MER Article Editor's Picks (Winter 2011) Aloni, Udi. What Does a Jew Want? On Binationalism and Other Specters (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011). Bier, Laura. Revolutionary Womanhood: Feminisms, Modernity and the State in Nasser’s Egypt (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2011). Booth, Ken and Tim Dunne. Terror in Our Tim (Author not identified) • 2 min read
MER Article New Insights into Libyan History Anna Baldinetti, The Origins of the Libyan Nation: Colonial Legacy, Exile and the Emergence of a New Nation-State (Oxford: Routledge, 2010). With the fall of Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi in 2011, his paranoid and largely successful attempts to close off contemporary Libyan history to academic inquiry ha Jason Pack • 7 min read
MER Article The September 11 Effect on Anthropology Conventional wisdom among scholars of the Middle East is that the September 11, 2001 attacks left behind a threatening professional environment. Graduate students and faculty alike speak of hostile infiltrators in their classrooms, inevitably bitter tenure battles and the self-censorship that both can produce. At the same time, in Lara Deeb, Jessica Winegar • 5 min read
MER Article Gender and Revolution in Egypt During the 18 days of the uprising against Husni Mubarak’s autocratic rule, the streets were filled with women from across the Egyptian social spectrum. Young and old, veiled and unveiled, poor and affluent -- women came out in force to support the movement for a democratic revolution. Yet the gender Mervat Hatem • 14 min read
MER Article Gaza's Tunnel Complex For an informal smuggling route, the tunnel complex underneath Gaza’s border with Egypt is remarkably formal. A security cordon of chicken-wire fencing surrounds the Gazan side of the site, barring entrance from Rafah town a few hundred meters away. At each exit a squad in military fatigues monitors Nicolas Pelham • 18 min read
MER Article The Illegal Oil Trade Along Turkey's Borders According to a 2005 report from the Turkish parliament, approximately 3.75 billion liters (or 1 billion gallons) of smuggled oil enter Turkey every year. [1] This volume makes up 18 percent of the national oil market; the smuggling costs the state $3 billion in lost tax revenue. Oil smuggling Firat Bozcali • 15 min read
