rusts the mineral surface, speeding up rock weathering.

Researchers used custom bioreactors to tease apart when natural bacteria produce siderophores. They found that even a small amount of iron-containing mineral completely inhibited siderophore production, posing a big problem for siderophore production at industrial scales. “Once wild bacteria have enough iron to grow, they stop making siderophores completely,” said the study’s first and co-corresponding author Neil Dalvie, Ph.D., who spearheaded the project as a postdoctoral fellow in Silver’s lab. “To enable enhanced weathering at scale, we engineered A. macleodii to always produce siderophores. We essentially decoupled siderophore production from environmental iron levels.” 

Proof-of-principle in rock-seawater bioreactors

While it took the team roughly one month to engineer the microbes, the real challenge was showing that they sped up rock weathering and removed more CO2 from the atmosphere. To get a handle on this validation, Dalvie teamed up with co-author Amogh Jalihal, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Springer’s group at the Wyss Institute and HMS. “We put our heads together and decided that the measurement would be best at steady state. We needed seawater and bacteria to be continuously flowing over the minerals,” said Dalvie. Conveniently, Springer’s group had recently acquired an entire room full of eVOLVERs, small-scale bioreactors that were originally designed by Ahmad (Mo) Khalil, Ph.D., another Associate Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute and the Hok Lam and Kathleen Kam Wong Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. 

After small-scale studies showed promise, the team constructed pilot-scale bioreactors, loaded with several kilograms of green olivine sand submerged under gallons of raw seawater from the Boston Harbor. “Operating at pilot scale allowed us to start solving scale-up problems: How often to we need to add cells? How do we feed them? Eventually we were able to measure actual uptake of 0.5 g of atmospheric CO2 into our reactors each day, which was a compelling end result.”

The team also carried out a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), which accounts for all carbon captured or emitted by the entire system over time, including all living, geological, and chemical parts. Dalvie and Jalihal collaborated with Abigail Fitzgibbon, a Ph.D. student working with Steven Davis, Ph.D. Professor of Earth System Science at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University. Davis’ group has developed models to quantify the carbon emissions of industrial or agricultural processes and the effects on air quality on human wellbeing. “Our collaboration with the Stanfort group enabled us to precisely calculate the net carbon balance in our system. We could see which process parameters were key to make it an efficient environmental technology when used at industrial scale.” 

Looking to the future

Dalvie recently received a fellowship from the Burroughs Wellcome Career Awards at the Scientific Interface (CASI) program, which will fund further work on microbial siderophore production and mineral processing. For bio-weathering, more scale-up studies are needed to identify economically viable sources of feedstocks and silicate minerals. The team is also investigating if valuable metals could be extracted from silicate minerals alongside CO2 sequestration. “We are currently thinking that the most straight-forward way of creating environmental impact would be to grow our bacterial strains with adequate food sources in large basins resembling those in sewage plants, continuously pumping unprocessed seawater in and releasing alkaline seawater back into the ocean where the bound carbon would be completely harmless and buffered away,” said Springer, who is studying how evolution has shaped and constrained the interactions of organisms with their environments.

Other authors on the study are Jan-Tobias Böhnke, Mohammed Hijaz, and Quincey Justman. The study was supported by the Wyss Institute Director’s Fund, Synthetic Biology Hive at Harvard Medical School, Harvard Climate and Sustainability Translational Fund from Harvard’s Office of Technology Development, the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, a Garden Grant from Homeworld Collective, and a Schmidt Science Fellowship.

PRESS CONTACT

Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University
Benjamin Boettner, benjamin.boettner@wyss.harvard.edu

###

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University (www.wyss.harvard.edu) is a research and development engine for disruptive innovation powered by biologically-inspired engineering with visionary people at its heart. Our mission is to transform healthcare and the environment by developing ground-breaking technologies that emulate the way Nature builds and accelerate their translation into commercial products through formation of startups and corporate partnerships to bring about positive near-term impact in the world. We accomplish this by breaking down the traditional silos of academia and barriers with industry, enabling our world-leading faculty to collaborate creatively across our focus areas of diagnostics, therapeutics, medtech, and sustainability. Our consortium partners encompass the leading academic institutions and hospitals in the Boston area and throughout the world, including Harvard’s Schools of Medicine, Engineering, Arts & Sciences and Design, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston University, Tufts University, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, University of Zürich, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

---

Journal

Nature Biotechnology

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Engineered bacterial siderophore production accelerates rock weathering for carbon removal

Article Publication Date

28-Aug-2026

 

Insects could face an uphill battle adapting to climate change

British Ecological Society

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessage

Reduced oxygen levels and air pressure at higher elevations may limit the ability of insects to move upslope to escape a warming climate, with potential consequences for the essential services they provide, like pollination. This is according to a new review of research in The British Ecological Society journal, Functional Ecology.

