MER Article Islamism and Fundamentalism The Fundamentalism Project, directed by Martin Marty and Scott Appleby of the University of Chicago, has produced a three-volume study of politicized religion in the twentieth century. Fundamentalisms Observed, Fundamentalisms and Society and Fundamentalisms and the State collect articles by interna Saba Mahmood • 7 min read
MER Article Column: Funding Agents During World War II, the British ambassador in Cairo, Lord Killearn, complained about the sudden influx of American experts into the country under the auspices of US Lend-Lease assistance. Inquiries into the exact size of railroad track gauge in the Egyptian countryside, he was convinced, were a thi Al Miskin • 3 min read
MER Article An Islamic Women's Liberation Movement? Heba Ra’uf ‘Izzat, 29, is a teaching assistant in the Political Science Department at Cairo University. Active in the Islamist movement, she is known for her academic research on women’s political role from the perspective of political Islam and its theory. She edits the women’s page in al-Sha‘b, a Karim El-Gawhary • 4 min read
MER Article Arafat and the Opposition With the return of Yasir Arafat and the installation of a Palestinian Authority (PA) in Gaza and Jericho, domestic political debates within the Occupied Territories are likely to focus less on the textual detail of the Israeli-PLO Declaration of Principles and more on the political nature of the nas Graham Usher • 12 min read
MER Article "Tilt but Don't Spill" “Kaj dar-o mariz” (the jar is tilted but not spilled) describes how the Islamic Republic came stumbling through its first decade. Unlike Iraq, Iran fought the war between them entirely on its own resources, which enabled the state to maintain a sense of achievement and independence. [1] However, with the Kaveh Ehsani • 16 min read
MER Article Squatters and the State The early 1990s saw a period of renewed urban popular uprisings in Iran, unprecedented since the 1979 revolution. From August 1991 to August 1994, six major upheavals took place in Tehran, Shiraz, Arak, Mashhad, Ghazvin and Tabriz, and there were frequent minor clashes in many other urban centers. M Asef Bayat • 14 min read
MER Article An Open Letter to a Jailed Iranian Writer Dear Dr. Saidi Sirjani: For almost 20 years now, I have known and admired you and your writings. Whatever your detractors may say, Ali Akbar Saidi Sirjani cannot justly be accused of partisanship. I have known you as a fierce critic of Mohammad Reza Shah’s insufferable pretensions and intolerance o Andrew Whitley • 3 min read
MER Article Iran's Revolutionary Impasse Two quite different images emerge of the current political situation in Iran depending on whether one looks from the perspective of the state or from that of society. From the state perspective, it appears as though the Islamic regime is becoming more and more ideologically rigid, economically unstable, politically repressive Ali Banuazizi • 19 min read
MER Article From the Editors This issue looks at the economic and social crises that beset Iran more than 15 years after the Islamic Revolution. While the articles presented here share a critical perspective toward the present government, the authors allow us to see aspects of a society that both endures and challenges the inep The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Editor's Picks (September/October 1994) Alternative Information Center. Guidelines for Palestinians Who Wish to Reside in the West Bank, Gaza Strip or East Jerusalem (Jerusalem, 1994). Amirahmadi, Hooshang and Eric Hooglund, eds. US-Iran Relations: Areas of Tension and Mutual Interest (Washington, DC: Middle East Institute, 1994). Barlo The Editors • 1 min read
MER Article Women and Gender in the Middle East Nikki R. Keddie and Beth Baron, eds., Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender (Yale, 1991). Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (Yale, 1992). An eighteenth-century Ottoman woman left her urban household enshrouded in heavy veil Nancy Reynolds • 7 min read
MER Article Terrorism, Class and Democracy in Egypt During April 1994, armed actions of the radical Islamist opposition in Egypt achieved a new level of lethal efficiency. One Gama‘a Islamiyya (Islamic Group) hit squad killed Maj. Gen. Ra’uf Khayrat, who was responsible for conducting undercover operations against them; another assassinated the chief Joel Beinin • 5 min read
