MER Article The Limits of Revisionist Imagination Michael Shalev, Labor and the Political Economy in Israel (Oxford, 1992). Anita Shapira, Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948 (Oxford, 1992). Benny Morris, Israel’s Border Wars, 1949-1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation and the Countdown to the Suez War (Clarendon Press, Rebecca L. Stein • 6 min read
MER Article Column: Turkey's Little Tiger Princeton University recently launched a massive fundraising campaign in its palatial Prospect House for maximum media exposure. But its public relations people are unhappy with reporters snooping around the Near Eastern studies division -- a lumbering dinosaur of a department housed in nearby ivy-c Al Miskin • 3 min read
MER Article What Does the Gama'a Islamiyya Want? Tal‘at Qasim got his start in al-Gama‘a al-Islamiyya [1] (the Islamic Group) in the 1970s when it took control of many student organizations in the Egyptian universities. He led the student union in Minya, a hotbed of the Islamist movement, and later was a founding member of the majlis al-shura (gov Hisham Mubarak • 18 min read
MER Article Women and Personal Status Law in Iran Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, personal status law -- governing marriage, divorce and custody -- has become one of the most politically salient issues in Iranian society. Within weeks of the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the Justice Ministry was notified to cancel all laws that were deemed Homa Hoodfar • 8 min read
MER Article Women's Organizations in Kuwait Women’s groups, like all voluntary associations in Kuwait, are controlled and funded by the state. They have elected boards, written constitutions and paid memberships. Law 24 of 1962 governing the activity of associations -- partially amended in 1965 and still in force -- gives the Ministry of Soci Haya al-Mughni • 10 min read
MER Article On Gender and Citizenship in Turkey In the summer of 1993, True Path Party delegates -- 99.8 percent of them males -- selected Tansu Çiller as chairperson of their party and thus their candidate for prime minister. For the first time since 1934, when women gained the right to vote and to be elected to Parliament, a woman became prime Yesim Arat • 9 min read
MER Article The Woman with Two Husbands I, the undersigned, give full power of attorney to the embassy of the State of Palestine to do everything possible to get my daughter, Laila, student at the University of Sanaa, College of Education, out of Yemen. I certify that she is not allowed to marry in Sanaa since she is still married to her Anna Wurth • 3 min read
MER Article Gender, Civil Society and Citizenship in Algeria In 1993, I attended a ceremony of trance dancing called “Benga,” organized by the only group still performing in the town of Tebessa where I then lived. [1] The Tidjania group of Tebessa is a residual branch of the larger African Islamic sect that has practiced trance dancing for healing purposes, i Boutheina Cheriet • 13 min read
MER Article Women and the Women's Equal Rights Law in Israel Israeli society, even prior to the formation of the state, has been permeated by a strong myth of sexual equality. Shortly after the establishment of the Jewish nation-state, the Israeli Knesset began intensive debates on a body of legislation that would guide and define subsequent discourse on issu Nitza Berkovitch • 6 min read
MER Article Women's Court in Beirut From June 28-30, 1995, under the slogan “See the World Through the Eyes of a Woman,” a women’s court on political and social violence against women was held in Beirut. Inspired by similar courts organized by the Asian Human Rights Council, the Beirut court -- the first of its kind in the Arab world Jehan Helou • 3 min read
MER Article For the Common Good? Gender and Social Citizenship in Palestine For almost half a century, to be Palestinian has meant the absence of formal citizenship, and the rights and duties it confers. While important elements of citizenship previously resided in membership in the Palestinian community and its institutions, the coming of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to Gaza and Jericho in Rita Giacaman, Islah Jad, Penny Johnson • 15 min read
MER Article Gender and Citizenship in Middle Eastern States The debate on citizenship in the Middle East was preceded by and now parallels the debate on civil society. In the West, discussion on these subjects often assumes Middle Eastern countries are incapable of sustaining democratic relations between state and society. [1] The citizenship debate question Suad Joseph • 17 min read