Under a warming climate, many species are shifting their range to higher elevations to remain in suitable temperature zones. However, conditions at higher elevations such as thinner air and less oxygen pose unique challenges to insects because of their size, lifecycle and way of breathing.

To understand how moving to higher elevations could affect different insect species, researchers from the University of Montana reviewed research on the physiological effects of hypoxia (low oxygen levels) and hypobaria (low pressure) on insects.

They found that flying insects particularly struggle at higher elevations because the thinner air means they need to generate more lift and expend more energy flying, while reduced oxygen concentrations limit the ability of their breathing system to supply oxygen rapidly enough to the flight muscles.

Insects with active larval stages, like actively feeding caterpillars, also struggle because of their energy and oxygen demands. Insects with aquatic larval stages, like dragonflies, are already limited by the amount of oxygen in water, and this is exacerbated at higher elevations.

Higher rates of water loss at high altitudes were also identified as a barrier to insects’ ability to survive in these conditions.

Professor Art Woods, the lead researcher of the study, said: “Our study suggests that low oxygen levels and low atmospheric pressure at higher elevations may negatively affect insect performance, meaning moving uphill may be more difficult than expected. We think of moving uphill as an ‘escape valve’ for animals but it may not be the solution we hope for.”

Insects are key players in many ecosystems and perform essential services such as pollination and decomposition. If they are unable to move upslope under climate change, this could disrupt pollination services, affecting crop production and ecosystem functioning.

The researchers were particularly surprised by the limitations lower oxygen levels place on insects. Professor Woods added: “Because insects get their oxygen through a network of external openings and internal tubes throughout their body, it's easy to imagine that they have little problem getting all the oxygen they need. If humans can go to moderately high elevations with only minor discomfort, surely insects won’t have a problem?

“But the data from several experiments suggest that demand for oxygen by active stages of insects, especially growing juveniles and flying adults, is high enough that their respiratory systems struggle to deliver oxygen fast enough at even modestly higher elevations."

The researchers call for more targeted research into high-elevation species to better understand the physiological constraints of shifting ranges upslope. Knowledge gained from this research will be vital for informing conservation strategies.

-ENDS-

---

Journal

Functional Ecology

DOI

10.1111/1365-2435.70416 

Method of Research

Literature review

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

The oxygen and pressure physiology of upper elevational range limits in insects

Article Publication Date

28-Aug-2026

 

“HOPE” to reign in a crisis

Singapore Management University

LinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

SMU Professor Lau Hoong Chuin bags major grant to build a new science of resilience and next-generation decision platform for Singapore to manage national crises.

view more 

Credit: Singapore Management University

By Christie Loh

SMU Office of Research Governance & Administration – One of Singapore Management University’s (SMU) leading computer scientists has secured multi-million-dollar funding to build a new generation of intelligent decision support methods and software tools that will strengthen the country’s agility in resource allocation during national crises including a pandemic.

The five-year project, titled Human-Centered Operational Pandemic Resilience (HOPE), is funded under the Ministry of Education’s Academic Research Fund (AcRF) Tier 3 Programme. Tier 3 grants are the highest and most competitive tier of academic research funding in Singapore, awarded to high-impact interdisciplinary programmes that are overall led by a university researcher with outstanding credentials.

HOPE’s Lead Principal Investigator (PI) is SMU Professor of Computer Science Lau Hoong Chuin, whose successful collaborations with industry giants such as IBM and Fujitsu have yielded solid results in terms of business cost savings and technological innovations. 

He is attempting to create something unprecedented with HOPE. 

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have started beefing up their strategies to cope with sudden major crises. But while most national programmes focus on single goals such as diversifying supply chains or healthcare interventions, this SMU project is gunning for a “holistic” resilience system built around three pillars: Enhancing supply chain resilience, optimising healthcare operations, and strengthening emergency response coordination. 

