--- title: This Week’s Best Foreign Policy Reads description: The week's best foreign policy stories canonical: https://time.com/4069299/isis-gay-muslim-iran/ author: Ian Bremmer article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-10T21:40:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:41:50.724Z article:section: World og:title: The Best Foreign Policy Stories of the Week og:description: ISIS, Iran and life as a gay Muslim extremist og:url: https://time.com/4069299/isis-gay-muslim-iran/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Best Foreign Policy Stories of the Week twitter:description: ISIS, Iran and life as a gay Muslim extremist twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Week's Best Foreign Policy Reads  by [Ian Bremmer](/author/ian-bremmer/)  ## Ian Bremmer Oct 10, 2015 9:40 PM CUT  by [Ian Bremmer](/author/ian-bremmer/)  ## Ian Bremmer Oct 10, 2015 9:40 PM CUT [**The Cyber Activists Who Wants to Shut Down ISIS**](http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/anonymous-activists-isis-twitter/409312/ "undefined") **– Simon Cottee, The Atlantic** --- > “” --- ISIS vs. cyber-nerd vigilante. If there’s a better stand-in for the complexities of modern combat, I haven’t seen it. [**What It’s Like to Grow Up as a Closeted Gay Extremist Muslim**](http://www.vice.com/read/gay-hardline-islamist-sohail-486 "undefined") **— Sohail Ahmed, Vice** --- > “” --- Sexual repression meets brainwashing. A combustible combination. [**The Secret Maoist Chinese Operation That Conquered Malaria—and Won a Nobel**](http://www.newrepublic.com/article/123041/secret-maoist-chinese-operation-conquered-malaria-and-won-nobel "undefined") **– Jia-Chen Fu, The New Republic** --- > “” --- [**Iran’s Identity Crisis**](http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/05/irans-identity-crisis/ "undefined") **– Kim Ghattas, Foreign Policy** --- > “” --- If the lifting of sanctions raises public expectations for more change and puts a lot more disposable income in people’s pockets, what will that mean for the aspirations of Iran’s young people for a more “modern” way of life and the desire of conservatives to prevent them from having it? [**Equal Opportunity Terrorism**](http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/equal-opportunity-terrorism%5F1042864.html?page=1 "undefined") **–Farahnaz Ispahani & Nina Shea, The Weekly Standard** --- > “” --- Sadism has no gender. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4069299/isis-gay-muslim-iran/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4069299/isis-gay-muslim-iran/"},"headline":"This Week's Best Foreign Policy Reads","datePublished":"2015-10-10T21:40:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:41:50.724Z","description":"The week's best foreign policy stories","url":"https://time.com/4069299/isis-gay-muslim-iran/","keywords":["ISIS","Iran","World","Ian Bremmer"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ian Bremmer","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/ian-bremmer/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/isis/","name":"ISIS"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4069299/isis-gay-muslim-iran/","name":"This Week's Best Foreign Policy Reads"}}]}] ```