MER Article Turkey's Elections and the Kurds It is now a dozen years since the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known by its Kurdish acronym PKK, launched a protracted guerrilla war against the Turkish state. Today Turkey’s Kurdish crisis seems to be deadlocked. Both of the warring parties seem to have reached their limit in terms of their Hamit Bozarslan • 12 min read
MER Article Turkish Islam and National Identity Turkish Islam is tied up with Turkish nationalism in a unique fashion, the product of Turkish history and identity. Turkey’s brand of Islamist ideology challenges the secularist components and the European identification of Kemalism, historically the dominant form of Turkish nationalism, but retains Sami Zubaida • 17 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (Summer 1999) Afkhami, Mahnaz and Erika Friedl. Muslim Women and the Politics of Participation: Implementing the Beijing Platform (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997). Al-Rawi, Rosina-Fawzia. Grandmother's Secrets: The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dancing (Northampton, MA: Interlink Book The Editors • 1 min read
MER Article Eqbal Ahmad The death of Eqbal Ahmad on May 11 was an occasion of great sadness for those who had the privilege of knowing and working with him. Eqbal was associated with MERIP for many years as a contributing editor, but this affiliation hardly conveyed the key role he played in MERIP’s formative years. If we Joe Stork • 2 min read
MER Article Rediscovering Palestine Beshara Doumani, Rediscovering Palestine: Merchants and Peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700-1900 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995) Ussama Makdisi • 2 min read
MER Article Francophonie and Femininity Mary Jean Green, Karen Gould, Micheline Rice-Maximin et al, eds., Postcolonial Subjects: Francophone Women Writers (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996). Winifred Woodhull, Transfigurations of the Maghreb: Feminism, Decolonization and Literatures (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Pr Nada Elia • 6 min read
MER Article Cartel: Travels of German-Turkish Rap Music “You are a Turk from Germany.” The words are from the song “Sen Turksun” (You Are a Turk) by German-Turkish rap group Cartel. Cartel shot to prominence in 1995 in Germany and Turkey with their album, “Cartel,” which within a month of its release sold 30,000 copies in Germany and 180,000 in Turkey. T Alev Çınar • 5 min read
MER Article Migrant Women in Waged Domestic Work in Turkey “If we were to continuously work until 5 o’clock as hard as the employer wants, we would not be able to get to work the next day. No human being can work as much as that.” -- Domestic Worker Hayat Kabasakal, Işik Urla Zeytinoğlu, Ömür Tımurcanday Özmen, Alev Ergenç Katrınlı • 4 min read
MER Article A Modern-Day "Slave Trade" In what can be termed a modern-day slave trade, Sri Lankan women arrive in Lebanon only to find themselves abused, imprisoned, raped, hungry, defenseless and alone. Siriani P., 27, came to Beirut in a desperate attempt to save her family from a life of poverty. Just ten months later, however, she gr Reem Haddad • 7 min read
MER Article How the Sex Trade Becomes a Slave Trade “Trafficking into Israel is not simply a story of economic migration; it is a modern slave trade.” [1] -- Martina Vandenberg Anya Stone • 9 min read
MER Article Boys in the Mud For migrants of Maghrebi (North African) origin, the internal barriers of popular prejudices among the “host” population are often as difficult to surmount as the external frontiers of fortress Europe. Dominated by majority ethnic groups, the media have played a powerful role in disseminating largely negative images of immigrant minorities. Alec C. Hargreaves • 4 min read
MER Article Memories of Birth I never knew that cold could burn. It was a wild wind and my fingers were numb and clumsy. I fumbled with the sheet of paper, turning the page over and over. It was little more than tatters now, covered in smeared ink. My mother wrote all the instructions for me on this page and I held it in the pal Diana Abu-Jaber • 5 min read