“It’s an ambitious attempt,” Professor Lau readily acknowledged in an interview with SMU’s Office of Research Governance & Administration (ORGA). 

However, “because Singapore is small, and we have strong coordination between government agencies, healthcare institutions, industry and the research communities, this programme is uniquely positioned to showcase a truly integrated approach to resilience in the face of uncertainty”.

AI + OR + Human in the Centre

 A distinguishing feature of HOPE is its integration of Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research – two disciplines that are often pursued separately. 

AI excels at learning patterns from large volumes of data and generating predictions, while OR provides mathematical frameworks for planning, optimisation, and resource allocation. By combining the strengths of both fields, the team hopes to create systems that are not only intelligent, but also transparent, reliable, and operationally actionable.

“We’re bringing the two disciplines together deeply; and ultimately our goal is to solve real-world problems that matter,” said Professor Lau.

At the heart of the programme is a commitment to “human-centered” decision making, balancing societal needs and economic efficiency. For instance, when allocating essentials such as food supplies and medical equipment during a crisis, the software tools would be used to estimate how these scarce resources should be distributed to various communities in a fair, equitable manner. The same suite of tools would also be used to manage workforce planning issues in healthcare operations, such as rostering of nurses to ensure they receive adequate rest while maintaining quality patient care, as well as decisions on balancing urgent and elective surgeries.

HOPE will collaborate with government agencies and industry partners, including Singapore’s Programme for Research in Epidemic Preparedness and REsponse (PREPARE), A*STAR’s Institute of Advanced Intelligence and Computing, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Singapore General Hospital.

The tools created now in ‘peacetime’ will certainly have uses. One project that is ready for use at present is related to predicting and acting on a surge in dengue fever cases, said Professor Lau. 

When crisis or ‘wartime’ strikes, the system built by his team should help stakeholders such as healthcare institutions effectively pivot. In today’s world fraught with uncertainty, we need to create tools to smoothen the transition from peacetime to wartime rather than improvising in the midst of an emergency. “That’s why I named the programme “HOPE”: there is HOPE during crisis,” Professor Lau said.

“HOPE will serve as a university-wide platform, bringing together researchers from across the university to address complex societal challenges through AI, data science, optimisation, social science, public policy, and other complementary disciplines,” said Professor Lau.

He added: “We are not simply building a five-year research programme. Our aspiration is to create a lasting area of excellence that advances human-centered AI, and serves as a trusted partner for government, industry and healthcare organisations.” 

“If we are successful, HOPE will become a catalyst for new collaborations and innovations and to thrive in the long term,” said Professor Lau. “The hope is to develop technologies and capabilities that deliver tangible impact, and not just add a few more papers to the literature.”

‘Words and promises not enough’ as Syria’s Kurds face uncertain future

Syria’s Kurds are facing an uncertain future after this week’s dissolution of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and the integration of military and civilian institutions in northeastern Syria into the Syrian state, raising questions over what the changes will mean for their rights, safety and daily lives. RFI spoke to a Kurdish civil society activist in the region.


Issued on: 28/08/2026 - RFI

A Syrian Kurd leaves a displacement camp in Hasakeh to return to the northeastern border town of Ras al-Ain on 10 August 2026, following an integration deal between Kurdish authorities and Damascus. AFP - DELIL SOULEIMAN

The changes mark a major shift for a region where Kurds had built up significant political and military autonomy during more than a decade of civil war.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – which served as the de facto army of the Kurdish administration and played a major role in the fight against the Islamic State group – announced its dissolution on Tuesday after its forces were integrated into the Syrian army.

Damascus has also offered assurances over Kurdish rights.

On Thursday, Syria’s education ministry authorised Kurdish-language classes alongside Arabic and English in public and private schools in areas where Kurds make up a significant share of the population.

The decision follows a decree signed by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in January recognising the national rights of Syria’s Kurds and Kurdish as a national language – an unprecedented step since Syria gained independence in 1946.

But questions remain over what the political changes will mean in practice, from the future of Kurdish-language education and the return of displaced families to women’s rights and security.

Alva Ali, the founder of the Ahimsa Centre for Non-Violence in northeastern Syria, tells RFI how Kurds are responding to the changes and why many remain fearful about what comes next.

RFI: How have the recent announcements been received by the Kurdish population?

Alva Ali: There are differing points of view. Some people have welcomed the news, seeing it as a new step towards peace and a better future – a move that would prevent further innocent casualties.

