MER Article

Sami Zubaida

Sami Zubaida, an exceptional scholar of Middle Eastern political sociology, law and culinary culture, passed away in London on April 6, 2025. Born to an Iraqi Jewish family, Sami left Iraq to pursue higher education in the United Kingdom. He received his BA degree from the University of Hull and

Hadi Enayat, Kathryn Spellman Poots • 2 min read

MER Article

Deportation as Punishment and the Everyday War on Migrants from Turkey to the United States

At dawn on December 9, 2024, hundreds of Syrian refugees gathered at Turkey's Cilvegözü and Öncüpınar border crossings into northern Syria to return home following the fall of Bashar al-Assad's government. Wrapped in blankets and clutching their children and possessions, they waited in anticipation, some having

Fulya Pınar • 13 min read

MER Article

Unpacking the Gender 'Paradox’ Behind Arab Women in Tech

Compared to women in the United States and most European countries, Arab women are highly represented in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and related computing fields. In fact, six of the ten countries with the highest rates of women studying ICT are in the Arab world, according to UNESCO data.

Fida Adely, Jennifer Olmsted, Sana Odeh • 11 min read

MER Article

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

[su_dropcap style="simple" size="4"]I[/su_dropcap]n 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

Paniz Musawi Natanzi • 15 min read

MER Article

Women and Politics in Post-Jina Iran

The past and present of Woman, Life, Freedom. Featuring an update from Iranian civil society on Israel’s expanding war.

Mona Tajali • 15 min read

MER Article

Syria's New Men

Masculinity and the post-Asad political order.

Rahaf Aldoughli • 15 min read

MER Article

Shifting Feminist Narratives in Sudan—A Conversation with Raga Makawi

Women and the gender dynamics behind Sudan's revolution and war.

Raga Makawi, Marya Hannun • 15 min read

MER Article

Israel’s War on Reproduction in Gaza

On reprocide as a tactic of eliminationist violence.

Hala Shoman • 13 min read

MER Article

Gender, Politics and Scholarship—A Roundtable

On March 3, 2025, MERIP and the University of Exeter's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies partnered with Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies to host a roundtable on the past, present and future of feminist approaches to Middle East and North African Studies. The event

Deniz Kandiyoti, Judith Tucker, Mounira Charrad, Suad Joseph, Maya Mikdashi, Nadje Al-Ali • 23 min read

MER Article

Issue 314 (Spring 2025) Masthead

Middle East Report, “New Gender Frontlines,” Spring 2025, No. 314, Vol. 54 No. 1 Executive Director James Ryan jamesryan@merip.org Executive Editor Katie Natanel katienatanel@merip.org Managing Editor Marya Hannun maryahannun@merip.org Photo Editor Michelle Woodward mwoodward@merip.org Staff Editor Alyssa Bivins bivins@gwu.edu Issue

(Author not identified) • 1 min read

MER Article

A Note on the Cover Image

Raed Issa’s 2024 series, Faces from My Homeland, illuminates the cover of MER issue 314 “New Gender Frontlines.” The work—a mix of charcoal, coffee, pomegranate and hibiscus painted on repurposed medicine packages from Gaza—depicts a grid of women’s faces, spanning generations and conditions: from martyr, to

(Author not identified) • 2 min read

MER Article

Breaking the Fourth Wall—Reading Sadallah Wannous in a Time of Genocide

Robert Myers and Nada Saab, Sentence to Hope: A Sa’dallah Wannous Reader, Yale University Press, 2019. At the end of Sadallah Wannous’ 1970 play, The Adventures of the Mamlouk Jabir’s Head, the action takes an abrupt, dark but entirely predictable turn. Wannous—a Syrian playwright who was born

Marya Hannun • 9 min read