Current Analysis LGBT Rights in Iran Over the last two decades, issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity have gained significant visibility and attention across the globe. The case of Iran is particularly fraught, and has received plenty of coverage due to the work of international non-profits. Shima Houshyar • 6 min read
MER Article "A Beast That Took a Break and Came Back" Aida Seif al-Dawla is a psychiatrist whose fight for citizens’ rights and dignity in Egypt has taken many forms since her days as a student activist in the 1970s. In 1993, she founded the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture, of which she remains executive director Lina Attalah • 10 min read
Current Analysis Letter of Support by Colleagues and Personal Friends of Emad Shahin For those familiar with even the barest facts of the case, the provisional sentence of Emad al-Din Shahin to death seems appalling. Professor Shahin is a widely respected and accomplished academic who has taught at Notre Dame, Harvard, Georgetown, the American University in Cairo and George Washingt (Author not identified) • 3 min read
Current Analysis The Moral Economy of Distance in the Yemeni Crisis In discussions of the ongoing war in Yemen, Yemeni activists [http://supportyemen.org/video/color-injustice/], aid organizations [http://www.msf.org/article/yemen-crisis-update-%E2%80%93-27-april-0] and human rights groups [http://www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/yemen] are struggling to push the dir Jillian Schwedler, Stacey Philbrick Yadav • 5 min read
MER Article Reexamining Human Rights Change in Egypt Over five tumultuous years in Egypt, the independent human rights community moved from a fairly parochial role chipping away at the Mubarak regime’s legitimacy, one torture case at a time, to media stardom in 2011, and from fielding a presidential candidate, who won over 134,000 votes, in 2012 to fa Heba Morayef • 11 min read
MER Article The Long Shadow of the CIA at Guantanamo ‘Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a designated “high-value detainee” in US government parlance, is on trial in the Guantánamo Bay military commissions. The 49-year old Saudi Arabian is accused of directing the October 2000 al-Qaeda suicide boat bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Aden, Yemen, which killed 17 sailors Lisa Hajjar • 18 min read
Current Analysis Women's Rights Activists Between State Violence and Intervention The November 15 attack on an armored car [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/world/asia/suicide-bomber-attacks-car-of-afghan-womens-leader-3-killed.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1] transporting Shukria Barakzai, a women’s rights activist and parliamentarian in Afghanistan, shook me to the core. The attack, w Parastou Hassouri • 4 min read
Current Analysis The Massacre One Year Later In Cairo this summer, there is scant appetite for anniversaries. The passage of one year since the critical events of the 2013 coup d’état [http://www.merip.org/mero/mero071013] scarcely attracts the public’s attention. There are few official ceremonies or rallies to mark the huge demonstrations on Ahmad Shokr • 5 min read
Current Analysis State Department Taking Passports Away from Yemeni-Americans Over the past year, dozens of Yemeni-Americans visiting their ancestral homeland have had their US passports summarily revoked or confiscated by the embassy in Sanaa without any clear legal basis, effectively stranding them outside the United States. Last month, a coalition of US civil rights groups The Editors • 6 min read
Current Analysis Meanwhile, in Hebron... As Israel pounds Gaza by land, air and sea, we turn for a moment to the West Bank city of Hebron. In 1997, Israel withdrew its military from the majority of the city’s area, called “H-1,” which became part of “Area A,” the parts of the West Bank policed by the Palestinian Authority (PA). Israeli sol Yassmine Saleh • 7 min read
Current Analysis Judging the Judge On July 2, 16-year old Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khdeir was abducted, beaten and burned alive, apparently by a group of Jewish Israelis [http://www.timesofisrael.com/suspects-arrested-in-killing-of-east-jerusalem-teen/]. News of this “torture and murder by fire,” prominent American commentator Jeffre Jamie Stern-Weiner • 6 min read
Current Analysis A Loveless Diplomatic Marriage with No Future Among the would-be therapists of the foreign policy world, the alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia is a textbook case of a “loveless marriage.” Though the values of the two states are at odds, or so the thinking goes, the great democracy and the absolute monarchy are bound together Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 2 min read
