Middle East Research and Information Project

Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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MER Article

The Yemenis of the San Joaquin

Musa (“Moses”) Saleh laughs now at his expectations as a new immigrant to the United States. “We were fooled,” he says, reflecting on the first morning when he prepared for his new job as an apricot picker in California. “We didn’t know what kind of work our Yemeni friends had been doing here…. I dr
Ron Kelley • 15 min read
MER Article

Document: The Mind of the Censor

Gaza Ghetto, a documentary film about a Palestinian family in the occupied Gaza Strip by MERIP editor Joan Mandell and Swedish filmmakers Pea Holmquist and Pierre Bjorklund, premiered in Stockholm in November 1984. In January 1985, a Palestinian theater company in Jerusalem, El-Hakawati, purchased a
(Author not identified) • 4 min read
MER Article

Letters (January/February 1986)

To the Editors: In pain and sorrow, we learn at this late date that our friend Mahmoud al-Mughrabi was killed by the Israeli Air Force during its October 1 bombing raid on Tunisia. Mahmud was born in Jerusalem in 1960. By the age of 16 he had already been under detention 12 times, and he was one of
(Author not identified) • 3 min read
MER Article

Bakhash, Reign of the Ayatollahs

Shaul Bakhash, The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution (New York: Basic Books, 1984). After the plethora of books seeking to account for the Iranian revolution, it is refreshing to find a volume which dares to tackle the complexities of the immediate post-revolutionary years an
Annabelle Sreberny • 2 min read
MER Article

Works on North African Migration

Mariarosa Dalla Costa, “Reproduction and Emigration,” Zerowork 3 (1984). Jean Guyot, Ruth Padrun, et al, Des Femmes Immigres Parlent (Paris: L’Harmattan-CETIM, 1977). Michel Oriol, “Sur la dynamique des relations communautaires chez les immigres d’origine Nord-Africaine,” Peuples Mediterraneens 18
David McMurray • 3 min read
MER Article

Books on Oman

Fredrik Barth, Sohar: Culture and Society in an Omani Town (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1983). Unni Wikan, Behind the Veil in Arabia: Women in Oman (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1982).
Nico Kielstra • 4 min read
MER Article

Ghalem, A Wife for My Son

Ali Ghalem, A Wife for My Son (trans. G. Kazolias) (Chicago: Banner Press, 1985).
Pat Aufderheide • 3 min read
MER Article

Hundreds of Communities Hold "Speak Out" Activities

It was a small but brave demonstration. On October 23, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 20 people marched down a major street during lunch hour, carrying an Israeli and a Palestinian flag. Sponsored by a local coalition of Jews, Palestinians and peace activists, the group distributed leaflets and postcards a
Dorie Wilsnack • 3 min read
MER Article

The Fall of Safran

Nadav Safran will step down as director of Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) this summer, following a three-month investigation into his acceptance of over $150,000 from the Central Intelligence Agency. Michael Spence, dean of faculty for arts and sciences, accepted Safra
Jack Trumpbour • 1 min read
MER Article

Israeli Spies in the US

November 21, 1985, was a remarkable day. FBI agents arrested a civilian terrorism analyst working for the US Navy, Jonathan Jay Pollard, outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, where he had gone seeking political asylum. Six days later, Pollard was arraigned in federal district court on several c
Jeff McConnell • 13 min read
MER Article

Baku's Shaikh-ul-Islam

Shaikh-ul-Islam Pashazada Allahshukur Hummatoglu is chairman of the Board of Management of Caucasian Muslims. Fred Halliday and Maxine Molyneux interviewed him in Baku in July 1984. How are Soviet Muslims organized? There are four separate Islamic religious bodies in the Soviet Union. Three of the
Maxine Molyneux, Fred Halliday • 3 min read
MER Article

Letter from Baku

Baku, the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan, lying on the west coast of the Caspian, embodies many suggestive contrasts with other areas of the Soviet Union and with the neighboring countries of Iran and Turkey. On the esplanade running along the seashore, restaurants sell kebabs, local pancakes (kutab)
Maxine Molyneux, Fred Halliday • 7 min read

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