Middle East Research and Information Project: Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

Lucknow Dispatch

Richa Nagar, Shalini Mathur In: 221 (Winter 2001)

“The saviors of religion [in Kashmir] ordered all Muslim women to adopt the hijab by September 10, 2001. Women did because they did not want acid to be thrown in their faces…. When Roop Kanwar became a Sati with her husband, the event was glorified by the guardians of Hinduism. When it comes to women’s oppression, all religions are masculinist…. The man who proves the superiority of his own religion is a hero, and the man who destroys the follower of another is a jihadi….

Descent into Disaster?

Margaret Emery, Hiram Ruiz In: 221 (Winter 2001)

On October 19, 2001, Iran agreed to build camps to accommodate new refugees fleeing US bombing and internal chaos in Afghanistan. This was the first piece of good news for relief workers concerned that Operation Enduring Freedom is accelerating the descent of Afghanistan's decades-old refugee crisis into a humanitarian disaster of untold proportions.

Afghanistan in the Balance

Patricia Gossman In: 221 (Winter 2001)

In the first few days after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it became clear that the United States was going to seek out allies in the region to assist efforts to destroy al-Qaeda bases and networks of support in Afghanistan. Very quickly that objective was expanded to include dislodging or crushing the Taliban, who have ruled most of Afghanistan in recent years and who have provided Osama bin Laden safe haven since 1997.

Hamas Stands Down?

Charmaine Seitz In: 221 (Winter 2001)

When Osama bin Laden evoked the Palestinian cause in his widely viewed statement October 7, he split Palestinians between those who appreciated the support and those who were horrified by the association. At the same time, the new world “coalition against terror” has deployed the Palestinian Authority (PA) to smother the embers of Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation. This PA suppression is destined to either end the uprising — or make it much more unpredictable and lethal.

first writing since

Suheir Hammad In: 221 (Winter 2001)

I
there have been no words.
i have not written one word.
no poetry in the ashes south of canal
   street.
no prose in the refrigerated trucks
   driving debris and dna.
not one word.

today is a week, and seven is of
   heavens, gods, science.
evident out my kitchen window is an
   abstract reality.
sky where once was steel.
smoke where once was flesh.

fire in the city air and i feared for my

Solutions Not Imminent for Afghan Displaced and Refugees

Hiram Ruiz 12.4.2001

The collapse of the Taliban in northern and western Afghanistan in November was good news for aid workers seeking to get food and other necessities to war- and drought-affected Afghans. Expectations of greater security, of an end to US bombing in many areas and the opening of new supply routes from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Iran suggested the possibility of reaching many more needy Afghans than previously thought likely.

Iraq: Rolling Over Sanctions, Raising the Stakes

Sarah J Graham-Brown 11.28.2001

Late in the evening of November 27, the US and Russia appear to have reached an agreement to once again roll over existing sanctions on Iraq for six months, by which time Secretary of State Colin Powell hopes the two powers will have agreed on a version of his proposed "smart sanctions." The December 3 deadline to renew the UN oil for food program, under which Iraq is allowed to sell its oil on the world market to import needed civilian goods, brings the familiar rhetoric, mutual accusations and rejections that have accompanied most renewals since 1997 when the program began. But this time, the stakes are higher, and the outcome is linked to broader uncertainties about future US policy in the Middle East.

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