MER Article Interview with 'Abd al-Nur 'Ali Yahya The driving force behind the original Algerian Human Rights League is ‘Abd al-Nur ‘Ali Yahya, 66, a lawyer who has spent all of his adult life struggling for democratic causes in Algeria. He began as a school teacher in his native Kabylia, joined the Algerian People’s Party in 1945 and the National (Author not identified) • 2 min read
MER Article Disaster Area The recent history of the struggle for human rights in the Arab world is marked by some modest success, but the task remains enormous. The region is a disaster area in terms of human rights. Irrespective of the type of government, ideological coloration or foreign policy orientation, whether pro-Wes Naseer Aruri • 25 min read
MER Article The Middle East and Human Rights Ibn Sina hospital, in a beautiful suburb of Rabat, is Morocco’s finest medical facility. It is the major teaching hospital of Morocco’s top medical school, a place where Moroccan and foreign medical experts carry on research and perform medical care at the highest level. Not long ago, a patient jum James Paul, Joe Stork • 7 min read
MER Article Letters (September/October 1987) Twenty Years After: Other Realities The Report devoted to “The June War: Twenty Years After” (MER 146), while a commendable effort, falls short in confronting other realities befalling the Palestinians, especially in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Would that the situation was merely a confron (Author not identified) • 7 min read
MER Article Hiro, Iran Under the Ayatollahs Dilip Hiro, Iran Under the Ayatollahs (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985). Although this book is thin on analysis, it is filled with valuable details about political and economic developments during the first five years of the Islamic Republic. It is thus a good source book for information abo Eric Hooglund • 1 min read
MER Article Peterson, Defending Arabia J. E. Peterson, Defending Arabia (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986). Fred H. Lawson • 1 min read
MER Article Nonneman, Iraq, the Gulf States and the War Gerd Nonneman, Iraq, the Gulf States and the War (London: Ithaca Press, 1986). Fred H. Lawson • 1 min read
MER Article CARDRI, Saddam's Iraq Committee Against Repression and for Democratic Rights in Iraq, Saddam’s Iraq: Revolution Or Reaction? (London: Zed Books, 1986). This book fills an important gap in the works that have been published on Iraq in the West. Here a number of scholars from Britain and Iraq survey the economic, class an Thabit Abdullah • 2 min read
MER Article Beck, The Qashqa'i of Iran Lois Beck, The Qashqa’i of Iran (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986). The Qashqa’is are a confederation of Turkic-speaking tribes dispersed in the three southwestern Iranian provinces of Fars, Isfahan, and Bushehr. Historically, they have been one of the most important tribal groups in the Bahman Abdollahi • 2 min read
MER Article Ladjevardi, Labor Unions and Autocracy in Iran Habib Ladjevardi, Labor Unions and Autocracy in Iran (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1985). Over the past few years we have witnessed a welcome development in new books on Iran. Instead of general histories, spanning centuries and big events, a number of books attempt to reconstruct small Afsaneh Najmabadi • 4 min read
MER Article Pakistan's Movement Against Islamization Nikki Keddie traveled to Pakistan in 1985 and 1986 to investigate groups that in various ways have worked against President Zia ul Haq’s attempts to “Islamize” Pakistan’s legal system. Many of these activists are from women’s organizations; the Shi‘i community and certain lawyers groups have also mo Eric Hooglund, Joe Stork • 6 min read
MER Article AWACS in the Gulf The Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft that Pakistan wants to get from Washington has played an important part in the US military buildup in the Persian Gulf region. In 1978, the Carter administration sold seven of the planes to the Shah of Iran. One motivation was to reduce the un Joe Stork • 2 min read
