Headscarves and the French Tricolor
Round 12 for Iran’s Reformists
Behind the Battles Over Middle East Studies
An ideological campaign to reshape the academic study of the Middle East in the United States has begun to bear fruit on Capitol Hill. In late 2003, the House of Representatives passed legislation which would, for the first time, mandate that university-based Middle East studies centers “foster debate on American foreign policy from diverse perspectives” if they receive federal funding under Title VI of the Higher Education Act. The new legislation, which the Senate could consider in 2004, came after conservative allegations about abuse of Title VI funding by “extreme” and “one-sided” critics of US foreign policy supposedly ensconced at area studies centers across the country.
The Guantánamo “Black Hole”
The Specter of Sectarian and Ethnic Unrest in Iraq
Sharon’s Unilateral Steps
To Deny Iran Atomic Weapons, Create a Nuclear-Free Region
The 12-year standoff between Saddam Hussein’s former regime and the US displayed a circular logic: the Iraqi refusal to “come clean” about possibly non-existent weaponry simultaneously fed, and fed off of, Washington’s belligerence toward Iraq. With most eyes on the denouement of that malign symbiosis, something similar is developing between Washington and Iran over the apparent nuclear ambitions of the Islamic Republic.
Editor’s Picks (Winter 2003)
Buck-Morss, Susan. Thinking Past Terror: Islamism and Critical Theory on the Left (London: Verso, 2003).
Center for Public Integrity. Windfalls of War: US Contractors Reap the Windfalls of Post-War Reconstruction (Washington, DC, October 2003).
Dodge, Toby. Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation-Building and a History Denied (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003).
Football and Film in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Maziar Bahari opens his documentary, Football Iranian Style (2001), at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium, where a large mural of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic until his death in 1989, peers down on the 110,000 soccer fans filling the bleachers. Like 75 percent of Iran’s population, most of the crowd is under the age of 25. Bahari’s lens focuses on a security guard chastising a dancing spectator and pushing him down into his seat. Undeterred, the young fan kisses the guard’s face and resumes his rabble rousing.
“Let Us Be Moors”
“Seamos moros!” wrote the Cuban poet and nationalist José Martí in 1893, in support of the Berber uprising against Spanish rule in northern Morocco. “Let us be Moors…the revolt in the Rif…is not an isolated incident, but an outbreak of the change and realignment that have entered the world. Let us be Moors…we [Cubans] who will probably die by the hand of Spain.” [1] Writing at a time when the scramble for Africa and Asia was at full throttle, Martí was accenting connections between those great power forays and Spanish depredations in Cuba, even as the rebellion of 1895 germinated on his island.
“Honor Crimes” and the International Spotlight on Jordan
No Buying Off the Past
Since King Mohammed VI ascended the throne in 1999, Morocco has created various bodies to pay cash awards to Moroccans "disappeared," imprisoned or tortured for their political beliefs under the reign of his king father. But there have been no trials of the jailers and torturers. Former prisoners continue to resist regime efforts to "turn the page" on Morocco's repressive past without genuine truth and accountability.
Will Iraqis Find Justice in War Crimes Tribunals?
Muhan Jabr al-Shuwaili no doubt knew the risks he faced when he ventured out of his house in Najaf on November 3, 2003. But the head judge of the Najaf governorate, member of a commission collecting evidence against former Iraqi officials possibly complicit in crimes against humanity, quickly discovered just how dangerous his job had become. That morning, Shuwaili and a prominent Najaf prosecutor, Arif Aziz, were kidnapped by unknown parties who told them that “Saddam has ordered your prosecution.” The two men were driven out into the desert.
Paying the Price of Injustice
Does International Justice Have a Local Address?
Reviving Global Justice, Addressing Legitimate Grievances
From Nuremberg to Guantánamo
All that is needed to achieve total political domination is to kill the juridical in humankind.
— Hannah Arendt, On the Origins of Totalitarianism
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the US, George W. Bush used terms like "punishment" and "justice" to assert what his administration would make happen and why. Using such legalistic terms was the logical means of legitimizing the American state's planned response to the violence. This logic became all the more apparent when Bush also used the distinctly non-legal term "crusade," for which he was roundly criticized.
Edward Said: A Tribute
On September 25, 2003, many people across the globe lost a dear friend. Edward W. Said was and remains our friend, brother and comrade. He was a scholar, a humanist and an untiring advocate of Palestinian rights. Without him we feel adrift, even helpless, but we must resist this feeling. In and through his life, Edward insisted that we must persist in
speaking truth to power.
From the Editors (Winter 2003)
"If Saddam had nuclear weapons, Iraq's geographic location at the head of the Persian Gulf would allow him to threaten the destruction of a number of targets of great importance to the United States. The Saudi oilfields are a particularly worrisome target." These lines do not come from a pilfered Halliburton notepad doodled upon by Dick Cheney before he was summoned to lend gravitas to George W. Bush's presidential ticket.
Iraqi Food Security in Hands of Occupying Powers
