MER Article

Taking Back the Village

On January 25, 2011, like most of the rest of the world I watched the uprisings in Egypt on television. I was struck by the consistent vantage point: a reporter speaking from a balcony or rooftop overlooking the masses in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. There was an occasional interview with a memb

Lila Abu-Lughod • 14 min read

Current Analysis

Strangers in the Crowd

“The system of fear is back,” whispers an Egyptian political activist. “It is showing its teeth, saying ‘I’m baaack.’” The protest veteran speaks sotto voce even though he is sitting in his living room. And that, he points out, is the biggest change since the heady days of 2011, after the fall of Hu

Vivienne Matthies-Boon • 6 min read

Current Analysis

Justice for Rasmea Odeh

This past winter, I was privileged to participate in several events in Chicago organized by Rasmea Yousef Odeh, associate director of the Arab American Action Network [http://www.aaan.org/] and leader of that group’s Arab Women’s Committee [http://www.aaan.org/?cat=27]. The events brought together a

Nadine Naber • 5 min read

MER Article

Turkey's Woman in the Red Dress

On June 1, the day after the brutal police attack to disperse the occupation of Gezi Park, thousands more protesters descended upon Taksim Square in central Istanbul. By the end of the week, demonstrators filled the plaza completely, with those in the park itself behind barricades should the police

Neslihan Sen • 7 min read

MER Article

Generation Y in Gezi Park

Generation Y has figured large in the global pattern of protest beginning at the tail end of the 2000s. In marches against the fraudulent presidential election in Iran, against austerity in southern Europe, against autocracy in places from Morocco to Bahrain, and against greed and corruption in the

Marcie J Patton • 16 min read

MER Article

"This Is Our Square"

In June 2013 popular anger, excitement and apprehension rippled through Cairo. Lines at gas stations snaked into major roadways, paralyzing traffic. Artists occupied the Ministry of Culture to oppose a new minister from the Muslim Brothers’ Freedom and Justice Party who had fired respected cultural

Vickie Langohr • 21 min read

Current Analysis

In Search of the Building Blocks of Opposition in Turkey

In early May, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan -- flush with a decade of electoral triumphs and a track record of economic growth dwarfing that of the European Union he once vowed to join -- had the luxury of being magnanimous.

Joseph Logan • 9 min read

MER Article

With Friends Like These

In June 2010, amidst escalating controversy over the construction of a mosque and Islamic community center near the former site of the World Trade Center, two Egyptians found themselves on the receiving end of xenophobic abuse as a crowd accosted them with calls to “go home.” Unbeknownst to the angr

Michael Wahid Hanna • 10 min read

Current Analysis

Copts Denounce Islamophobia

In the wake of the lethal rocket attack on State Department personnel in Benghazi, and salafi protesters’ assault upon the US Embassy in Cairo, Egyptian blogger Zeinobia draws attention [http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-protest-that-everybody-ignored.html] to “the protest that ever

• 3 min read

Current Analysis

Mosireen

Yesterday’s piece [http://www.merip.org/mero/interventions/art-egypts-revolutionary-square] by Ursula Lindsey, entitled “Art in Egypt's Revolutionary Square.” is a very astute and measured account of the art that has emerged in Egypt, in the wake of, and inspired by, the momentous events in Tahrir o

Ted Swedenburg • 1 min read

Current Analysis

Hip-Hop of the Revolution (The Sharif Don't Like It)

In Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World, journalist Robin Wright describes and analyzes what she considers an important new trend in the Muslim world: the rejection of “Muslim extremists.” She views the Arab uprisings that began in Tunisia in December 2010 and quickly spread

Ted Swedenburg • 6 min read

MER Article

From the Editor (Winter 2011)

A question nagged at Occupy Wall Street and its myriad imitators, the most exciting social movement to emanate from the United States in more than a decade, for much of the fall. “What are your demands?” journalists persisted in asking. “What do you want?”

The Editors • 9 min read