MER Article
Issue 305 (Winter 2022) Masthead
Middle East Report, “Peripheries and Borderlands,” Winter 2022, No. 305, Vol. 51 No. 4 Executive Director Mandy Terc mandyterc@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 Michael Kaplan kaplan_m@gwu.edu
Peripheries and Borderlands of North Africa and the Middle East
A curious thing about so-called peripheries is they tend to encompass the lived experience of most of the people in the world today. It is only through a hegemonic perspective—one emanating from and enacted in “centers” of power by the Lord Curzons of a century ago and the President
Simply Sportswashing?—A Perspective on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar
The concept of “sportswashing,” in exposing how states or corporations use sporting events to cleanse their images on international stages, draws our attention to human rights abuses, labor conditions, political repression and the regulation of social behavior. Yet, examining the language around Qat
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
The Beautiful Game between Algeria and France
Legacies of colonialism and decolonization have long shaped what football means to the large shared population of binational citizens between France and Algeria. One in every ten people in France has a direct familial connection to Algeria, complicating any distinction of national belonging and clou
The Re-Politicization of Palestinian Soccer
The past decade has seen the growing presence of political protest and expressions of Palestinian national identity in football stadiums in Israel, with Ultras Sakhnin setting a powerful example. Revisiting arguments made in his 2007 book, Tamir Sorek traces how interrelated local, regional and glob
Morocco’s Marginalized Youth and the Rise of Football Ultras
With Morocco’s youth reeling from bleak educational and job prospects following two years of strict COVID lockdowns, football clubs offer unique outlets for expressing frustration, anger and opposition to the authoritarian status quo. The stadium has become one of the few public spaces relatively fr
The Challenge in Sudanese Women’s Football
Women’s football in Sudan has grown significantly since the 2000s, with more than 720 players and 21 teams now participating in the women’s national league. Yet attitudes toward women’s play vary across the country, with many footballers facing religious condemnation, social stigmatization, police h
Football in Algeria from the "Black Decade" to the Hirak
When Algeria defied the odds to win the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019, many Algerians heralded the moment as a victory for more than just football. The team’s previous and only win on the international stage had been in 1990 and was followed by a decade of civil unrest that ended with Bouteflika’s e
The Gulf and the British Regional Divide
In a troubling symbiotic relationship, Britain’s so-called “levelling up agenda,” begun by Boris Johnson, aims to address the regional divide between the country’s North and South, in part, by courting investments from the Gulf. Within this agenda, football clubs—important local assets with emotiona