Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Citizenship

Constructing Qatari Citizenship in the Shadow of the World Cup
The Qatari capital Doha as the Gulf emirate prepares for the FIFA 2022 football World Cup. Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty ImagesFlagpoles of World Cup competitors in Doha, featuring the FIFA 2022 digital countdown timer, located at the Corniche Waterfront Promenade. Courtesy J. Alloul.
MER Article

Constructing Qatari Citizenship in the Shadow of the World Cup

As fans from around the world travel to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, this mega sporting event reveals how processes of division and unification are central to Qatari state power. While the World Cup constructs and fortifies a distinctly Qatari nationalism, the tournament has not erased the underlyi
Jaafar Alloul, Laavanya Kathiravelu • 13 min read
Whatever Happened to Dignity? The Politics of Citizenship in Post-Revolution Tunisia
Volunteers from an NGO clean the streets of Tunis while garbage collectors are on strike, January 16, 2014. Yassine Gaidi/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesThe musician Lotfi Gharbi plays piano in a street in Bizerte to protest the accumulation of garbage, 2016. (The image circulated widely on social media without attribution and a video of the performance can be seen on YouTube.)Sarcastic graffiti of a skater who is casting his ballot in a Tunis office where it is written “secret ballot,” but the ballot is instead going into a trash can, 2019, Tunis. Thierry Monasse/Getty ImagesTunisians go on strike in Tunis on November 10, 2021, after the death of a demonstrator from tear gas inhalation during protests against the reopening of a garbage dump in Agareb. Hasan Mrad/Eyepix Group/Barcroft Media via Getty Images
MER Article

Whatever Happened to Dignity? The Politics of Citizenship in Post-Revolution Tunisia

Dignity was a principle demand of the 2011 revolution that overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. Nadia Marzouki examines how that demand has informed the practices of youth and other marginalized groups as they mobilize for quotidian causes like clean streets. President Kais Saied’s recent p
Nadia Marzouki • 17 min read
Whatever Happened to Dignity? The Politics of Citizenship in Post-Revolution Tunisia
Volunteers from an NGO clean the streets of Tunis while garbage collectors are on strike, January 16, 2014. Yassine Gaidi/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesThe musician Lotfi Gharbi plays piano in a street in Bizerte to protest the accumulation of garbage, 2016. (The image circulated widely on social media without attribution and a video of the performance can be seen on YouTube.)Sarcastic graffiti of a skater who is casting his ballot in a Tunis office where it is written “secret ballot,” but the ballot is instead going into a trash can, 2019, Tunis. Thierry Monasse/Getty ImagesTunisians go on strike in Tunis on November 10, 2021, after the death of a demonstrator from tear gas inhalation during protests against the reopening of a garbage dump in Agareb. Hasan Mrad/Eyepix Group/Barcroft Media via Getty Images
Current Analysis

Whatever Happened to Dignity? The Politics of Citizenship in Post-Revolution Tunisia

Dignity was a principle demand of the 2011 revolution that overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. Nadia Marzouki examines how that demand has informed the practices of youth and other marginalized groups as they mobilize for quotidian causes like clean streets. President Kais Saied’s recent p
Nadia Marzouki • 17 min read