Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

Roschanack Shaery

Roschanack Shaery is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen. This article is drawn from her forthcoming book, Lebanese Detainees in Syria: Transnationalism, Piety and Suffering.

MER Article

Arabs in Yiwu, Confucius in East Beirut

The September 11, 2001 attacks marked the beginning of large-scale trade between the Middle East and mainland China in the modern era. New visa restrictions in the United States -- until then the number-one trading partner of Arab countries -- forced Arab merchants to find business destinations in v

Roschanack Shaery • 6 min read

MER Article

The Local Politics of the Lebanese Disappeared

The Syrian presence in Lebanon was visible and audible to all, from the large numbers of Syrian construction workers to the peddlers selling the latest music CDs on the sidewalks to the military checkpoints in the mountains. In shared taxis there was often talk about which Lebanese politician had ju

Roschanack Shaery • 9 min read

MER Article

'Ajamis in Lebanon

It is Muharram, the month of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, and the female-run husseiniyya in West Beirut is packed with women dressed in black. As the sounds of Lebanese and Iraqi Arabic dialects, as well as Persian, fill the hallways of this Shi‘i community center, the female religious performer (

Roschanack Shaery • 7 min read

MER Article

Iran, the Vatican of Shi'ism?

The Iranian state, controlled de facto by the conservatives in the government, promotes the idea that Iran is the center of Shi‘ism. It bases its argument on the fact that Iran is a Shi‘i-run state, whereas Shi‘i Muslims in other parts of the world live in states that are dominated by Sunnis, and so

Roschanack Shaery • 11 min read