Wendell Steavenson

The price of vanilla is 10 times higher than it was a few years ago. That's bringing unimagined wealth to local villages — and problems as well.

Wendell Steavenson talks about the paradoxical transition for Egypt’s women after Mubarak’s fall. In her article “Two Revolutions” is in the November 12 issue of The New Yorker, she writes that  women protested alongside in Tahrir Square, yet, “so far, the revolution has not advanced the cause of women and may even endanger it.” There are worries that the Islamist political parties that have dominated the political sphere since the revolution could curb women’s freedoms in an already conservative society.

Mohammed Adnan al-Bakkour, the attorney general of the central province of Hama in Syria, appeared in a video announcing his resignation on Wednesday in protest of government brutality. But the Syrian government denies al-Bakkour's claims and refuses to accept his resignation, saying he was kidnapped and forced to give the statement. Bloody uprisings started more than five months ago in Syria and Amnesty International says ten times more people have been killed in Syria than Libya. So why aren't we hearing more about it?

New Yorker contributor Wendell Steavenson assesses the mood of the Syrian people in the midst of the protests and crackdowns that have been taking place over the last five months. “Roads to Freedom” is an account of her recent trip to Damascus, which is in near-lockdown—and displays abandoned tourist sites, secret police in casual clothing milling around many of the squares, and anti-regime protests.

In her book, The Weight of a Mustard Seed, Wendell Steavenson provides an intimate portrait of General Kamel Sachet, who was one of Saddam Hussein's favorite Generals. Steadfast in his loyalty to God and his President, Sachet attended military executions and endured his own imprisonment as Saddam's behavior took ...