Middle East Research and Information Project: Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971
Books
Booth, Marilyn. May Her Likes Be Multiplied: Biography and Gender Politics in Egypt (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001).
B’Tselem. Tacit Consent: Israeli Law Enforcement on Settlers in the Occupied Territories (Jerusalem, March 2001).
Charrad, Mounira M. States and Women’s Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001).
Americans who voted for “compassionate conservatism” in the November 2000 presidential election have been disappointed. George W. Bush has proven to be much more radical than his moderate campaign rhetoric implied. In the area of environmental policy, Bush’s moves to lift regulations on pollutants, promote the use of nuclear power and “clean coal” and encourage oil exploration off the coast of Florida and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have triggered opposition even on the right. Where Ronald Reagan sought to overturn the social policies of Franklin Roosevelt, George W. seems to seek an even wider reversal of the health and labor regulations instituted by Theodore Roosevelt.
Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, one of the most significant and articulate Palestinian-American intellectuals of his generation, died on May 23, 2001 at his home in Ramallah, Palestine, at the age of 72. A scholar, educator, activist and institution builder in both North America and the Middle East, Abu-Lughod was a charismatic and passionate advocate for Palestinian human and political rights, as well as for progressive politics throughout the Middle East.
From May to early July 2001, massive protests rocked the Berber areas (Upper and Lower Kabylia) of Algeria, spreading on several occasions to Algiers and other major cities. On June 14, perhaps a million Kabyles “marched for democracy” in the capital, sparking clashes with police and leading the government to ban demonstrations. Middle East Report asked Daho Djerbal, editor of Naqd, an Algerian journal of critical inquiry, and a prominent intellectual, to comment on the portent of the unrest.
In the past ten years of political crisis, Algerians have been wary of public protest. Terrorized by relentless violence and impoverished by structural adjustment, they have repeatedly given the impression that what they want most is the chance to get on with their lives quietly. Despite the cancellation of one election and the staging of several fraudulent ones — not to mention wholesale public sector downsizings and devaluation of the currency — the streets remained calm and mass protest looked like an unlikely prospect.
Palestinian women played a major role in the intifada of 1987-93, but have not, so far, in the current uprising. In January 2001, the Jerusalem-based magazine Between the Lines asked Eileen Kuttab, director of the Women’s Studies Institute at Birzeit University in the West Bank, to talk about the widely noted lack of women’s participation, and prospects for change. An excerpt from her comments is reprinted here with permission.
Has the women’s movement participated as a movement in the current intifada?
Upon its installment in the White House, the second Bush administration was universally expected to be the loyal handmaiden of Big Oil. The US oil and gas industry lavished $1,387,975 upon the hastily assembled committee which planned the inaugural festivities for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. BP-Amoco contributed $100,000, and executives from Conoco, Chevron and Exxon Mobil ponied up the same amount. In all, Big Oil gave $26 million to Bush, Cheney and their fellow Republicans in the 2000 election campaign.
(This article was updated on November 14, 2001.)
Amin, Galal. Whatever Happened to the Egyptians? Changes in Egyptian Society from 1950 to the Present (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2000).
Brumberg, Daniel. Reinventing Khomeini: The Struggle for Reform in Iran (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
B’Tselem, Illusions of Restraint: Human Rights Violations During the Events in the Occupied Territories, 29 September-2 December 2000 (Jerusalem, December 2000).