Others see it as bad news because they do not know what the concrete consequences will be. They cannot grasp the meaning of a decision about which they have absolutely no information. They are waiting in fear to find out what will happen to the schools and their children's futures. The problem is that nothing is clear.

Syrians are kept completely out of these kinds of decisions, and this is especially true for the Kurds. As a result, people are often taken by surprise by announcements because they have heard nothing about the negotiations.

In the case of the Kurds, certain leaders are holding talks with the Syrian government, but these leaders do not represent all Kurds.

My view is that the people in power have changed, but we still do not have a true democracy. Syrians still do not participate in decision-making. Admittedly, dialogue has replaced war, and that is a good thing. However, Kurdish rights must be protected by the constitution.

We all know that words and promises are not enough. We learned that from the Bashar al-Assad regime.

We must remember the new Syrian government was formed in part with members of former terrorist groups and individuals who committed crimes against the Kurdish population. Naturally, this is very frightening for the Kurds.

RFI: When Syrian government forces took control of northeastern Syria last January, there was a fear among the Kurdish population that they would suffer the same violence experienced by the Druze and Alawite communities the previous year. Does that fear persist?

AA: Yes, because the integration of the Kurds into Syria is being discussed only at a political level. For the moment, nothing is being done about people's day-to-day lives. In fact, the economic situation has worsened following the integration of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) into the country.

Everything has deteriorated, yet the leaders do not seem to care much about it.

Attacks against the Kurdish population have also continued. A few weeks ago, displaced families attempted to return to their homes in the city of Ras al-Ain, but armed groups linked to the new authorities attacked them. These people chose to turn back rather than return home. This is a source of tension in many cities.

RFI: One of the promises of the agreement reached between the Kurdish authorities and Damascus last January was to allow Kurdish families who had fled the violence to return home. So far, very few families have been able to return.

AA: During times of war, political groups systematically use displaced people as a tool. In this specific instance, they are being used to project a positive image, demonstrating that integration has been successful. Displaced families do not care about integration in northeastern Syria. All they want is to return home.

However, achieving this requires genuine political will. They must be able to reclaim their property, which in some cases has been seized by others. Those whose homes were destroyed need to receive compensation to enable reconstruction. The individuals who appropriated their assets must be held accountable. And, of course, they need guarantees regarding their safety.

RFI: Within the AANES, women played a significant political and military role. More generally, women enjoyed greater rights than in other parts of the country. Do you think their lives will be significantly affected by this political shift?

AA: It is certain that they will not retain the same rights and powers. Within the AANES, there was a cultural system in which men and women shared leadership. Women also had their own organisations and played a significant political and military role.

We have received no clear guarantees. We are waiting, in particular, to see whether central Syrian law will apply to our region. This raises important questions about issues such as child marriage or polygamy. The authorities in Damascus draw inspiration from Sharia law, so it is difficult to imagine women retaining their rights under that framework.

RFI: You advocate for non-violence alongside the Sullam network, which brings together activists from across the country striving to help build a new Syria. More than a year and a half after the fall of al-Assad’s regime, how do you view the situation in the country?

AA: The situation remains very unclear and, as I was saying, most decisions stem from political and military agreements. To me, the Assad regime is not entirely destroyed. Bashar al-Assad and his supporters are still living in Moscow, and I do not know what we will actually manage to achieve with this revolution.

I hope the future will be better, but we cannot build true peace without justice.

Justice does not mean revenge. We must respond to violence without resorting to further violence. We must listen to victims, and that means fair trials for all those who have committed crimes. It also means helping victims and preventing such crimes from happening again.

To move from violence to peace, we must heal people, not ignore them. True peace can only begin when people have a voice, when their rights are protected and when justice applies to everyone.

Today, it is difficult for us activists, too, to make our voices heard. The Ahimsa Centre continues to operate in northeastern Syria, and we are trying to register our organisation with the new Syrian government, but it is not easy. For instance, they do not accept the concept of non-violence; it cannot be included in our centre’s name. We can speak of peace, but not of non-violence. Many factors constrain our work, and the situation is the same across the country.

People are afraid to speak openly. A few months ago, we organised a webinar through the Sullam network. Some participants were so afraid of the new authorities that they attended using pseudonyms.

This article was based on an interview in French by RFI's Oriane Verdier