The Everyday Politics of Authoritarian Rule in Jordan
Three recent books on Jordan trace authoritarianism in the mundane rhythms of daily life.
The Ukraine War, Grain Trade and Bread in Egypt
One year on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, what does the ongoing war mean for Egypt’s bread subsidy?
The Life and Times of Al Miskin
It may come as a surprise to some readers of Middle East Report that, long ago, when it was exclusively a print publication, the magazine featured a more or less regular column devoted to an eclectic mixture of media criticism, exposé and humor. (Other columns...It Was Beirut, All Over Again…Again
One night in August 2021, I fell through a portal. It was hot, and there was no electricity. I had already missed the de facto bedtime of 1am set by our generator’s regimen. My portable fluorescent lantern was fully charged. The stale, heavy air of a cooled-down,...Culture and Politics, Culture as Politics
Although MERIP is best known for political economy critiques of systems of resource extraction, imperialism and authoritarianism, artwork, creative texts and cultural reviews have never been merely supplemental to its project. Elevating cultural expression and...Covering Surveillance, Struggles and Solidarity in the Arab American Community
Although issues of domestic surveillance and discrimination faced by Arabs living in the United States became more prominent after the attacks of September 11, 2001, MERIP has been covering them continuously since the organization was founded 50 years ago. Arguably...Refusing Imperial Amnesia in the War on Terror
In a Winter 2001 editorial, MERIP editors Chris Toensing and Elliott Colla insisted, “The hijackings and mass murders of September 11 were horrible and momentous, but the world did not suddenly change on that crystal-clear morning.” MERIP presciently argued that the...Understanding the Diversity of Political Islam
The complex phenomenon of political Islam has inspired much sensational and alarmist writing, both popular and scholarly. Since the early 1980s, however, MERIP contributors have provided an antidote with in-depth and nuanced analyses of the impact Islamic movements...MERIP’s First Decade of Iran Coverage from Political Challenge to Revolution
MERIP’s coverage of Iran from the organization’s founding in 1971 up through the 1979 revolution and the early years of post-revolutionary state formation remain an invaluable resource for understanding and teaching the history of Iran’s long 1970s. MERIP writers in...Capturing the Complexity of Lebanon’s Civil War and Its Legacies
The current political and economic crises in Lebanon reveal the myriad ways that the Lebanese continue to deal with the aftereffects of the 1975–1990 civil war. The roots of many of today’s crises—a collapsing currency, shortages of basic goods like medicine, fuel and...Shifting Approaches to Women and Gender in Labor, Politics and Society
It took MERIP some five years and 50 issues before it finally addressed women and gender in its pages. In August 1976, the two feature articles explored questions about working women, my own “Egyptian Women in the Work Force” and “The Proletarianization of Palestinian...Putting Workers on the Map
When the first issue of MERIP Reports was published in May 1971, discussions of labor relations and workers were common in the New Left circles from which its editors emerged but were nearly invisible in debates about the Middle East and North Africa among American...The Enduring Question of Palestine
The guiding mission of MERIP’s founders was not centered around cultivating a better understanding of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. Rather, their magazine consciously emphasized the range and diversity of progressive and revolutionary struggles...MERIP’s Unfinished Mission
The Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) was established in 1971 by young anti-war activists who sought to push the New Left to engage with the region through the same analytical lenses that it used to challenge US policy in Southeast Asia and Latin America. In this issue, we look back to reflect on MERIP’s 50-year history of speaking truth to power and evaluate its continuing legacy. We are proud that a scrappy monthly newsletter written by and for activists not only endured, but evolved into Middle East Report, a unique source of news and analysis that features essays informed by rigorous scholarship and detailed field research while remaining committed to a progressive political mission.
Rethinking Whiteness in Turkey Through the AKP’s Foreign Policy in Africa South of the Sahara
There is a new investment in whiteness in contemporary Turkey, and it is not by those who have traditionally been identified as “White Turks,” but by their long-standing critics, the so-called Black Turks.
The Limits of Confronting Racial Discrimination in Tunisia with Law 50
In 2018, Tunisia became the first country in the Middle East and North Africa to pass a law that criminalizes racial discrimination. In a society that has long denied the existence of racism, the law—popularly known as Loi 50 or Law 50—has been applauded by local activists and international human rights organizations as a historic step.
The Politics of Commemorating the Abolition of Slavery in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia
In 2019, eight years after the Arab Spring uprisings, President Béji Caïd Essebsi declared that Tunisians would commemorate the abolition of slavery on January 23 each year. It was on this date in 1846 that the then-governor of Ottoman Tunisia, Ahmad Bey, signed a decree authorizing enslaved Black people to request manumission certificates. Dating back to the medieval period, this region—like other parts of the Mediterranean and the Muslim world—had relied on the work of African as well as European enslaved men and women.
Tracing the Historical Relevance of Race in Palestine and Israel
The global conversation about race and racial oppression in recent years, which has reached new levels of visibility since the summer of 2020, has emerged largely as a reaction to police violence in the United States and the work of the Movement for Black Lives coalition. Its global reverberations have often been distinct, however. Activists are not only making connections between US practices and patterns of racial oppression and those in their own countries; they are also highlighting features of racial violence that are unique to different contexts.
Understanding Race and Migrant Domestic Labor in Lebanon
The dire financial and political crises in Lebanon have made migrant domestic workers even more vulnerable to abuses of the kafala system of sponsorship. Kassamali explains the history of this labor system in Lebanon and the intersecting roles of race, class, nationality and gender in the hierarchies it produces.
Writing Ourselves into Existence with the Collective for Black Iranians
The groundbreaking work of the Collective for Black Iranians is the first and only effort of its kind in Iran that brings together the voices of Black and Afro-Iranians, sharing their stories and experiences to foster greater racial consciousness and combat the anti-Black racism endemic to the Iranian community. Beeta Baghoolizadeh interviewed a founding member of the Collective, Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda, in April 2021.
