MER Article Poems for the Women of Egypt The Future and the Ancestor The dead’s right grain ls woven in our flesh within the channels of the blood Sometimes we bend beneath the fullness of ancestors. But the present that shatters walls, banishes boundaries and invents the road to come, rings on. Right in the center of our lives liberty Nazik al-Mala’ika, Marzieh Ahmadi Ooskwi, Andrée Chedid • 1 min read
MER Article The Cares of Umm Muhammad Nagya Muhammad al-Bakr -- known as Umm Muhammad, mother of Muhammad -- is 37 years old and works as a hospital attendant in the Heart Institute in Imbaba, Cairo. She is married to Bayoumi ‘Abd al-Baqi and has eight children. This interview, excerpted and translated from the Arabic by MERIP editor Ju Nagya Muhammad al-Bakr • 13 min read
MER Article Textile Workers of Shubra al-Khayma Dire material necessity is increasingly forcing Egyptian women to take up wage labor. Job conditions are poor, pay is low and social sanctions are heavy. Women make up 12 percent of the Egyptian industrial workforce, concentrated in textiles, food industries and pharmaceuticals. In textiles, an impo Mona Hammam • 18 min read
MER Article Tuma and Darin-Drabkin, The Economic Case for Palestine Elias H. Tuma and Haim Darin-Drabkin, The Economic Case for Palestine (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1978). This book does not seem destined to become a classic in the literature concerning a future Palestinian state. Its intent is both polemical and practical but because of its narrow economic sco Randee Brenner • 2 min read
MER Article "No to the Egyptian-Israeli Treaty" The Progressive Assembly of National Unionists was established in 1977 as the official “left” party of Egypt. One of three legal national parties, its leadership was drawn from the ranks of leftist intellectuals, some former communists, who had chosen during the Nasser era to work within the Arab So Progressive Assembly • 12 min read
MER Article Israel Previews "Autonomy" with Halhoul Curfew Muhammed Milham is the mayor of Halhoul, a West Bank town of mostly peasant farmers. In March 1979 the Israeli occupation authorities imposed a total curfew on the town for more than two weeks. The mayor here describes the events heading up to the curfew, its impact on the townspeople, and its impli Muhammed Milham • 10 min read
MER Article European Leaders Unhappy with Sadat-Begin Treaty In the view of leading European politicians, statesmen and journalists, the “peace” treaty signed between Egypt and Israel in March is more of a liability than a promising asset in their governments’ attempts to forge better relations with the Arab world. Many see it as a prelude to further conflict Pamela Ann Smith • 10 min read
MER Article Sadat's "New Democracy" On April 5 the president of Egypt spoke for two and a half hours before the People’s Assembly, explaining and defending his peace treaty with Israel. Such was the “public debate” on the treaty. Sadat gratuitously added that “as of today” there would be no restrictions on political parties, and pledg A Special Correspondent • 2 min read
MER Article The PLO at the Crossroads Throughout the twentieth century history of Palestine, none of the numerous proposals for “partition” of the country have ever been accepted by any significant group of Palestinian Arabs in spite of the many proposals to that end prior to and following the forced dismemberment of the country in 1948 Sameer Abraham • 38 min read
MER Article Introduction to "PLO at the Crossroads" As Sameer Abraham points out in the article that follows, no proposal for the partition of Palestine has ever been accepted by any significant number of Palestinians. Such proposals have always had the intention of securing and legitimizing the Zionist presence in Palestine. But with the “transition Peter Johnson • 5 min read
MER Article Impact of the World Market on Egyptian Women Published in MERIP Reports 58 (June 1977): • 15 min read
