Gender, Politics and Scholarship—A Roundtable
On March 3, 2025, MERIP and the University of Exeter's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies partnered with Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies to host a roundtable on the past, present and future of feminist approaches to Middle East and North African Studies. The event
Deniz Kandiyoti,
Judith Tucker,
Mounira Charrad,
Suad Joseph,
Maya Mikdashi,
Nadje Al-Ali
•
23 min read
Issue 314 (Spring 2025) Masthead
Middle East Report, “New Gender Frontlines,” Spring 2025, No. 314, Vol. 54 No. 1 Executive Director James Ryan jamesryan@merip.org Executive Editor Katie Natanel katienatanel@merip.org Managing Editor Marya Hannun maryahannun@merip.org Photo Editor Michelle Woodward mwoodward@merip.org Staff Editor Alyssa Bivins bivins@gwu.edu Issue
A Note on the Cover Image
Raed Issa’s 2024 series, Faces from My Homeland, illuminates the cover of MER issue 314 “New Gender Frontlines.” The work—a mix of charcoal, coffee, pomegranate and hibiscus painted on repurposed medicine packages from Gaza—depicts a grid of women’s faces, spanning generations and conditions: from martyr, to
Breaking the Fourth Wall—Reading Sadallah Wannous in a Time of Genocide
Robert Myers and Nada Saab, Sentence to Hope: A Sa’dallah Wannous Reader, Yale University Press, 2019. At the end of Sadallah Wannous’ 1970 play, The Adventures of the Mamlouk Jabir’s Head, the action takes an abrupt, dark but entirely predictable turn. Wannous—a Syrian playwright who was born
Artificial Humanitarianism—The Data-Driven Future of Refugee Responses
In Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp, to pay for food at one of the World Food Programme (WFP)’s distribution centers, Syrian refugees must lean into an iris scanner that registers their biometrics. The scanner then logs their transaction onto the program’s blockchain network: Building Blocks. Za’atari