MER Article Editor's Picks (Spring 2003) Ahmad, Aisha and Roger Boase. Pashtun Tales: From the Pakistan-Afghan Frontier (London: Saqi Books, 2003). Alem, Raja. Fatma: A Novel of Arabia (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002). Alnasrawi, Abbas. Iraq’s Burdens: Oil, Sanctions and Underdevelopment (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002). B (Author not identified) • 1 min read
MER Article Letters (Spring 2003) PALESTINIAN DEBATE Lori Allen is to be congratulated for tackling head on the thorny issue of uses and abuses of violence in the Arab-Israeli conflict (“Palestinians Debate ‘Polite’ Resistance to Occupation,” MER 225). But she has missed the mark in crucial areas. (Author not identified) • 7 min read
MER Article Last Efforts of Iran's Reformers Student demonstrations in December 2002 revealed yet again the depth of public sentiment favoring political and economic reform in Iran. But the loose coalition of reformists under the leadership of President Mohammad Khatami has been unable to harness this “reserve power of revolution” to push its Ali Rezaei • 17 min read
MER Article Advice and Dissent in Kuwait In sharp contrast to the diplomatic ineptitude that has characterized the Anglo-American march to war against Iraq, military preparations have been systematic, extensive and inexorable. As the military buildup has progressed through the autumn and winter of 2002 and into the succeeding spring, the f Mary Ann Tétreault • 10 min read
MER Article Unsettling the Authorities Nowhere has the belittling designation “the Arab street” been more overused than in descriptions of Egypt, the most populous and politically central Arab state. Egypt’s richly textured history of political opposition, one of the lon¬gest in the region, is inevitably reduced to images of livid young men brandishing Mona El-Ghobashy • 18 min read
