Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

Sign In Sign Up

Afghanistan

Courts of Exclusion—Working-Class Masculinity and Anti-Afghan Racism in Iran
The poster for the 2016 documentary film “Overruled” by Farnaz and Mohammad Reza Jurabchian. The original title in Persian is “Eteraz Vared Nist.”Ismael Khodaei, seen in a still from the film.An Afghan broom maker in the Iranian city of Mashhad. Broom making (Jarubafi) is a profession predominantly taken up by Afghans in the city. Reza Heidari Shahbidak.
MER Article

Courts of Exclusion—Working-Class Masculinity and Anti-Afghan Racism in Iran

In 2016, Gol Agha, a ball boy and worker at a private tennis club in Tajrish—an affluent neighborhood in northern Tehran—went to an administrative office in Karaj to receive a headcount slip. There, Gol Agha was told by employees at the registration desk that the headcount slip could
Paniz Musawi Natanzi • 15 min read
Afghanistan’s Present Failure Lies in its Past Design
British and Afghan officials at the signing of the Treaty of Gandamak (Major Cavagnari second from left, Amir Yakub Khan in the center), May 1879. Photo by John Burke, public domain, British Library.
Current Analysis

Afghanistan’s Present Failure Lies in its Past Design

Providing a vital historical perspective, Benjamin Hopkins explains how the failure of the American project in Afghanistan had little to do with Afghan corruption or lack of national unity as understood in Washington. While today the problems of the Afghan state—its dependence on foreign aid, lack o
Benjamin D Hopkins • 13 min read
Refusing Imperial Amnesia in the War on Terror
US and Dutch soldiers drive along a dusty road in a village in Baluchi pass in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, November 2007. Goran Tomasevic/ReutersMiddle East Report no. 255, Summer 2010. Cover design by Jimmy Bishara.
MER Article

Refusing Imperial Amnesia in the War on Terror

In a Winter 2001 editorial, MERIP editors Chris Toensing and Elliott Colla insisted, “The hijackings and mass murders of September 11 were horrible and momentous, but the world did not suddenly change on that crystal-clear morning.” MERIP presciently argued that the horrific spectacle of the world’s richest country bombing
Darryl Li • 4 min read
Refusing Imperial Amnesia in the War on Terror
US and Dutch soldiers drive along a dusty road in a village in Baluchi pass in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, November 2007. Goran Tomasevic/Reuters
Current Analysis

Refusing Imperial Amnesia in the War on Terror

Twenty years after the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the US invasion of Afghanistan, Darryl Li surveys how MERIP's deep and insightful coverage of the resulting War on Terror countered the "willful amnesia of American nationalism with a rigorous insistence on illuminating the historical continui
Darryl Li • 4 min read
The Fog of the Forever War with a Laugh Track in "United States of Al"
In this scene from the show, Al (center) attempts to orchestrate a reunion between Riley and his ex-wife. Image from “United States of Al,” CBS.
Current Analysis

The Fog of the Forever War with a Laugh Track in "United States of Al"

As President Joe Biden’s administration struggles to meet its self-imposed deadline of September 11, 2021 to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan, Hollywood is offering its own painless, bloodless version of an end to America’s longest war. In this review of the CBS sitcom "United States of Al," the
Wazhmah Osman, Helena Zeweri, Seelai Karzai • 12 min read