We thrash, curse for air
As our strangler declares, look
How violent the Arab

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Written by

Zein El-Amine
Zein El-Amine’s poems have been published in Wild River Review, Folio, Foreign Policy in Focus, Beltway Quarterly, DC Poets Against the War Anthology, Penumbra, GYST and Joybringer.

This article was published in Issue 272.

Deportation as Punishment and the Everyday War on Migrants from Turkey to the United States
A woman crosses into Syria from Turkey through the Kassab crossing on December 27, 2024. Aaref Watad/AFP via Getty ImagesMembers of the MIT Graduate Student Union demonstrate outside the John F. Kennedy Federal Building on April 1, 2025 to demand the Trump administration cease attacks on the 1st Amendment and immediately release union members, including Tufts graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk. Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
MER Article

Deportation as Punishment and the Everyday War on Migrants from Turkey to the United States

Fulya Pınar • 13 min read
Unpacking the Gender 'Paradox’ Behind Arab Women in Tech
Palestinian students take part in Science Days Palestine at Al-Qattan Cultural Center in Gaza City on August 21, 2023. (Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
MER Article

Unpacking the Gender 'Paradox’ Behind Arab Women in Tech

Fida Adely, Jennifer Olmsted, Sana Odeh • 11 min read
Courts of Exclusion—Working-Class Masculinity and Anti-Afghan Racism in Iran
The poster for the 2016 documentary film “Overruled” by Farnaz and Mohammad Reza Jurabchian. The original title in Persian is “Eteraz Vared Nist.”Ismael Khodaei, seen in a still from the film.An Afghan broom maker in the Iranian city of Mashhad. Broom making (Jarubafi) is a profession predominantly taken up by Afghans in the city. Reza Heidari Shahbidak.
MER Article

Courts of Exclusion—Working-Class Masculinity and Anti-Afghan Racism in Iran

Paniz Musawi Natanzi • 15 min read
MER 319: Art at Work–People, Power and Cultural Production
48 Cacti, 2024. Manal Mahamid. Silkscreen print, 120 x 120 cm. Featured in the exhibit "Women at Work: Intersection of Fine Art and Craft," at Dalloul Art Foundation, reviewed in this issue.
Art

MER 319: Art at Work–People, Power and Cultural Production

James Ryan • 3 min read
Listening to the Jazira—Songs as Counter Archives in Northeast Syria
Syrian Kurdish men, women and children dance the dabke in a meadow to celebrate the spring holiday of Nowruz near the town of Qahtaniyah in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province, March 2020. Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images
Syria

Listening to the Jazira—Songs as Counter Archives in Northeast Syria

Heidi S. Affi • 11 min read
Soundtrack of Dissent—The Music of Protest in Iran
Iranians in Athens sing the protest song "Baraye" by Shervin Hajipour during a demonstration to commemorate 40 days from the death in custody in Iran of Mahsa Amini, October 2022. Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP via Getty Images.
Iran

Soundtrack of Dissent—The Music of Protest in Iran

Nafiseh Sharifi • 14 min read